Plastic Storage Bins

Today I'm sharing some more really old pictures. This is my cheap storage solution for my craft/computer room. These are expensive plastic storage boxes from Wal-mart. I printed labels for each of them on card stock, and decoupaged them to the end of the box. Not only can I tell at a glance what is in the boxes, it also makes them look not quite so blah.

These have held up very well. I made them over a year ago, and no labels have pealed off. I wasn't sure at the time, because I had never decoupaged anything prior. The only complaint I have is I've now out grown them, and need to put up some more shelves with more boxes.

By the way, the shelves, they are closet doors from Habitat for Humanity. I think they were about $5. I can't remember if that was each or total. These are much longer than the shelves that were available at Lowe's and Home Depot. They are also hollow, so they aren't nearly as heavy as a regular piece of wood. They are also extremely sturdy.

Jewelry Holder

Today I'm getting around to posting a project that was done quite a while back, maybe over a year ago. It is still just as useful as it was back then. This is my jewelry holder. It holds a ton of necklaces, but I'm just about out of space, and I'm going to need second one real soon.

To make the jewelry holder I found an old picture frame from my closet, some cup hooks at Habitat for Humanity, a piece of cardboard, some batting, satin ribbon and fabric.

Step one: remove the glass from the frame.

Step two: If you don't already have picture hangers on the back add them now. They are hard to nail in once the hooks have been added to the front.

Step three: Screw the hooks into the picture frame. As you can see, mine aren't all the same size. That is because I bought all of the large hooks they had at Habitat for Humanity the day I visited, so I had to buy some smaller hooks as well.

Step four: Paint

Step five: Cut the cardboard to fit the inside of the frame, and wrap it with batting. I think I actually used duck tape on this project, but I don't want to take it down off of the wall to be sure.

Step six: Wrap the fabric around the cardboard, and duck tape or hot glue in place.

Step seven: Hot glue the ribbons in place. Every where the ribbons intersect with each other they are glued to both the fabric and each other. Then they are also glued on the back of the cardboard. The remaining ribbon is left loose, and able to hold light weight earrings very well.

Step eight: After everything is glued in place, the cardboard is inserted into the frame, and the normal frame backing is placed back on the back of the frame to hold everything in.

Space Bags

If you tell my husband I said this I will deny it, but I have way to much fabric, and not enough time... or space. I seemed to have lost my sewing machine under a mountain of bags of fabric. My solution, space bags. Plastic boxes, just don't seem to cut it. They are great for organizing, but they take up more space than the fabric does without them. I'm going to give Space Bags shot to see if I can really "triple my space." It worked for the linen closet, so it should work for my craft room as well.