Thrift Store Frame to Jewelry Display! {a tutorial}

This tute is a long time coming! I made it during {Headband Week} in August, didn't write it up till September, and now here we are middle of October and I'm finally posting it! Oops. Onto the tute.

A thrifted frame to jewelry holder is one of the most common projects on a craft blog these days. Right up there with rosettes and an elastic waist skirt! Not that that is a bad thing, (I have BOTH on my blog! Well, now all three!) it's kind of fun to reinvent the wheel! Plus, it's one of those things that just WORKS, so why not give it a whirl? Aaaaaand I saw a million cute ones on Pinterest and I just had to try it. Stupid Pinterest.

See? I pinned it {here}

Or this one? {here} Gah, I almost feel silly posting mine!

Care to see it? Too bad, I'm showing you anyway.

I pretty much love it. Up until now, all my jewelry has been crammed in too small jewelry boxes, plastic bags, and strewn all over my room in heaps. Ugh, not cool. I love that everything is organized now and I can actually SEE what my options are! I kept all my fancy stuff in the pretty jewelry boxes, but the everyday stuff I hung up. Care to make your own?

You will need:

• A sturdy wooden frame, it's gotta thick and it's gotta be wood
• Sandpaper
• Scrap fabric
• Hot glue gun
• Nails
• Spray paint
• A handy hubby that is good with tools

This is my frame. I felt so bad for it. Obviously it had been around for years and years and it never even got used. :( No matter, I gave it a good home and now I love it every day. :) I unwrapped it and sanded the crap outta it.

And covered it with several coats of "oil rubbed bronze" spray paint. Ah, already so much better! And shiny....

Seriously, what is it with cats??

Next I wrapped the back of the frame in some pretty fabric and hot glued the edges down. Pull tightly so it's nice and smooth on the front!

I knew I wanted some lace strips at the bottom to hang my dangly earrings, so I glued some down as well. Pull REALLY tightly because the weight of the earrings will make the lace sag. I also glued it down in the middle so it would be a little more stable.

I marked where I wanted all the nails to be with a crayon I found in a drawer. I marked some at the bottom of the frame for really long necklaces, at the top for short necklaces, and on the sides for bracelets.

This is where hubby came in! He very patiently and oh so skillfully nailed nails (redundant much?) into all of those little crayon marks...and there were a lot of them!

"Thanks honey! Oh wait....can you do one more things puh-leeeeeeeeeeeeeaze??"

"Can you install these knobs I got from Anthropologie (on clearance! Three bucks each!) onto this other wood board I spray painted? No...I don't know how to install them. Use those power tools and figure it out kay? Love you!"

I stuck the back back into the frame while the hubs humored my request. No real instructions there.

Then I hung it up and filled it up! That took just as long as the project itself, oi. Oh, did you notice the headband holder?

Thanks for figuring that out hubs! Now I can hand up all my headbands in one place and not have to search the whole house looking for one. (On a side note, I have many more headbands now. This picture is over two months old!)

Ahh, it makes my little nook so much more organized. I've been wearing lots my jewelry now that I can find everything! If you haven't tried one of these yet you really should, they make life so much better. At least 20% better. (Bro hoof!!)

Kitty houses, a hubby craft

I actually legit forgot about blogging for a few days there! Weird, guess my weekend was so thoroughly awesome I just forgot. Fire pits and s'mores are pretty awesome though.

Oh boy, this post is a long time in the making. Hubby did this back in the fall, right after we moved here. And now I’m getting around to posting it. Oops.

Since I don’t have cute kids to post about, you guys are stuck with our adorable kitties who do equally adorable things, mmkay? The hubs and I have three cats in our lives. Jellybean, my cat that I’ve had since I was 10 and who lives with my parents. I love her more than 99% of the people in this world, and I take at least a dozen pictures of her every time I see her. Cleo and Aeris live in the basement with us, and TECHNICALLY belong to David’s parents. Technically. What they don’t know is that when we leave the girls are coming with us. Uh…oops, guess the cat’s outta the bag! (BAHAHAHA!!!! Get it? Cat’s outta the bag?)

They are ALWAYS getting into things they shouldn’t be. Cleo tends to like small, enclosed, comfy places. Like inside the couch, on David’s swivel chair, and in the super secret basket o’ blankets hiding behind the stereo. But her favorite place in the world is laps, this little kitty will do ANYTHING for love, attention, and affection.

Aeris will plop herself down where ever it is least convenient for you. On the exercise machines, my laptop, the poster board I’m taking pictures on, and ALWAYS on top of my latest jewelry project. She’s got so much personality. I swear to you she is an Animagus that refuses to take her human form, hopefully not because she’s a murderer like Peter Pettigrew. She once scoffed at me, scoffed! Cats don’t scoff! They don’t wink either and she’s done that too. Animagus yo.

You non cat people escape me, how can you not love these faces? How!? Even though Aeris barfed all over the suitcase shortly after the picture was taken. Though I will admit, I like these girlies a little more when they aren’t completely in my way, or barfing of stuff. Cue the hubby and his utterly genius idea (and barf cleaning up skills, but there are no pictures of that.)

David and I each had one of these as our nightstands in our apartment in Idaho. Walmart. When we moved to Maryland, we inherited some nicer ones, in addition to a kitchen table, which became my craft table.

In his infinite wisdom, David snatched those cushions from the kitchen table chairs and attached them to the night stands. And ALMOST perfect fit.

And covered the night stands with leftover moving boxes. An exact science, with lots of measuring and preciseness. Not.

He cut and hole in the box covered, pillow topped night stand. (PS don’t play with sharp knives. Make sure you are closely supervising your hubby.)

Immediately Cleo the Curious stepped in to inspect. Remember what I said about enclosed, comfy spaces?


Which gave Aeris the Afraid courage to give it a try.


(Notice how one hole is a lot bigger than the other? It’s because Aeris not only bigger than an average cat, she’s FAT.) The hubs did this whole thing all by himself, his own crafty idea. What a smarty pants, being all thrifty and stuff. The good news is the kitties still use their little houses all the time. I have to vacuum those stupid cushions every week so people don’t get grossed out by their hair. The bad news is…they still look like this, 9 months later. I know! Me and my crafty self haven’t figured out a good way to cover them, so we have ugly cat houses in plain sight. For shame, Amie, for shame. Got any good ideas to make them more pretty?

Holy frick, my head exploded on account of cute. They’re even on the right ones!

Fall leaf napkin ring

In case you missed it, here is the project I did for my Naptime Crafters blog swap! I'm going to show you how to turn colorful fall foliage into a beautiful and festive napkin ring!

Before you even start your napkin ring, you'll need:

• Colorful, smallish leaves (think smaller than your thumb)
• Spray adhesive
• Microwave
• Microwave safe plate

I'm so lucky to live in a part of the world where I can literally find gorgeous leaves in my backyard! But if you need to, go on a walk in the park to find some amazing leaves.

I don't know what the name of this particular bush is, but this is where I got my leaves. You want to make sure to pick leave that are smooth, whole, and right off the plant. This way the colors are more vibrant and you have a better chance of finding blemish free leaves. Grab as many as you can, a portion of the ones you pick won't make it through to the final project.

The next thing you'll need to do is dry your leaves in some way. You can press them in books, iron them (under newspapers and kitchen towels of course), or wax them. I'm going to show you how to microwave your leaves! Arrange your leaves on a microwave safe plate.

You'll need to microwave your leaves between 30 seconds and two minutes (the fresher your leaves are, the longer you'll need to microwave.) Do it in 15 seconds increments so you don't set your leaves on fire. Also, please keep in mind that your leaves WILL darken as they are dried. See that leaf top right? It's halfway through changing, it started out that bright red and it's turning a darker red. You'll probably lose some leaves in this process.

These leaves are all ready! They should be flatish and more more stiff to the touch. Make a bunch of them, you'll probably break a few when you make the napkin rings.

Next you'll need to preserve your leaves. Use some kind of sealant/spray adhesive (check in the art section of your local craft store) and spray it all over your leaves to protect them. Make sure to do it outside!!

NOW you're ready to start your napkin rings! You'll need:

• Dried leaves
• Toilet paper/paper towel roll
• Glue gun
• Scissors (not pictured)
• Embellishment for middle of your flower (I used a berry from the same bush I got the leaves.)

Cut a small length of your roll about a centimeter thick. This will be the base of your napkin ring.

Start gluing just the bottom of your leaves down on the circle. Wedge the next leave under the first one and glue down, continuing the process of overlapping your leaves all the way around. Be careful, the leaves are thin and hot glue is, well, hot! 

You'll have a somewhat spiky looking ring now. (Also make sure to pull off all the stringy glue gun pieces off before you take a picture of your work. Yikes!!)

I kind of like this look, so feel free to stop here!

But, if you're more into the smooth look, go back around and glue down the "spikes."

It will then look something like this! See that hot gluey mess to the left? We're going to cover that up next. :)

Take five extra leaves and glue them into a flower shape over the glueiest (yes I just made that word up) area you want to cover up. Glue an embellishment in the center (berry, pearl, bead, whatever you think looks good!)

And you are ready to entertain! This would be perfect for a Thanksgiving dinner table! You could even use the same concept to embellish place cards. And if you're a bit to pressed for time to go out and gather your own leaves, I'm sure faux leaves would be just as beautiful. :)

After a few days it's still holding up strong! You might want to add an extra layer of adhesive though, just to be safe. :)

Happy crafting! **Also, I've added several more new parties to my "Link Parties" tab so be sure to check out all the new places I'm partying!**

Legal Pad Cozy Tutorial!

Huzzah! Kitty Cats and Airplanes first tutorial!

A few weeks ago I made this little cover for a legal pad I wanted to keep in my purse because let's face it, life is so much better when boring things are a little cuter. :)

I made this one for me, with pretty lace, bows, and buttons! I love it, it keeps my legal pad from getting destroyed in my purse and it makes me smile when I see it. I knew with such a simple design that it would completely customizable, and I wanted to show how it can easily be altered for different tastes and styles. So the hubs became my guinea pig! I didn't think he'd appreciate bows and lace, so after thinking it over, I decided to make him a black vinyl one to match his leather briefcase.

And here is the final result! The hubs likes it and it think it goes great with his leather briefcase! Want to make one for yourself? Here's what you need:

*Note: These are just the measurements I used for a 5''x8''ish legal pad, but this design is so easy to alter for different sizes.

• Two large pieces fabric, 9''x12'' each
• Two small pieces of fabric, 2''x3'' each
• Two pieces of thin, stiff cardboard (I used a granola box for this, but I used a cereal box for the previous one with equally good results) 5''x8''ish each
• Strip of 1 inch elastic, about 5 1/2 inches long
• Scraps of sew-on velcro
• Sewing machine and other sewing related items (coordinating thread, scissors, etc.)

Keep in mind that I used 1/4'' seams for my project unless otherwise noted. Got all your supplies? Let's get to work!

We'll start with the fastener. Grab one of your small pieces of fabric and the softer side of your velcro. Center the velcro on one end of the fabric and sew in place. Then, take the other small piece of fabric and place the two together, right sides together. Sew around on three sides, making sure to leave the open side opposite of the velcro. Turn right side out (trim the extra seam allowance for easier turning), and using a very narrow stitch (1/8 of an inch), carefully topstitch around the three sides, leaving the bottom open. You will end up with...

This! See how the open end is opposite the velcro? (It's only open to save you some sewing, you can sew it up if you really want to.) Set it aside, you won't need it for a little while.

Note: this is the time to add any kind of embellishments to the outside of your cozy. This is where I added the other side of the velcro for this vinyl one, and where I sewed on the button and added the lace on my brown one. Anything you want to add; lace, ric rac, buttons, ruffles, anything, do it now!! Once you've customized it to your liking, you'll need to take the two larger pieces of fabric and pin them together with the right sides facing. Sew around only three sides, this is important! You need to make sure the cardboard can fit in later, so don't be tempted to only leave a little opening. :) Like the fastener, the side with the velcro should be the side that was sewed.

If you're using a thicker material like me, trim the excess seam allowance so it will lay flat. Iron it flat to make topstictching easier (don't do this with vinyl though! ;)  and using 1/8'' seam, topstitch around the same three sides you sewed before.

You should now have something like this! Not only is the topstitching pretty, it serves a sneaky, practical purpose too! More on that later.

Next we need to add the cardboard! The cardboard makes it a lot easier to write on, so the stiffer the cardboard, the easier it will be to take notes anywhere! Take one piece of cardboard and wiggle it into the cozy. Keep in mind you will almost definitely need to trim it to fit, I had to trim mine a few times!

Don't mind my manicured-two-weeks-ago nails. Once your cardboard is snugly inside, feel around to find out where it ends. For the next step it would be helpful to draw a line along the cardboard with a disappearing ink pen or quilter's chalk, but since I used vinyl I wasn't able to.

Sew a long straight stitch very close to the cardboard (this is why a line is helpful), being very careful not to sew through the cardboard. Don't want any broken needles!

Now, you've gotta do it again. This is just to make it easier to fold up your cozy nicely, if you don't include this extra straight stitch, your cozy will be more like a file folder and bulge a little when you close it. So, sew another long stitch 1/4'' away from the first stitch. Shimmy that second piece of cardboard in there and make sure it's nice and snug.

Bust out that iron again! You'll need to fold in the open edges of the side you didn't sew so you can finish the edge. This is ten times easier if you iron the unfinished edges in! I couldn't do that with the vinyl so trust me, iron those edges under. Grab the fastener you set aside and pin it into your folded edges, making sure to line it up with the other piece of velcro. Topstitch all of that down, using 1/8'' seam.

And you're done!! ...ok, you're almost done. You're really close! See how pretty it is already? All you need is the elastic so the legal pad can stay snugly in your little cozy!

This is where the topstitching becomes practical! Place your elastic about an inch and a half down from the top and sew it on right over the topstitching! So sneaky, the elastic is gets sewn securely in place, and you don't even notice from the other side. Go ahead, laugh your sneaky laugh, no one can hear you. :) Trim any excess aaand...

You are done! Take a bow and admire your handwork.

I used my lace covered legal pad for aesthetic purposes. :)

You can also use this little closure to tuck a pen away, so you always have one handy.

Let me know if you have any questions or if something is unclear. I wold love to see your results, so don't be shy to shoot me an email! (See my "contact" tab.) Happy sewing!