I get dressed and accessorized in my bathroom. The problem is, all my jewelry holders and boxes are on the dresser in my bedroom…not exactly a long walk away, but my favorite pieces of jewelry tend to wind up on my bathroom counter, so while getting ready I usually just pick up whatever is around in the bathroom. Thus, I frequently neglect all the fun jewelry that’s sitting in the jewelry holders in the bedroom nearby.
I liked the idea of this antique rake jewelry holder because I can utilize the limited wallspace in my bathroom to hang some more jewelry in there, and then I’ll be more likely to wear more of what I own, since it’ll be right there in my face!
I didn’t have any cool antique rake heads lying around, so I decided to buy myself some since I liked this idea so much. I found not one, but two awesome rake heads for sale on Etsy at thejunkman.
After bothering my handy husband to attach them to the wall, I went to town hanging all my necklaces. Here’s the final result (I apologize for the awful shadows):
The silver single pearl, antique gold knot, and fabric rosette necklaces are all from Etsy.
The two long strands of pearls, large teal crystal,bird’s nest, and purple gem necklaces are all from Etsy. The aqua necklace is similar to one I have for sale in my shop.
I think now I might add a length of twine or ribbon across the top of the rakes so I can hang even more dangling earrings in here. Exciting!
I’m so excited to share my Pinterest Thursday: I Tried It! Project with you all today.
In preparation for my upcoming craft shows, I’ve given a lot of thought to how I can display my jewelry at my booth. Since I’m sort of just testing the waters here, I don’t want to spend too much money on jewelry display items and new pieces. So, I’ve been trying to figure out inexpensive ways to set up my booth and show off my inventory while still having a cute, unique, attention-grapping display. I’ve been gathering ideas at my Craft Show Display Ideas board on Pinterest (check it out!).
I’ve got of all sorts of frames and boards and foamy things to hang my necklaces and earrings from, but rings are a different story. Bring in this wonderful little pin I found:
The pin is for a tutorial on how to make your very own ring display box/tray/thing from a cutlery tray. Now rewinding, when we first moved into our house, I bought a new cutlery tray for the kitchen, only to find that it was slightly too big to fit in our drawer. I threw it in the back of my car to eventually return to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but let’s face it, that place can sometimes seem like the 6th circle of hell, and I don’t like going in unless I have $250 lying around that I want to throw away.
Thus, much to the annoyance of my husband, I never made it around to returning the cutlery tray. Fastfowarding, when I saw this tutorial, I was like, AHA! Finally something I can do with that tray! Now I can make a super cheap ring display box AND avoid ever stepping into Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
The main two items you need are any sort of cutlery tray type thing, or just a plain tray, and some upholstery foam, which I found at Joann.
Some scissors and a box cutter or a knife are also helpful, along with some relatively thick fabric. If your fabric is too thin, you’ll be able to see the green foam through it.
Use your scissors or a knife to cut out foam pieces to fit in the cutlery tray divisions, or, if you’re lucky, one big piece for a regular ole tray. In the pinned tutorial, she uses just one big tray, so it’s a lot easier. Sadly I was working with a tray with lots of divisions, so I had a lot of cutting to do. I was sort of worried my final result might look odd with all the divisions, but I think it turned out just fine (you’ll see soon).
Here’s my box with the foam pieces fitted in. I then took my box cutter (you could use a sharp knife too) and started slitting lines through the foam where I wanted to be able to sit the rings. I sliced the lines about half-way into the depth of the foam, and I tried to keep my lines straight (but didn’t really succeed) and evenly spaced.
After I was done cutting lines, I took my fabric and cut it into pieces, and basically stuffed in into the sliced lines, folded it under the pieces of foam, and stuffed it all into the box. I used the point of my scissors to really stuff the fabric in there and make it as taut as I could get it. I chose a basic neutral colored muslin fabric. I planned to paint my tray a bright green and I really wanted my rings to be able to pop against a non-distracting background. Obviously, you can have fun with the fabric and color scheme and make it match your bedroom or branding or whatever.
After spraypainting the tray green (and thus restuffing all the foam pieces), this was my final result:
Yeah, some of my lines aren’t straight, and my fabric is a little wrinkly in places, but once this baby is full of rings I think it’s going to look great! I also love the green color. I can’t wait to see it on my craft show table full of shiny things! The only bad thing is that when I made it, I realized how many rings I need to make to fill it up! I put EVERY ring I currently have for sale on it in this picture, and you can see it’s like….1/5th full! I have a LOT of work to do!
I think this is a great project even for non-craft show vendors. You could make one of whatever size you want for your own personal ring collection and show it off on your dresser or vanity. It’d also make a cute handmade gift for a friend!
Maybe you have noticed I don’t talk too much about *cooking* or *baking* or *recipes* like lots of other lady blogs out there. Unfortunately, I was never blessed with the strong desire to cook. I love, love to eat. In fact, eating is one of my all-time favorite things…but I just don’t really enjoy cooking. Probably because I’m so lazy (hence, lazy owl).
But, I do love cupcakes, and I’d been eyeing this pin for sometime…
Click on over to Baked Perfection for the full tutorial with ingredients. It was easy enough for an inexperienced baker like me to handle…basically a doctored chocolate cake mix (add sour cream and instant pudding mix), plus some real simple cream cheese frosting. I adore cream cheese frosting. I’ve never been a fan of buttercream because it’s just so sugary and sweet, so cream cheese frosting has always been my fave.
My result, ooey gooey oreo deliciousness
The additions to the cake mix made the chocolate cake super moist, and I added bits of oreos to both the cake and the frosting. My only hiccup was during baking, I was not quite sure if I baked them long enough. The cake was so moist it was hard to tell, but regardless, they turned out delicious!
All for me?
It’s difficult to bake for a family of 2…24 cupcakes without any kids to feed or a party to host was a bit overwhelming (and way too tempting). I think I’ve eaten about 10 of them myself, because (not to toot my own horn) they are pretty darn good. I caved and brought 8 to work and they quickly disappeared.
I highly recommend this recipe, and I’m happy I took a step out of my comfort zone and tried some baking for once!
This concludes this week’s Pinterest Thursday: I tried it!
As per usual, I’ve linked up to the Pinterest party at bythebookpaper, check it out!
This week I wanted to try a cute pin I found a while ago on Pinterest, of a map made out of scrapbook paper for each state. [Edit for update – unfortunately I can no longer find the original pin on Pinterest, so this post doesn’t make as much sense, but you’ll get the idea!]
We travel a lot (or so I thought, until I made this haha), so I thought it would be really cute. We also just moved into our house in December, so we still have a lot of empty wall space to decorate. I thought this cute little handmade map would be unique and a great way to personalize a room.
I followed the original instructions with just a few changes. Here are my materials:
16×20 canvas from Hobby Lobby (I got one there pretty cheap)
A bunch of cute scrapbook paper, if you’re like me you always have some lying around!
A handful of miscellaneous cute small buttons, you can use all matching ones or a hodge podge
Paint for the canvas,
A pack of wooden letters, also from Hobby Lobby
Modge Podge, or another similar clear adhesive glue or spray
Scissors
Print out of a US map (link below)
A lot of patience and time (to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it right)
Oooh a bunch of scrapbook paper…
I knew it would take me a good while to cut out all these states (curse you, New England). One weekend when the husband was out of town, I had yet another TV marathon (I think this time it was Fringe) cutting out all of the states.
I started by printing out a blown-up map of the US here. I printed to poster size, so the states would be big enough to fit on my rather large canvas. Play with your printer settings to get it the right size for whatever canvas you’ve chosen.
Then, I cut out each state from the map itself (that took forever). Next, I rotated through all my scrapbook papers and traced each state on them using my state cutouts. Since I didn’t have as many papers as I did states, I just made sure to keep all the patterns spread out (does that make sense?). I didn’t want the same paper to be used for two states that bordered each other. Then, I cut out the states on the scrapbook paper.
I painted my canvas blue. You can see in the original tutorial she uses a more neutral beigey color, but I love bright blue and I thought it’d look ocean-y. After it dried, I glued on my states as precisely as I could. I then modge podged over the entire map to give it a nice glossy look and hold down any curling ends of the paper. I used the glue adhesive, but I think spray would be good too.
I debated adding any words or a title to my map. I didn’t really want “Oh the places you’ll go”, which is a Dr. Suess quote the original tutorial uses. We don’t have any kids yet so I just wasn’t feeling the Seuss. I decided on “Wanderlust”. I painted the letters a bright green and glued them on my canvas.
The finishing touch was gluing my little buttons on the map for the places we’d visited. My husband and I agreed on some ground rules. I could only “button” places we had both visited together, and we had to have stayed overnight there (not just driven through). Only one button per state, even if we’ve been to multiple cities, and I put a heart button for the two cities we’ve lived in — Baton Rouge and Houston.
Ta da! Sorry for the crapola picture. Really bad lighting.
Turns out the only states we’ve visited are all the southeastern ones….plus Massachusetts (where the button is practically bigger than the state).
I sort of start rushing when I get tired of working on a really tedious project, so I wish I had taken more time with the letters at the top. I painted and glued them on before they were totally dry and got some green smudges on my canvas…but oh well 🙂
I’m really glad I made this, and I can’t wait to be able to add more buttons to it! Hopefully someday one day it will be full!
And that conclues this week’s Pinterest Thursday!
Do you want to participate in Pinterest Thursday? Feel free to join me and link up at bythebookpaper!
Today I’m trying something new! Kristen over at bythebookpaper had the most excellent idea to start a weekly blog series on Pinterest. If you’re like me, you may have a giant Pinterest board of DIY craft projects or recipes that you’re longing to try. Well, Kristen has decided to encourage us to actually *do* all these pins that we’ve spent hours diligently pinning. Each Thursday, I’ll try to post a pin from my Crafts & DIY pinterest board that I’ve successfully attempted (key word being “attempted”).
This past week, I tried to recreate a pin I’d been eyeing, and really an item I wanted to make for a long while:
I love yarn wreaths. I have some others pinned also. I’ve bought a few off of Etsy….they are just so fun and colorful and happy…they add a little bit of childhood cheer to your house or front door :)So this weekend is my mom’s birthday, and we happen to be traveling to Dallas for the LSU-Oregon season opener football game. So I decided to make her an LSU yarn wreath based on my pin!
You can see I started out with pretty much the standard materials — a foam wreath form I got at JoAnn, some yellow felt for the pom pom flowers, yellow and purple yarn, a hot glue gun (represented by two hot glue sticks haha), and scissors (unfortunately not shown, but I think you can figure it out).
You can follow Mrs. Priss’ tutorial. You simply wrap your yarn around your wreath form in whatever design or pattern you want. I didn’t use an exact scientific method, just lots and lots of wrapping until everything looked relatively even. It takes a long time to finish a whole wreath. I must have watched 5 episodes of Buffy. Now I understand why some people charge upwards of $50 for these babies on Etsy. Happy birthday mom.
You can decide how you to finish of the ends of the yarn. Simply tying it is an option. I tied and then hot glued the knot for extra strength, but that gave the back of my wreath a slightly funky look. You could even use pins to hold everything down if you wanted to.
Ta da!
And voila, a nifty cute lil LSU wreath specially for my momma. I made the yellow pom poms with some felt. Unfortunately I have no pics of the process, but that’s really easy also. Just cut out two inch strips of felt (the longer = the bigger the pom pom). Fold in half and glue along the edges (not on the inside). Then, make little cuts every half inch or so along the strip on the inside (non-glued side). Start on one end of the strip and being rolling around and around the center, gluing where you want to, then glue closed. Instant pom pom!
Now I’m excited to try more wreaths…one for every season and every holiday and some just for fun!
I hope that made sense, let me know if you have questions! This concludes our very first Pinterest Thursday. One pin down, many many more to go!
Want to join in? Let me know what you’ve made from Pinterest!
Feel free to follow everyone’s progress by clicking the button bellow:
