Jewelry Box Make Over

Project of the day – Jewelry Box Make Over

Trinity is 6 years old. She is already a consummate collector…of anything and everything. She thinks everything is good for something and someday she will find a use for it. While she is visiting her maternal grandparents today, her paternal grandma (me, Grandma Cat) will hopefully be turning a broken down, unattractive chipboard sewing or jewelry box (that Trinity found and had to have) into something special.

Gathering Materials

Check my scrap drawers, bins and boxes and found a wonderful piece of purple satiny silky fabric (purchased long ago, have no idea what it actually is) with black flocked flowers. Trinity has seen this fabric before and I know that she loved it. I’m sure I have a bit of black velvet somewhere to line the inside of the box. While hunting for fabric, I also found a bit of black fringe that I might be able to use,. Grabbed my box of glue and fray check, scissors, and I’ll add whatever I have to run and find as the need arises to the list.

Time to Begin

It’s almost 9 am on a Saturday morning. First, I’ll carefully take the box apart. I used a small screwdriver ( yup, already had to find something not on the list…a screwdriver), and gently pried off the hinges so they could be cleaned, painted black, and used again.



After pulling them out I see that I will need a pair of pliers to straighten out the points so the box can be put back together. Once all the hardware is off, I’m left with 3 separate pieces to the box…the top, the bottom and the inside ‘drawer’. It took 8 minutes to find the screwdriver and take all the hardware off. Not too bad.

Covering the Box with Fabric

Couldn't find the velvet, though I know it is here somewhere. My only excuse is that we moved from California to Idaho 6 weeks ago and haven’t exactly gotten everything in its place yet. I did find some black polished cotton that will work for the lining. I started with the ‘drawer’ since it was smallest and would either be the easiest because it was small, or the hardest because it was small. Either way, I would get it out of the way first and be happy it was done. I cut a rectangle ½” larger than the ‘drawer’. Then glued the fabric inside the ‘drawer’ using a flat craft paintbrush to spread Elmer’s white glue over the inside surface .

For the outside of the drawer I cut 1 rectangle 1 ½” larger than the drawer, then glued the fabric to the outside, over the edge of the box making sure the fabric ended slightly over the black lining. I used paperclips to hold everything in place while the glue dries. If you’ve got clothespins handy they will work just as well. After everything dried, I took off the paperclips andI used fray check along the edge of the fabric to prevent stray threads later that Trinity or her boys, as she calls her twin brothers, could pull thus ripping everything apart. The box bottom was done pretty much the same as the ‘drawer’, just had to adjust the measurements as the bottom was bigger than the ‘drawer’.

Okay, now for the top. To give it a little bit of ‘wow’ factor (I hope), I cut two layers of quilt batting slightly smaller than the top and glued them in place, one on top of the other, and then covered as the bottom and ‘drawer’. I glued the bit of black fringe that Trinity liked around the top and held it all in place with straight pins until it dried completely which took about an hour.

Putting the Box Back Together

I painted two coats of black model paint onto all the hardware pieces after scrubbing them with steel wool to make sure they were clean and give the model paint a grip-able surface. Put the hinges on the back, hooked the drawer back on the inside rivets and put the front clasp back on. Done deal.

Until next time, Happy Crafting

Grandma Cat

Quick and Easy Bulletin Board

It's time to get organized. Now that we've moved and settled in, it's time for some serious organization. I've been finding green ways to organize, reusing boxes and such. Also make for a very inexpensive organization project.

My first organizational project was a simple bulletin board. You can vary your finished product widely with a little of your own style. Here's the basic instructions and variation ideas.

Materials : Foam Board

Batting (optional)

Fabric, minimum 4 inches linger & wider than your foam board

Scissors

Fabric Spray (optional)

Start with a foam board whatever size you want your finished board to be. I like foam boards because they are light, and easy to cut down if you want a specific sized board. Here you can make your first variation, I elected not to use batting on my board because I was going to use cubicle clips, and wanted to be able to slip them into the foam board itself, but you can add batting for a softer look to your board.

(A)

Pick out your fabric. Anything you have around will do, I used some suiting material left over from a previous project. You'll want the fabric to be a couple inches bigger all around than your board is (A). To use a quilt fat (18" x 22"), you would need a board no bigger than 14" x 18", or to use a half yard (36" x 44"), your board would have to be 32" x 40" or smaller. I chose a board 20" by 30" so a half yard is plenty of fabric, with a little left over. Being that I wanted to make this quick & easy, and knowing the left over fabric wouldn't be big enough for anything, I chose to leave it on.

(B)

For a cleaner looking finished product, iron your fabric before you begin. Lay your board on top of your fabric (if you are using batting, the batting should be sandwiched in the middle). Here I like hot glue, it's fast and easy and holds well. Start in the middle of each of the four sides, and tack down the fabric, being sure to pull it taught (but not so tight you warp the foam board). If you are using a fabric that frays, you may want to fold it under as shown (B) so it doesn't unravel (there's another option for this I'll go over later). Once all four sides are tacked down, work your way around the board with a generous helping of hot glue (I went through 3 sticks), folding and sticking and keeping the fabric taught. You may want to clip your corners (I did due to the thickness of the fabric I chose), and fold them nicely as you glue them down.

Once you have glued it all down, I like to run one more bead of hot glue all around the edges, to make sure it is nice and secure. If you decided not to fold the fabric under, you can run that bead of glue right along the edge of the fabric. It gives it extra hold, and locks it in place to prevent fraying.

When the glue is cool (should only take a minute), flip your board over and you are done. Now, add your own personal creative touches. I added some cubicle wall clips to mine (since this one was for my home office) to hold notes and papers. You can also crisscross ribbons, and secure with buttons, to make a board that you can slip cards and pictures in (great for young girls who want a fun way to display their friends' photos).

Stay tuned, as I'll be doing an organization board for my sewing table soon with pockets and will post those instructions as soon as I figure it out.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

De'Anna

Accidentally Green: Empty Cake Boxes

So, I was standing at the counter in the post office the other day when I noticed a tilted shelving unit at each station.  The unit was metal, each divider about 4" tall X 6" deep and spaced about 1 1/2" to 2" apart.  The unit was filled with International customs forms, delivery confirmation forms, envelopes, postcards, etc.  I really liked the organizer; but Ken (our postmaster) would not let me take one home.

I checked around through the usual office supply places...Office Depot, Office Max, U-Line, etc.  No luck.  I kept the idea of the shelving unit tucked away in a cozy cavern in my head.

The other night I was mixed up two boxes of brownies (5 adults and 5 kids live in my home), when I was about to toss the empty boxes into the recycling bin, I wondered if I could use the boxes to make something similar to what I had seen in the post office.  For a couple of weeks I saved the brownie boxes.  I cut off the top flaps, stacked the boxes neatly and taped all the way around the boxes.




While this would work to organize a lot of small stuff, it wasn't tilted for better viewing.  I opened the bottom flaps, skewed the boxes sideways, then placed one long piece of tape from one side, across the bottom flaps, to the other side.  It worked!

This is a 9" run consisting of 6 boxes.  The area I want to fill with this 'shelving unit' is 30" across.  Guess I better make more brownies.  And instead of tossing cake, pasta, or cereal boxes, I'll be making dividers out of them to store anything and everything from envelopes, shipping supplies, coloring books, patterns, etc.

Craft Tip: Storing Cotton Fabric

Whether you are a quilter, seamstress or occasional crafter your fabric needs tender loving care to prevent fiber damage.  Fabric can fade if exposed to fluorescent lights and ultraviolet radiation from sunlight.  Folded fabric can begin to weaken along the creases or develop permanent creases that will not iron out.  Acid is damaging to plant-derived fabrics such as cotton and linen.

If you ask 10 quilters, seamstresses or crafters how to store fabric, you will probably get 10 different answers.  Some of them might be:

In a dresser drawer
In pizza boxes
In Pendaflex files
On a bookshelf
In shoe boxes
In cardboard boxes

While these all sound like great ideas, personally, I wouldn't use any of those methods, mostly due to acid release.  The best way to store large piece of fabric is wrapped in muslin or in a white, cotton pillowcase.  Of course those methods are not see-through.  To solve that problem I either cut a swatch and stitch it to the outside or scan the fabric and pin the scan to the outside of the bag.  Acid free boxes are a great way to store small pieces of fabric, but you will want to make sure the boxes are actually acid free and not just lined with acid free paper.  You can also roll fabric in acid free tissue paper which prevents creasing while protecting the fabric.