DIY Earring Organizer

Well hello you cute little crafty vixens you! Here is a little "how to" for the earring organizer I made last weekend while I was crafting away my troubles. My problem was a lack of space I had for a jewelry box on my vanity. We all know jewelry is an out of sight out of mind deal so I obviously couldn't put my it in my closet or I'd never wear it. Instead I came up with this little ditty.

I'm an insanely busy university student with two jobs, so crafts should be CHEAP and EASY.  Because I'm an artist, crafts also need to be CUSTOMIZABLE. I encourage you to break the boundaries and add your own pizazz to this one! It's so easy! The possibilities are endless!

What You'll Need

A cheapo frame. Any size will do.

Spray paint of your choice.

Burlap. Enough to cover the back of the frame.

Lace (optional).

Hot glue.

Staple gun (although hot glue would work too).

STEP 1:
I got these frames at Wal-Mart for $3.00 each. (Because you don't need glass or backing for the frame, it would be worth it to check out D.I. or the dollar store. $6.00 was the bulk of my cost, so if you only spent .50, you'd be winning big time!)

After I removed everything that wasn't the actual framing, I spray painted them a muted kelly green-ish color (although it looks really bright and electric in the pictures). I wanted a tiffany blue, but they didn't have that color. Lame! The paint I used was a high gloss, but any would do. Cost of paint: $2.99.

STEP 2:
I was originally going to use lace as my backing, but I didn't find any that I liked at the store (and lace wouldn't be nearly as sturdy or cheap anyway). Instead I found some off-white burlap. I bought a half yard which was more than enough for two frames. Cost: a little over a dollar.

 Line up the burlap on the back of the frame and cut away. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to fit with a little room to spare around the back of the frame.

STEP 3 (optional):
Because the holes on the burlap were a little bigger than some of the backs of my studs were, I hot glued on some lace trim for extra support. To match the frame, I spray painted one of the pieces of lace with the paint from the frame. (For my other frame which isn't pictured, I didn't use any lace.)

STEP 4:
Staple (or hot glue) the decorated burlap onto the back of the fully dried frame. Snip away any excess pieces of burlap and TA DA! You're done!

SO EASY!

peace,
k.

I Take My Sadness Out On Home Decor

This weekend was going to be epic. Think this:

ONLY BETTER.

Unfortunately the week following up to my departure to epicness was brutal. I worked double shifts on top of my 15 school credits and wedding shoots. By late Thursday night, just hours before I was to leave Friday morning, I realized I still had 4 shoots to edit (about 5,000 pictures total), 5 papers to write, 10 online quizzes to take, 1 math test to study for ALL BY MONDAY. As hard as I was working all week, I had still gotten behind on life. My heart broke as I stared into the vast and overwhelming weekend work and realized that going on the trip with my friends and family wasn't a possibility. My ONE vacation I had planned all year, and I had to stay home.

Well, whenever I get depressed and a little weepy (and trust me, I most definitely was), I take it out on something crafty. There is something about creating aesthetically pleasing functionality that chases the blues away.

So, I took to my room. I moved in nearly a month ago, and still had only about a half of my stuff unpacked. The rest was in un-maneuverable piles around my tiny space. It was stresssssssss. My jewelry and my books were the biggest problems. I don't have a lot of area to put extra furniture, so a bookshelf was out of the question. I also don't have enough room on my vanity to put jewelry, but if I kept it hidden in my closet I knew I'd never wear it. So, I came up with a few crafty solutions in my sadness.

I made two of these frames to put my earrings on. They sit upright on my vanity and take up no space at all! Plus it presents my earrings in such a way that I'll be sure to wear them!

Then I needed a solution for my necklaces. There is a corner in my room where my laundry basket lives that needed an extra kick of something. So I found a stick in my backyard, tied some red and white ribbon on it, and hung it on the ceiling. Ta da!

The pictures don't really show it very well, but it's pretty cute. It also presents my necklaces in a way that I'll be sure to wear them too!

And then there were the books. I found an old weathered piece of wood leaning up against my parent's garage, painted some cute weathered looking yellow stripes on it, screwed on some L-brackets, and BAM... made a shelf!

 It's out of the way but still viewable. Those books are far too cute not to show off, right?

Because I still had to do my mountain of other work (ps, I'm pretty much finished), I couldn't get to finding a place for my rings, getting a mattress (yep, still sleepin' on the floor!), finding a proper desk chair, or figuring out what to do with one of my walls, but, all in all, it was a pretty good success. I now have a non stressful living space and I all but conquered my never ending work load for the weekend. I only had to give up watching fireworks, leaving my house, being hygienic, spending priceless time with friends and family, and my one and only vacation planned this summer. Not worth it, but it had to be done. Such is life!


peace,
k.