From Art Frame to Ispirational Cork Board (DIY)

I recently helped my super crafty friend Noelle to rearrange her craft space.  Above her work table she has this huge amazing framed cork board, where she pins crafts she's finished and other inspirational bits and pieces.  I love it!  

Unfortunately in our craft room at home (a rather large one) most walls are slanted and those available have already been covered with wall to wall shelving (yes admit I'm a fabric addict and craft supply junkie.) So finding a space to hang a large size framed cork board isn't going to happen.  That being said, I accidentally  came up with a solution. 

You see I've been searching for the perfect frame to frame wonderful handmade art piece I bought from an artist up in the Appalachian mountains.  Eddie Spagetti.  His work is amazing.  The particular art piece I bought he had it framed with frames he made out of re-purposed wood.  Gorgeous.  At the time though I didn't have enough mula to purchase both his art piece and frame.  Bummer!  I didn't think I would have much trouble finding a frame that fit.  Wrong!

Anyway, back to the framed cork board for my craft room.  I happen to have a smaller long framed piece of artwork I purchased at my local Goodwill store in hopes that it would work on Eddie Spagetti's art piece.  (No, I didn't have the measurements with me at the time.)  Needless to say, it did not.  Then I thought to myself, well hey, why not use it to make a mini framed cork board (10 1/2" x 22") that will fit in my limited space under a window.  Perfect.

You will need:

♥ and old frame with backing.

♥ Thin cork sheet or tiles.  I used 6 x 6 cork boards I had around the house. (Use and re-use, right?)  But the ideal thing would be to use cork board sheets, so you can cut it to the exact size you need.   

How to make it:

To make it, I began by carefully removing the glass and original print.  I then put back the backing plus and extra piece of cardboard of the same size, to make the backing stronger.  I then flipped the frame back to the front and began to slowly glue each cork tile.  I also cut other pieces to fit.  I then let it dry for about 24 hours.  

I added a linen flower (I made previously) to hide the little bits of cork I had to connect in that corner.  Remember I used the cork tiles I had on hand?  I like the way it looked at the end, connecting lines and all. 

And it fit perfect between my window and sewing table.

A little side note:  DO NOT DROP IT!  Yea, I did that when I was showing it to my friend Noelle who happened to be here the day I made it.  Yup, dropped it and the frame broke!  So there you had both of us gluing it back together. I wanted to cry, laugh, a bit of both.  I didn't.  What you see up there is after we glued it together.  Not bad.  It adds to it's distressed charm. Right? Right.

Happy Crafting!

Organizing Lego Manuals

Did I ever tell you my little guy loves Legos?  He sure does.  He can spend hours building and building more.  Some of his results can be pretty darn amazing.  What I don't find amazing are all the Legos spread through out the house.  No-se-rie-no!  But I guess that's a small price to pay (and a lot of complaining to clean up) for letting his imaginations thrive.  Right?  Right.

Like the lego pieces I find all over the place, the lego manuals were also getting out of hand.  I tried keeping them in a clear bag for him, but when ever he took one out, the rest would end up out as well.  Then one day I saw this.   A binder to keep them organized.  Well, now isn't that just a clever idea?  So I got myself working and made one similar.

 
Using an empty large binder and a three hole punch I began my work.

I hole punched each manual and inserted into the folder.   Because some manuals are too thick, I took them apart and hole punched them separately. 

Finally I decorated the outside of the folder with bright Lego colors and labeled it Lego  Manuals.

When my little guy arrived from school he was excited to find this waiting for him on his bed.  And so far, it has gotten a lot of use and I've not seen one manual laying around the house.  Yey!

Hope your week has been good to you so far.

organizing with jars

I love jars!  It is always hard for me to toss them because I know there's always some way I can use them.  Realistically I can't keep them all, so many do end up in the recycling bin, but then there are those lucky ones that get tucked into a closet waiting to be used.

My friend Noelle just gave me the lovely blue ones you see on the photo above.  I love them! And they look perfect on my kitchen windowsill. I can totally picture them full of wild flower clippings come Spring.

The other day I opened mentioned closet, that holds my stash of jars and well, I was overwhelmed by what I found.  At the same time, my mind got into creative mode and started to think of different ways I could make use of them.  Most of the jars once use to hold candles.  Those are the ones I'm the laziest to use because it requires a bit more work to clean them out.  This time though, in the organization/decluttering mode I am in, I challenged myself and got working. 

I began by placing the jars in warm water to allow for all the left over wax to melt.  I then tossed the wax and peeled the labels off.  Before the remaining film of wax  cooled off, I washed each jar with warm water.   

Once cleaned and dry  they were ready to be used.  Hum.  Where to use this lovely jars? One of the shelves in the toiletries/linen closet needed some reorganizing, the perfect place to make use of my newly clean jars!

Can you guess what kind of candle the large jar below held?

Yankee!  Yup, I need to start collecting more of these.  I love the size and the nice tight lid.  It would also be perfect for organizing bits in the craft room or spices in the kitchen. 

Other inspiration around the web to get me going:

In the craft room:  These are all great ways to use jars around the craft room. I especially like the small mason jars and sugar dispenser holding yarn and twine.  Perfect to keep the kid's yarn in place, instead of seeing the ball of yarn rolling all around the craft room, and getting tangled, and knotted, and...well, you get the picture. 

Clockwise from top: Yarn in mason jars homemade simple; jars on shelf inspire co; sugar dispenser real simple; under a shelf country living; sewing kit in a jar martha stewart; attached to the wall homemade simple;  on the table inspire co.

In the office/kids work area: How cute are those farm animal lids!!! 

 Clockwise from top left: animal lids apartment therapy; stack then sideways homemade simple; collection of  collections collection a day 2010; pencil organizer kootut murut.

In the kitchen or in the bathroom:  I'm in love with those shelves made out of old drawers.  I know not exactly jars, but you can display your lovely jars on them. 

Clockwise from left: Displayed in old drawers nest full of eggs; tooth brush/ flower holder etsy; on three tier stand zsa zsa bellagio.

In the garage or tool shed:

baby jar tool organizer homemade simple

Why stop there!  You can spruce up those jars by painting them with bold colors or use some chalk board paint to label them. 

Clockwise from top: blue jars a pumpkin & a princess; white jars and rope too much time on my hands (I WISH!) ; chalk lids wit & whistle; chalk labels apartment therapy .

The possibilities are endless.

Now let's get organized!