Repurpose: A Plastic Jar for Decorative Craft Room Storage

Want something that makes you feel good in your craft room, but also serves a purpose? 

Try re-purposing a peanut butter or mayonnaise jar.

I use paper, cloth, coffee filter, clay, plastic and metal flowers and buds in the majority of my craft projects. I will mix the different types of flowers in a project once in a while, but usually I'll just stick to one type at a time so I want them separated. Plus, I don't want to store them together as the heavier flowers can crush the delicate ones. Previously, I had put them in boxes and that worked for storage, but then I had to label all of the boxes and was missing out on how pretty they looked.

Step-by-step 

Materials:

• Lace
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun (or craft glue)
• Flower arrangement foam (I prefer the type that doesn't crumble for this specific project)
• Jar
• Paint
• Flowers with stem
• White Tulle
• Wire (strong enough to penetrate the foam)
• Wire cutters

First I prepped my flower arrangement foam for hot gluing by placing a card-stock circle on the bottom of it. This just gives me a smooth surface for gluing and keeps me from melting and therefore disfiguring the foam when I'm doing my last step. If something were to go wrong now, it would be much better than happening at the very end of the project.

I coated my lid with some Gesso so my silver paint would stick, but you can cover the lid with a cloth or paper circle that goes down over the sides.

After the paint is dry I hot glued the very top of my lace to the lid overlapping slightly where the lace meets in the back.

Next, I worked on my flower arrangement. I made sure that the flowers were stuck in the foam securely with hot glue since this is something that I will be touching often.
I used tulle to fill in the gaps between the flowers. I also love how delicate tulle makes flower arrangements look.

 

And here is my finished project . I love it!

I did not fill the back in as tightly so there is enough play in the arrangement to butt the container up against a wall when placed on a shelf. If you want to place it on a narrow shelf, avoid making the flowers too close together on the backside so they move out of the way easily.

I have a narrow wall shelf next to my desk that I have some of my glitters on. I think it would be a great place to put it to enjoy each day.

This project would also make a great gift holder for candy or cookies. There are MANY things that can been done with a plastic jar, so I don't throw them out.

Altered Box: Loving Blue, Brown and Green

  

I wanted to give an altered box a try and I'm so glad that I did. I had been storing my lace pieces in an ugly box. No matter where you sit it or how you stand it, it's ugly! So I gathered my homemade paint sprays and glitter mists together, some Gesso, modeling paste, cream colored, yellow and white flowers, brown ribbon, a birds nest, a blue bird and got busy. 

 Before

  

The Result is Fabulous!

I'm so excited! I am now hooked on altering boxes and I'm looking at all those other ugly boxes I have that I'm storing my craft items in. This would make a great gift and/or gift package too.

Steps I took to make my Altered Box:

1. Apply Gesso to the entire outside of the box in thin coats (I used my heat tool to dry the coats of Gesso quickly). You can also use paint instead of Gesso, but I used Gesso to get more texture).

2. I used my home-made paint sprays and glimmer mists to color the box and my heat tool between colors to keep them from mixing too much. I also sprayed enough some of the time that I could get the colors to run which I think is a nice effect.

3. Use your ink stamps to decorate the box as you wish. I didn't do a lot of stamping, just a few here and there.

4. Using a template with modeling paste allowed me to create the leaves and flowers on the sides and top of the box.

5. You can decorate your box with silk flowers, make your own flowers or use something else such as Christmas decorations, etc. Just let your creative juices flow. I used white, cream and yellow silk flowers and sprayed them with my blue glimmer mist. Since the flowers were different colors they came out different shades of blue and the yellow flowers became green.

6. After the flowers dried I began arranging them with the bird and nest on the box. I used a hot glue gun to adhere them to the box lid and each other.

7. I wanted some sentiments (a little inspiration) so I found some foam letters and placed words on my box that could be read from different directions since it sits on an open shelf.

That was it. It took me just a few hours to make. I let the modeling paste dry overnight before going to the next step.

Give making an Altered Box a shot and please share as I would love to see them.

Repurposing: Turning a Queen Bookcase-Headboard into a Craft Desk and 6 Organizational Tips for Your Craft Room

      My craft area is not some white, light filled, dream room. In fact I'm surrounded by dark stained woods, so I have overhead lighting and multiple lamps to make sure I can see well. My desk is made up of a big slab of pine for the table top, two file cabinets to hold it up and a queen headboard is being used as the tower to my desk. Yes, I said queen headboard. It's screwed into the pine and the wall and is heavy as heck, so it's not going anywhere. It was my daughter's headboard. She decided she didn't want it anymore and removed it from her room. In the end I found a good use for it and was glad she didn't want it. It holds a lot of the craft items that I use daily and was a nice step up from the small desk I used that shared space with my computer, junk mail and bills.

In the photo below I numbered the different items I keep on it and while going through it I was surprised how much I have stored on there.

1. Small flowers with stems  2. Metal embellishments and items for mixed media collages  3. Moss and leaves  4. Holiday embellishments  5. Wire and wire crafts  6. Wood embellishments and Popsicle sticks  7. Plastic embellishments  8.Small stuff like beads, rope, strung pearls, glass pieces, sand and buttons  9. Ribbon for card making  10. Pearl-Ex Powders  11. Lace spools and larger ribbon  12. Alcohol inks  13. Glue  14. Craft scissors  15. Embossing powders  16. Paper punches  17. Containers of small items like loose pearls and brads  18. Regular scissors, rulers, hole punch, tweezers, etc.  19. My homemade glimmer mists and paint sprays  20.  Hot glue  21. Glass cutting board.

6 Tips:

Tip 1:
Make sure your hot glue gun has a special place of it's own away from your other craft items. I use a small glass cutting board under it that I bought for a dollar and the lid of a glass candle jar to catch all the hot glue drippings. There is a plug-in strip attached to the right side of my desk behind the hot glue gun and by having it so close and the chord secure I know that no one will trip on it or knock it off. If your looking for a hot glue gun with a small nozzle and high/low temp option, I got mine from Walmart and love it. The one I chose is the Ad Tech for around $10.00. It says cordless, that's not really the case. You'll have it plugged in 99% of the time but it is convenient when you can unplug it at the gun handle for a few minutes for hard to reach places.
Ad-tech-2-Temp-Full-Size-Cordless-Glue-Gun


Tip 2:
I use an old glass cutting board from my kitchen on my main work surface. It doesn't easily break, can take heat, paint, inks glue, gesso and they all come off of it. There is a rough side and a smooth side, use the smooth side as it cleans up easily. If you have glue or paint that has hardened on it just take it to the kitchen sink and use a spoon to clean the surface while running under hot water, it will come off easily this way.

Tip 3:
I talked my son into giving up a few of his Connects pieces and they worked out perfectly for organizing my small spools of ribbon because they're quite light. I was afraid it would not be strong enough, but I use the ribbon constantly and have not had a problem. In fact if I need to remove a spool I find it very convenient to pop out one side of the Connects holder, take the spool off and reconnect it. The connects hang from cup hooks on both sides and one in the center.

Tip 4:
A Lazy Susan is perfect for holding glimmer mists and paint sprays.

Tip 5:
I found some pie holders at the thrift store. They came in a stack of three. I don't bake pies and didn't know what I would do with them, but knew I would think of something eventually. Well, they're perfect for holding bottles of acrylic paint. I placed it on a Lazy Susan as well, stored it on a shelf beside my desk at arms reach and it works great.

The photo below I found on a Google search and is from MarthaStewart.com. Which leads me to mention that I've heard Martha Stewart's paper punches are the best out there. If you have used them, please let me know about your experience with them. They looked very pretty hanging in the store.

Tip 6:

If you have the same size bottles of paint which when all stored give you a level surface and you're short on room you can stack the pie holders. Just make sure that what you put on top is not extremely heavy and can be easily supported by the paint bottles.

-You can also paint them to go with your decor or decorate them with something that gives you inspiration-

That's it for now, but come back for more craft storage tips as I will be posting them soon.