medicine viles used for bead storage
Awhile back I posted some nontraditional bead storage ideas. Here’s another idea…old medicine viles. It’s not my idea. A friend gave these to me with the bead supplies already in them. I wonder what else I can do with the viles though! They’re so unique. Have any good ideas?
I’ve been slowly going room to room in my house to reorganize the spaces better. So, when rethinking my pantry area, I needed to better see my wines instead of standing them up and pushing them to the back of the shelf.
My first thought was to shop for wine shelves. My second thought was “do I have anything in the house that might work?” Lucky for me, I saved some money and reused this metal shelf that previously held two metal drawers.
I keep many odd things that I’m not using just in case I can find alternative uses for them. As another example, I’m keeping these tops from my dishwasher utensils tray. I have zero intentions of using them with the dishwasher but can’t part with them yet. Do you have an idea of how I can use them? I think they have potential for organizing something…
I have lots of cardboard record cases left over from the record bowls I made for Christmas gifts. Some of the pictures on the cases are really fun, so I needed a way to reuse them. I decided to make them into file folders. Read more »
While I was shopping for some bookcases at Target last week I noticed that the back to school section had a bunch of color coordinating office organizing supplies. If you bought a whole set it would cost an arm and a leg. You would have a very nice looking office though.
When I came home I opened my bookcase boxes to discover a bunch of cardboard packing material that would be easily transformed into an in box/out box tray if you just cut it in half. The problem is brown cardboard with tape scars is not nearly as attractive as the beautiful ones I saw on the shelves in Target. But if you cover them with fabric, then you have instant custom office supplies, with just a half hour of work. Here’s how I made mine: Read more »
I received the latest Ikea catalog in the mail this week. My favorite item is their solar powered work lamps. I’ve been looking to use more solar energy in my home, and this looks like an inexpensive way to start. I also think it’d be fun to “hack” the light and create my own DIY solar light. I’ll keep an eye on the Ikea Hacker site for ideas.
After reading our Stretchy Bracelet Tutorial, a reader named Jamie asked,
I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to keep beads organized without purchasing a plastic bin organizer at the craft store. My oldest has thousands of beads, but they always get mixed up or spilled. I appreciate your help!
To answer Jamie’s question, here are some ideas.
beads in mint, shampoo, & lip gloss containers & an eye shadow case
First, look around your house, thrift store, & even the grocery store for small containers that could be repurposed for bead storage. I prefer clear containers so I can see my beads. Plastic is great for traveling or for kids, while glass is fine for shelves or other safe places. If you’re happy to keep beads in non-clear containers, tape a sample bead or label to the outside of the container. Double check that any lids stay on well.
Some plastic & more travel-friendly ideas include: tic tac or other mint containers, spice containers (here’s a whole spice rack at Curbly), Purell bottles, travel-sized shampoo bottles, travel bar soap container, mini zip lock bags, clear lip gloss containers, ink pen barrels for seed beads (ones where the pen top screws on & off. This isn’t my idea, but can’t remember where I originally saw it), an old eyeshadow case, & clear contacts cases.
Last weekend at our Yard Sale I managed to buy a bunch of Colleen’s things. I knew that would happen. One of the items was serendipidous: two stackable hat boxes with a rose print. I had just passed over a set of red hat boxes at the thrift store because they were a little too tomoato-colored. I have been planning for a few weeks to make the hat boxes into craft supplies storage space for the girls.
Until I upgraded them my kids have been tossing all of their craft supplies into a huge red basket. Most things were getting crumpled up and many things were getting lost. All things were scattered around the room most of the time.
To make these I just used a brown paper bag and some corrugated cardboard to make compartments and glued them in with craft glue. For the maker/crayon holder I used Colleen’s old dishwasher silverware organizer. Everything tucks in there nicely and we can keep everything separated, but together. The second hat box just holds all the coloring books and drawing paper. With the lids on they stack up nicely next to the entertainment stand.
loveleigh24's craft space
A few weeks ago I showed off a corner of my craft studio and asked readers to share studio pics on our Flickr pool. I wanted to share a photo from loveleigh24′s craft space. I like the clean white & black theme with a few bursts of color, especially those decorations that look like stencils on the wall. Did you notice her “craft” and “make” framed art?
ribbon holder in Tabitha's craft space
I also received a link to Tabitha’s studio at the blog Living in the Moontime. This ribbon holder is my favorite. It’s a cassette tape shelf she got at the thrift store. And below it she used binder clips to hold ribbon scraps…perfect! She’s also inspired me to get organized with some pegboard (check out her post for more pics).
You’re still welcome to post your studio/craft room pics to our Flickr pool. We’ll occasionally feature these pics when we run across a gem.
I had been looking for a way to easily display my jewelry. I thought about drilling holes in my closet door & screwing in hooks. Then I found a picture frame with really wide edges at the thrift store and knew I could make it work.
Instructions:
I used a staple gun to attach wire screen to the back of the frame. This screen is perfect to hold earrings. Then I drilled holes for the “cup hook” screws and screwed them in throughout the frame to hang the necklaces, bracelets, and rings. I attached two “eye hooks” to the top of the frame and one to my door. Then I strung through all three hooks with ribbon and tied it in a knot.
Finally, in order to keep the frame from moving much because of how it’s dangling, I put velcrow on the door and on the back of the frame.
My only concern is I’m running out of room for jewelry, and I’m not sure how I’ll expand!
I was reorganizing my workspace and wanted to store thread on the narrow wall above my sewing area. So I scoured the house for items to repurpose for a shelf. I found a cd display unit and used screws to attach it to the wall. Now it perfectly holds all my thread.
