Brace yourselves!

Guess who's got a new item in her Etsy shop??

No, really, guess . . .
I'm waiting . . .

Okay, fine - some people like guessing games you know. . . but obviously you're not one of them so I'll just go ahead and tell you.

It's me!
 

I've actually got 5 new items in the shop. Granted, they're all variations of the same product but hey, progress has been made!

I think they're adorable and would be a perfect gift for a soon to be mom or someone who just really likes animals that wear hats, or shirts with no pants, or overalls with no shirts - what the hell?!

Really I'd like to think that anyone who enjoys vintage children's book illustrations would like one of these cute little keychains.

 I'm glad I finally found a use for some of the older vintage books I've picked up at garage sales and flea markets. These weren't in the best of shape but since the images are small I was able to rescue and preserve some of them on these little wooden cubes.

Click my Etsy link on the side to check them out in the shop if you'd like.

DIY jewelry displays

The majority of my recent crafty DIY projects have centered around spicing up the bedroom . . . .no, I haven't been knitting wool bustiers (itchy).  I mean spicing it up interior design wise. 

I determined that I wanted my jewelry on display instead of hidden away in my jewelry case. I find that when it's visible it gets worn a lot often, plus it seems a shame to keep things that I find so attractive and sentimental inside a drawer.

I started by displaying my necklaces.  This was as simple as screwing some cup hooks into the bottom of an already existing shelf.

 

Then I took an old photo frame, replaced the backing with a piece of foam core, wrapped it with a layer of quilt batting and white fabric and made my own mini pin board for my brooches.

 

Then it was on to my favorite things - my rings.  I have a recent obsession with what my friends like to call "big ass rings" and I needed somewhere to display them.  I solved that problem with some frames and felt:

Here's a quick how to in case anyone is interested.

I started with some fabulous IKEA frames - of course you can use whatever frames you have available.

I had to remove their backs and the glass (which was actually plastic).  Then I got out my stash of felt and started rolling up some tampons.  Or at least that's what they started looking like to me.  I had to do some experimentation to determine how much felt was needed for each roll.  My white felt was quite thick (super absorbency) and I only needed about 5 inches in length.  The width was about 1 inch longer than the width of my frame opening.  

 I used a line of hot glue to hold my roll together.

 

When I had enough I hot glued them to a piece of cardboard sligtly larger than my frame opening.  Be sure to hot glue them securely and as tight together as possible.

 

 This is when things got really high tech! I couldn't use the original back of my frame as it wouldn't accomodate the thickness of my felt, so I used the handyman's greatest tool - duct tape.  It looks classy though because I got the white duct tape to match my frame!!

 

It worked quite well.  I used some command strips to hold this one to the wall and it's been 4 months and it hasn't fallen apart yet so I'm calling that a success!

I used a nice burnt orange felt on my other frame. It wasn't as thick as the white so I ended up rolling up about 7 inches instead of 5, but aside from that everything else was the same.

 I wanted this one to stand on my shelf so I used my duct tape and some really sturdy cardboard to create a stand on the back.

 

Hope you can use some of these techniques to create your own jewelry displays.