Tag: smooth

Craft Projects

Jewelry Holder: Glass knobs

Jessica Smith

Look what I brought home from work!?! We just had 42 boxes of our alumni magazine delivered a couple of weeks ago on this beauty of a pallet. I quickly called “dibs” on the pallet (no one else wanted it… can’t imagine why) after the delivery guy left and took it into my office, where it happily resided for a couple of weeks. I finally took it home last Friday, and was originally going to use it as nail gun practice. But, when I started to mess around with it, I changed my mind and quickly crafted a new plan.

I pulled out my jigsaw and started cutting off a few of the boards. I took them inside to sand them down a bit and decide exactly what I wanted to create.

Once my board was smooth, I cut it down the middle where the two screws held it to the middle support board of the pallet — right through the holes!

I sanded, sanded and sanded some more until my half boards were super smooth.

Next, I stained a piece of wood a light shade of gray before applying a coat of poly to the top. I let it dry overnight. Then, I screwed in three adorable glass knobs (four if you count the one I shattered by tightening the screw too much… oops) and attached a ribbon.

With that, I had a totally recycled jewelry holder — wood, knobs and all! I literally didn’t have to buy a single supply for this project — I had everything sitting around in my craft room, and, of course, my free pallet. Bahaha, that’s the best kind of craft! So excited.

I think I’ll have to make a few more of these for that Trash to Treasure fair, don’t you think?

Spoiler alert — I already made a second one, but the hangers are so much cooler. Check back later to see it!

One last thing… Here’s a fun fact, for all of you people who are on the lookout for pallets — they aren’t the nicest thing in creation. The wood is jagged and splintery, the screws are warped and they are often falling apart…. but man are they fun to work with if you get the chance! There are two sitting in our loading dock right now that I am oh so tempted to take, but I think I’ll finish tearing this one up first :p

Craft Projects, Home Improvement

Decoupaged Drawers

Jessica Smith

After setting pu my cabinets in my craft room, I quickly got to ripping out the contact paper the previous owners had placed in all of my drawers. (Using a cabinet that someone else had in their home without washing them down and replacing the contact paper kind of freaked me out.) I especially wanted to do this in the vanity that was in someone’s bathroom… cause you know, it was in their bathroom.

Look how much this needed to be scrubbed!! Grooooooossssssss.

I tried to carefully remove the contact paper first, but after ripping the “stain” off the wood underneath on one cabinet, I knew I wasn’t getting that paper off without destroying the drawers. So I stopped caring and came up with a new plan: Decoupage the drawers with maps!

After removing all of the contact paper, I got all of the dust out of the cabinets and got to work cutting pages out of an old atlas.

To decoupage the drawer, I painted a layer of mod podge onto the bottom of the drawers (one at a time). I then layered pages of the atlas in the drawers. I smoothed out the bubbles in the paper, then did a thick layer of mod podge on top of the maps.

Once it dried, I sprayed it with a clear sealer — mod podge can dry a little tacky, so the sealer really helps this.

I wish the maps I had were a little cooler — the hubby refused to let me cut up the first atlas I found at a thrift store because he said it was too cool — but I am glad to have clean drawers to use. It feels so much more sanitary now.

My craft room is coming along so nicely! I even huddled up in there a few nights ago to craft and watch HGTV!