Lately, I've starting crafting more and more. When we moved into our house about a year ago, I had my craft supplies in a couple different places throughout the house, but then as I started buying more and more supplies I quickly realized that I really had to have a central location to get my work done efficiently. I am a clutter freak and I do not like to have things sitting around the house for everyone to see, but at the same time I didn't have an extra room to make into a craft room. Lucklily I had a nice open space in my dining/livingroom, so I decided this would be my new craft corner. Since my craft area was going to be in the middle of the house, I knew that I had to make it look as cute as possible so it wasn't an eyesore. Organization and a low cost were my major concerns in designing my crafting space. As a one income family, I can't always go out and buy whatever I want when I want. I worked with things I had on hand and ran to Michael's to buy some things to help spruce the space up a bit.
~ My Craft Corner ~
I actually had all of the Rubbermaid drawer containers and shelves on hand. I used to be a teacher, and when I returned home to be a SAHM I kept everything, so I was lucky in that I didn't have to buy any of the drawers, shelves, table, etc. I organized each drawer/shelf into it's own category, i.e. fabrics, glue, pains, ribbon, yarn, etc. Everything has it's own home in my area and to ensure that I don't get lazy on myself, I used a label maker to label each drawer and shelf so that I can easily find and put away all my materials.
Decoration ~
My decorations in my craft area are all things that I made. Below is a tutorial on how I made them.
What To Do ~
Framed Spool - I bought a unfished picture frame (frame only) from Michael's on sale for 50% off. I spray painted in with a black gloss finish. I also purchased an unfinished spool rack from Michael's and then spray painted in in a cherry red gloss finish. I hung the frame and then used mounting tape to secure the spool rack centered inside of the frame. As a finishing touch, I added my sewing spools onto the rack, spaced out to balance out the aesetics.
'CREATE' Letters - Originally I wanted to buy wooden letters and paint them to hang above my sewing machine, but as a last minute substitution I decided to try these instead. I used an old box that I was going to recycle and made big box letters with a sharpie and cut them out. I used some red yarn that I had on hand and started wrapping the letters using Tacky Glue underneath the yarn. Once they were fully wrapped and the glue had dried, I trimmed off any access cardboard that was showing, and then hot glued a yarn loop on the back so I could hang them.
Bow Holder - I recently ordered a bunch of ribbon wholesaled with plans to start making hair bows for my daughter and her friends. I decided to make a bow holder to display the bows as they are being made. To do this, I used some cardboard from an old box and covered it with a large piece of red felt. I basically wrapped it like a present and then sealed the ends with hot glue. To add some color, I added a piece of fabric that I had on hand that would match the colors I wanted to use. I used hot glue on the back to secure the fabric to the now felted board. Next, I measured and cut some black ribbon to put on the board diagnolly, to which the bows will be secured to. I hot glued the ribbon ends onto the back of the board and then put a dab of hot glue in the middle of the ribbon directly onto the fabric to make it a little more secure. I secured this to the wall with mounting tape.
'SEW' Sign - I found a cheap unfinished wooden laser frame at Michael's for about $3. I also picked up the letters to spell 'SEW' for about $1.50 each. I used the same paint colors that I used for the frame and spool rack to paint the 'SEW' letters and the laser frame. I used one nail to secure the frame to the wall and then used tiny strips of mounting tape on the back of each letter to center it inside of the frame.
Framed Sign - First off, I would have prefered to have framed this in black to coordinate with the rest of the colors, but I used a silver frame that I already had on hand. I printed out the sign in dijon color from the website
http://www.leblahg.com/2009/04/get-excited-and-make-things.html and framed it in the silver frame.
Boxed Shelves with Jar Decor - I bought these boxes as an unfinished set from Michael's and painted them in the same black spray paint I used on the other projects above. I also got two small jars that I got for $1 each and filled them with beads and buttons, to use and decor.
~ The Finished Result ~
