Functional and Decorative Storage Ideas

My new storage shelf! I'm loving it :)

Cloth baskets that you can purchase for the cubes.

For a while, I had been wanting some kind of storage furniture to house all of my craft supplies. Most of my craft stuff had been in boxes, stacked on shelves in a closet but you know how that goes.... OUT of sight, OUT of mind!  Even though the boxes were labeled, it was still hard to locate things and honestly, it was such a hassle having to go and dig in the boxes so most the time I didn't even bother.

I knew I had space on a wall in the dining room and since I use my kitchen table for most of my crafting, it made perfect sense to get some kind of storage unit for that wall.  So, I looked into different storage type shelving units and these cube shelves with the cloth baskets seemed the most practical choice.

So off I went to Target... it was the least inexpensive of everything I found online. One shelf has 12 cubes and the other has 8. I put one next to the other and that gives me 20 cubes of storage, YAY!!  Both shelves cost a little over 100 bucks which I was OK with but I'm ashamed to say how much the cloth baskets cost. OK, geez, for TWELVE of those baskets, it cost just as much as the two shelves put together. Insane? Yes, and I'm more insane for paying that but I was desperate.  I told myself I won't beat myself up because I rarely EVER splurge but I still feel guilty and to help make it a little better, I want to share with you what I could have done, had I not been so impatient, to save more money and still have great storage shelving.

• I could have purchased the shelves alone and found cheaper baskets for the cubes. Again, it was all about convenience- they happened to have the matching baskets for these shelves in the perfect size in all of the pretty colors that match my kitchen right next to the shelving. 

• I could have made my own fabulous cloth storage baskets using this tutorial over at Make it & Love It. I still may do that actually, I still have a bunch of basket-less cubes.

• I could have just bought a used bookshelf or two and lined some decorative storage boxes or baskets on it. You can even get the pretty wicker storage baskets now and I bet they look fab on any shelf.   A good thing about that is you can get different sizes. 

Here is a few more container ideas for storage on a shelf:

• shoe sized plastic boxes with lids
• small clothes baskets
• coffee cans
• food storage containers with lids 

Don't forget about garage sales, thrift shops and places like that. You can usually find fairly cheap furniture.. such as shelves and you can definitely find tons of baskets, super cheap.  If you find a nice shelf that you like but don't like the color, don't forget about SPRAY PAINT! You can even spray all of your baskets to match if you wanted :)

I hope you found this post helpful for you. Although, I'm loving these new shelves, you don't have to buy brand new to have fabulous storage but just in case you are interested in having a closer look at these, here is a link to the exact shelves that I purchased at Target. BTW, I put these together myself so they are super easy to assemble too.

12 cube shelf in espresso
 8 cube shelf in espresso

Thanks so much for reading and have lots of fun getting your stuff all organized!

Jamie

Snowflake Chandelier

I made some snowflakes out of coffee filters recently and then hung them from the chandelier in my kitchen... have a look:

 

 

I sprayed them with glimmer mist as well.. and it really made them pretty but it was hard to get the camera to pick up the shimmer.  

Here is a garland I made with them:

Basically, I just folded the coffee filter 4 times.... until it was a wedge and then cut around the wedge to form the shapes. Unfold it and viola!

For a more detailed tutorial see my Coffee Filter Snowflake Tutorial.

DIY Cone Shaped Christmas Trees

 DIY Christmas Tree Cone Decorations

I just wanted to show some of the cone shaped Christmas trees I have been working on.  I didn't go out and buy cone forms.. I actually just made my own from poster board using the instructions over at The Creativity Exchange.  I love how her cones came out.. they look amazing!


Here are the ones I have finished so far:

The smaller one I just wrapped with jute that I got from the dollar store. The tall one I embellished with sequin dot material.  I just cut the material into strips and folded them in half forming a loop and glued them all around the tree row by row, starting from the bottom. I love how it turned out.  I actually still have a ton of this pretty sequin material in different colors so hopefully I'll be able to do a few more of these!

Here are the three silver ones I did. They were a bit more involved than the others. Two of them (medium and small one) were made using those little Styrofoam balls.. I put tacky glue all over the cones and dipped them into the balls and the balls covered the cones for the most part. I then painted the cones with silver metallic craft paint. I then mixed some very fine iridescent silver glitter with some diamond glaze and brushed it over the trees. Then I wanted to add some large pieces of holographic glitter but I didn't have any so what I ended up doing was cutting up some holographic curly ribbon that I had into small bits and sprinkled it all over the trees. I think it worked pretty good! You can not tell much in the photo but you can see it up a bit closer.

The way I did the tallest tree was I ended up gluing some chunky bath salt all over it. I was using quick dry tacky glue so I was hoping it would dry before melting the salt. Some of it did melt and some of it didn't... but overall, it was a very interesting texture and I'm glad I did it. After the bath salts, I took it outside and spray painted it metallic silver and I loved it! After that, I ended up brushing on some glaze with glitter and also sprinkled some little pieces of nail art glitter that I found at the Dollar Tree. I think it turned out very cute as well.

Last but no least, here is one that I made and covered with rhinestones. For this particular one I used a cone template that I printed online for free and then just glued rhinestones on row by row.  I love how sparkly and pretty it turned out!

If you are interested in making one of your own, please see my tutorial 

Thanks so much for dropping by! 

Scented Pine Cone Tutorial

It's fall and time to start getting ready for the holidays. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!  This year I have developed a slight addiction to pine cones and decided I wanted to do some scented pine cones and they turned out fabulous.  I am loving the holiday scent.


I ended up putting them into baskets and a few on a large plate.  One of the baskets I put on the shelf right by the front door and the other is sitting on the kitchen table.   I LOVE the smell..  I used essential oils to give them the fragrance. I ended up purchasing a cinnamon-vanilla combo essential oil and another bottle of clove bud essential oil. They mixed very well.. and now I have this nostalgic aroma of the holidays lingering in the air. 

They are super simple to make....You first want to clean your pine cones by rinsing them with warm water and then putting then in a 200 degree oven for them to dry.  After they are all dry, take your essential oils in cinnamon and clove or whatever scent you like and drop some drops on each pine cone. I did about 10 drops on mine. Then put them in large zip lock baggies and let sit for 3 to 7 days. When they are ready, take them out and put them in a basket or pretty container or use them for crafts!

For more ideas and a more detailed tutorial on how to do your own scented pine cones, see my tutorial here.


Thank you for stopping by!   I hope you have lots of fun doing your own scented pine cones :)

Super Easy & Cute Halloween Wreath Tutorial

I recently made this Halloween wreath and I am so, so happy with how it came out! What I love most about this wreath is it costs me TWO bucks to make and it was easy, easy, easy!  It was made using plastic strips and a wire hanger. All you do is take a wire hanger and bend it into a circle and tie plastic strips all around it.  If you are interested in the detailed tutorial plus more ideas, please click HERE.

Here is another one:

I wanted to share this wreath that my friend Sunny made.  It was made basically the same way but instead of tying each strip on individually, she tied a couple on at the same time and then separated the strips after she tied them on.  I think it turned out super cute.  I LOVE the Happy Halloween with the pumpkin in the middle and the black ribbon bow on top!

Thanks so much for dropping by.... Happy Halloween to you and yours :)

Jamie

Halloween Printable Freebies- Cute Subway Art

I just got one of those Cannon printers that will print 12x12 scrapbook pages.. so I was excited to try it out and decided to make this 12x12 Halloween subway art. I thought it turned out cute so why not share it... a little later I decided to make one more that was 8.5 x 11 for those of you who would rather have that size.  For personal use only, please..... thank you :)   Click on the one you want and it will take you to the download page. Once you get there just click file, then download.

12x12

8.5x11

For more free Halloween printables click here!


I hope you enjoy these free Halloween subway art printables..Thank you for dropping by!

Jamie

Linked to :

 These were created using free resources from webdesignhot.com and kevinandamanda.com

Train Shaped Chalkboard for Little Boys Room

My little boy is crazy about trains...so I decided to make this cute train shaped chalkboard for his bedroom wall...he loves it.    All you need to make this cute train is some cardboard or foam board, chalkboard contact paper, a x-acto knife and some double sided sticky tape.  

I cut out the locomotive using a SVG file template from online and left the rest of the train cars plain rectangles to give him more room to write with the chalk.    If you are interested in a detailed tutorial plus a link to the template, click on the photo :)


Thanks for dropping by!

Jamie