Craft Cupboard 2.0 - Week 1 - The Haberdashery Shelf

So I made a new years resolution that I was going to learn a new craft every month this year so 2014 is definitely going to be a busy year. However before I can even start to think about that I had to do something about my craft cupboard. I had been so busy crafting on the run up to Christmas that I had just shoved things in everywhere and it was now over flowing.

Then it hit me - why don't I merge tidying my cupboard with learning a new skill - WOODWORK!!!

I started designing craft cupboard 2.0 immediately and was very pleased with my plans, masking taping them to the wall for inspiration

I couldn't wait to get started the next day and dragged my boyfriend to the local DIY shop (Homebase) to help me pick out wood. I was all ready to by sheets and sheets of wood but Quinn recommend I just buy a couple to get me started and then if it works out ok then I can come back for more. Luckily it had turned out I'd bought enough for 1 shelves worth of wooden tidies and that was hard enough work in itself! Turns out my plans to have the whole cupboard finished by the end of this week was a bit inspirational but I am very happy with what I've managed to achieve.

The first shelf I started with is my Haberdashery shelf for all my material, wool, buttons, ribbon and thread. I didn't think I had to much for this shelf but it turns out there was lots of things hiding in there and I might need to do a wee bit of a further clear out

For the stuffing and wool I just made your average box. Actually the material one is the same but I wrapped the material around piece of cardboard before slotting them into the box so that I can easily see what I have to hand. I made two of these material boxes, putting one in front of the other.

For the 3 in the middle they were slightly more complicated so I've made a tutorial for each in case you want to learn how to make your own!

Thread Holder

Button Drawers

Ribbon Holder 

Hope this inspires you guys and hopefully over the next few weeks I'll have some more time to tackle another shelf

I'll be back xx

Ribbon Tidy

I love ribbon, so many pretty colours and designs but I always end up with lots of little bits and pieces that are all over the place. As part of cleaning up my crafty act in 2014 I've made this ribbon tidy so that they no longer get lost at the bottom of my cupboard

What you need:

Wood (I got 6mm thick MDF from Homebase)

Wooden dowelling

Twine

Hot glue gun

Drill piece that will cut a hole larger than your dowelling

Step 1

Cut the wood to fit the space you are doing to put it in. My shelf was 38cm tall by 38cm depth and I had a 9cm gap on my shelf, so I cut the following:

38x9cm - 2 pieces

36x9cm - 2 pieces

45cm long dowelling - 2 pieces

2 squares of wood that are larger than the hole you will cut with your drill piece later on

Step 2

Drill 2 holes in each of your largest pieces of wood. Measure where you are going to drill the holes as it needs to be exactly the same on both pieces of wood as your dowelling will go through each. I also drilled a smaller hole further down the wood for my ribbon that had a very small centre hole to go through.

Step 3 

Take your two smaller pieces of wood and glue them at 90 degree angles to one of the larger pieces and let dry

Step 4

Put glue on the other ends of the small pieces of wood and then line up your remaining large piece of wood on top, making sure that it matches the holes on the other side

Step 5

Glue your small wooden squares to one end of each of the dowelling and then put the dowelling through the holes. 

Step 6

Your ribbon holder is now ready to start being filled. You can easily pull the dowelling out to put the rolls of ribbon on or if you have pieces of ribbon that are not on reels then you can tape the end to the dowelling itself and then roll it on, before taping the other end. 

For my ribbon with smaller reels, I knotted a piece of twine and threaded it through on of the smaller holes, then filled it up with ribbon before threading it through the other side and knotting again. I also used some more twine to tie all my balls of twine to the top of the holder, saving more room.

REMEMBER not to fill your dowelling up too much as it needs to have a bit of room left so you can pull them out without all the ribbon falling off them

I'll be back xx

Paper Rose Necklace & Hair Clip

I was at an amazing wedding last week and I wanted a statement piece to go with my dress, as it was quite plain.

I had previously seen lots of tutorials on paper flowers that I was dying to try out and this seemed like a perfect opportunity so I gave it a shot and it transformed into this beautiful necklace and hair clip.

Thankfully it didn't rain, it's definitely a necklace for warmer climates!

Click on the image to see my first tutorial