Dorm Room Crafts! (Part 3)

I consider this piece to have been the real challenge in the set of three that I've done so far, but it's also the one I'm most proud of!

And the other side?

Project 3: Jewelry Shadow Box (SECRET Shadow Box!)

My Pin-spiration? (the pin leads here for reasons I don't know)

I deemed it necessary to have a cool, easy way to display and store my jewelry, and this seemed perfect. I didn't have a box, so I went a different route: I bought a deep 10 x 14 canvas at Binders, which happened to be having a sale on canvases! 

Using my trusty Martha Stewart acrylic paint referenced in the first post, I painted the outside of the frame, and I painted the canvas (really the back side of the canvas since I was working on the back side of the entire thing) white. I had gotten a tube of acrylic paint in Zinc White from Binders as well for about $4.50.

I then spent a long time trying to carefully plan the chevron pattern that I was attempting to do in tape so I could paint over the white with blue, but finally threw my hands up in the air and put down tape approximately where it looked right. What's crafting without a little risk?  ;)

So I put down masking tape where I wanted my white chevron to be, and then painted over the canvas in my blue paint. When I lifted the tape off after two or three layers of blue paint, it left the white showing through. From various pencil marks and fingerprints, the white part wasn't quite right, so I added a couple more layers of white paint to the chevron.

Then I let it dry overnight! 

Now to actually turn it into a storage unit. I got twelve brass cup hooks at Ace Hardware (two packs of six at $2 a pack). They look like this and are about 3/4 in. long:

The next part was fun. I dented a small hole where I wanted each hook and then screwed them in. I put them in on the underside of the frame that holds the canvas, as well as on the sides. I did six on top, and then three on one side (for rings) and two on the other (for bracelets). 

I was going to add little boxes on the bottom like the pinterest one had done, but I decided to let the frame be able to sit flat against the wall even if the other side were turned around. So I made a SECRET jewelry shadow box to hide my jewelry from the dorm hall kleptomaniac!

Since I did, after all, have a nice clean canvas on the other side, I went ahead and painted it so that I could turn my jewelry holder around and have a nice (deceiving!) piece of art. It came out like this:

If only I could draw a stag freehand. Good thing there's pinterest! I saved this image from pinterest (originally found here):

I copied it into a Word document and sized it to be a little less than a page tall, then printed it. Then came several minutes of very concentrated cutting!

I made little masking tape rings (to be like double-sided tape) to tape down as much of my stag stencil as I could to the front of my canvas. Pressing the edges down as I went, I painted with the same blue paint over my stencil with a couple coats. Then came the going back in and painting white paint carefully into the body (the antlers proved challenging!). 

After the stag was dry, I painted over it with a light coat of glue and added a very light coat of white glitter (I can't really tell if you can see it in the picture). It's subtle but adds nice dimension.

I haven't added hardware to actually hang up my secret jewelry holder/painting yet, but I'll need to put the picture wire at the top (as opposed to on the back or front) so I can seamlessly turn my canvas around as I wish.

Ta-da!

Dorm Room Crafts! (Part 2)

If you read yesterday's post, you know that I'm on a mission to create cute and functional pieces for my dorm room. Granted, a great amount of the inspiration is coming from Pinterest...


Project 2: Paint Sample Dry-Erase Calendar

I have a small LARGE obsession with paint samples...both how many colors there are and the fact that they are very much free (though I do admit to feeling guilty taking like seven samples with the complete knowledge that I am not buying actual paint anytime soon).


My version is above; this one I found on Pinterest (the pin connects to here, which isn't the original post, but just to give credit where it's due...)

I was already kind of halfway done with the project since I've been working on this board since last summer. I saw the great idea to just use a basic frame with glass inside as a dry erase board, and so I got a basic 12 x 12 frame so that I could put in any scrapbook paper (with material on it or not) and use it as a dry erase board. So when I saw the paint chip calendar idea, I basically just needed to make a new template for my frame using the paint samples. 

I don't have pictures of the work in progress, but you could really put in the paint chips into any size frame; you just need to make sure to cut each sample strip correctly to fit your desired dimensions. I cut each strip so that the width measured 1.5 inches long so that seven of them could fit on 12 inches. I could have used double-sided tape to put them down on a basic piece of white scrapbook paper, but I happened to use the basic Elmer's School Glue. 

All done! And of course, you can just erase your calendar and write down the next month. Or you could make an entire other template with a different set of paint samples! 

Dorm Room Crafts! (Part 1)

I've been excited for a while (let's face it, a couple years) to decorate a dorm room. New color scheme, the challenge of working with a small space...

But I didn't want to just decorate. I wanted to make as much for my dorm as I could. So what did I make? Three projects so far, and with minimal supplies. The next few coming soon...

Project 1: Bulletin Board

My roommate and I have decided on a color scheme of blues and greens, and I've already done a bunch of crafts with just one paint: Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Craft Paint. This stuff has been great so far, and a little goes a long way. 

Anyway, for the bulletin board, I guess I could have found some cork board (easily found at craft stores) and a frame, but I saw a bulletin board already made at Marshall's (I can't find a picture of it unfortunately). And I just painted the frame with the Martha Stewart paint! Bonus of acrylic paint: dries really quickly, so perfect for the impatient crafter like me. I've found that a layer dries in about 30 minutes, depending on the surface you're painting. I put three layers of paint on this frame. Two could have been sufficient but I wanted a little extra oomph.  :)

The finishing touch on that one was a bit of a splurge, and I bet there's a way to make them, but I got some fabric-covered push pins from Anthropologie for them ($15 for twenty): 

So, so, so cute. Worth every penny.

The next few projects will appear tomorrow and the next day!