I know a lot of people look forward to weekends, but I am not one of them. Weekends for me tend to be either so boring I can do nothing but be bored (obviously, I need to get a life on these weekends) or they're incredibly stressful. And they're all so lazy it makes my head want to split. I'm not a lazy person. I have to be doing something, anything, or I just might die. That's why I started up a tradition of mini dance parties early on Sunday mornings to get me out of the lazy-Sunday funk. And that's why when I finally, finally had a creative idea yesterday (Saturday) I seized onto it like a starving leech (well, that's an attractive picture, is it not?).
For the past several months (yes, months) I've been trying to re-decorate my room. I have not been too successful - I started on a rather large wall mural months ago and it's still unfinished (and it's not that hard to put together either). I've also been trying to get rid of a lot of what I own because I own, to put it mildly, a lot of crap. A lot of crap that doesn't have a designated space to be kept. So I was pondering that on Saturday (trying to find a place to keep some of my crap that I didn't want to get rid of) and I was thinking about an idea I'd seen on a blog recently for storing earrings. All my jewelry used to be pinned up on a large bulletin board in my closet, but it was taking up too much space, so it got taken down and my jewelry got shoved in a shoe box until I could deal with it. It was time to deal with it.
The idea I'd seen was a picture frame earring holder (with the back of the picture frame taken out and replaced with wire mesh, like this), and it sounded like a great idea to me, but I didn't have a picture frame. But then suddenly I knew how to do it. So I set out making it and made a tutorial because, well, it was a Saturday and I was bored.
(And wow that was a lot of text...and now I give you...a lot of pictures.)
(And wow that was a lot of text...and now I give you...a lot of pictures.)
How To Make A Record Cover Earring Holder
What You'll Need:
- Record cover
- Glue (I used Tacky Glue)
- Scissors
- Thread (possibly)
- Window screening/wire mesh
- Record cover
- Glue (I used Tacky Glue)
- Scissors
- Thread (possibly)
- Window screening/wire mesh
1 - Pick a record, any record. If you don't have records, you can pick them up at thrift stores usually under a buck. I get a lot of mine at our local Goodwill for 75 cents.
2 - What you have to do next is make a frame out of your record cover. You want to first unfold your record sleeve, either pulling apart or cutting along the top and bottom of it so that, unfolded, you have a rectangle. Now you want to cut your rectangle in half along the spine of the cover, and cut off any excess cover along the sides. When you're done, you should have two squares of record cover that are the same size. (Dang, I should have taken more pictures, right? I hope this makes sense.)
3 - Okay, about right here this gets kinda tricky. Using scissors (or an exacto knife maybe), you want to cut out the inside of both your squares, leaving about two inches of frame. Try to do this without cutting through your frame and leaving an opening, but if you can't find a way to do this, it should be fine as you have to glue the pieces of frame together anyways.
4 - Now that you have your frame, it's time to add the screening. Cut out a piece of screening about a half inch smaller all 'round than your frame. Heavily coat the insides of both pieces of frame with glue; then you want to make, for lack of a better illustration, a sandwich with your frame pieces and screening - first comes the first piece of your frame, then press your screen onto the frame, making sure the glue holds the screening in place (you want to stretch the screening as tight as you can, but it doesn't have to be too tight; mine is a bit loose and it works fine), then place the front piece of your frame on top of the screen, pressing along the edges until it all sticks together.
5 - Let the glue dry. I put my frame on a flat surface, and placed a typewriter box (with the typewriter in it) on top of it to make sure it dried flat. It should only take a few minutes for the glue to dry, depending on what type of glue you used.
6 (Optional step) - After the glue dries, if you want to add stitching or decorative embroidery, do it now. I used a heavy thread made for sewing denim to add a line of stitching down one side of my fame. (Note: if you use a sewing machine for decorative stitching, test it first! I tried to use a sewing machine and it did not work so well. Make sure your machine can handle heavy-duty sewing.)
7 - Now comes the fun part, using your earring holder :)
To hang my frame, I simply clipped a binder clip onto the top of my frame, stuck a nail in my wall, and hung the binder clip on the nail. Now, I don't own too many pairs of heavy earrings, so I don't know how well this way of hanging your frame will work if you do own a lot of heavy earrings. If this does not work for you, I would suggest stitching (or possibly gluing) a picture hanger onto the back of your frame, and hanging it that way. I'm just in love with binder clips right now, so that's why I used one to hang mine.
Wow, I think this may be the longest post I've ever written. (And maybe a really bad tutorial? Oh well.) Happy Sunday y'all!
2 - What you have to do next is make a frame out of your record cover. You want to first unfold your record sleeve, either pulling apart or cutting along the top and bottom of it so that, unfolded, you have a rectangle. Now you want to cut your rectangle in half along the spine of the cover, and cut off any excess cover along the sides. When you're done, you should have two squares of record cover that are the same size. (Dang, I should have taken more pictures, right? I hope this makes sense.)
3 - Okay, about right here this gets kinda tricky. Using scissors (or an exacto knife maybe), you want to cut out the inside of both your squares, leaving about two inches of frame. Try to do this without cutting through your frame and leaving an opening, but if you can't find a way to do this, it should be fine as you have to glue the pieces of frame together anyways.
4 - Now that you have your frame, it's time to add the screening. Cut out a piece of screening about a half inch smaller all 'round than your frame. Heavily coat the insides of both pieces of frame with glue; then you want to make, for lack of a better illustration, a sandwich with your frame pieces and screening - first comes the first piece of your frame, then press your screen onto the frame, making sure the glue holds the screening in place (you want to stretch the screening as tight as you can, but it doesn't have to be too tight; mine is a bit loose and it works fine), then place the front piece of your frame on top of the screen, pressing along the edges until it all sticks together.
5 - Let the glue dry. I put my frame on a flat surface, and placed a typewriter box (with the typewriter in it) on top of it to make sure it dried flat. It should only take a few minutes for the glue to dry, depending on what type of glue you used.
6 (Optional step) - After the glue dries, if you want to add stitching or decorative embroidery, do it now. I used a heavy thread made for sewing denim to add a line of stitching down one side of my fame. (Note: if you use a sewing machine for decorative stitching, test it first! I tried to use a sewing machine and it did not work so well. Make sure your machine can handle heavy-duty sewing.)
7 - Now comes the fun part, using your earring holder :)
To hang my frame, I simply clipped a binder clip onto the top of my frame, stuck a nail in my wall, and hung the binder clip on the nail. Now, I don't own too many pairs of heavy earrings, so I don't know how well this way of hanging your frame will work if you do own a lot of heavy earrings. If this does not work for you, I would suggest stitching (or possibly gluing) a picture hanger onto the back of your frame, and hanging it that way. I'm just in love with binder clips right now, so that's why I used one to hang mine.
Wow, I think this may be the longest post I've ever written. (And maybe a really bad tutorial? Oh well.) Happy Sunday y'all!
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