DIY Jewelry Case

Last summer I spent a lot of time cleaning. And while it was cleansing, I also learned I have a lot of stuff that I have bought for projects that have never been completed. Once school started, everything got put on hold again. Between work and life, what little time I had left got spent on projects for friends and family. Needless to say, I didn't do much for myself this year. After everything that happened at the end of last year (and the beginning of this year), I decided it was time to be extra selfish, and do things for me. My last embryo transfer was in late January, with a negative pregnancy test. I took that was my official "OK" to move on with my life and start living for a change. No more doctors and health experts telling me what to do for a while. I want to do what I want to do.

It started with trapeze, which was meant to be a one 8-week lesson challenge, and I just signed up for my 3rd session (video to come soon. I want to link together all of my performances).  The rest of my activities involved friends, and various activities that were simply put off. Just running errands was easier because I didn't have to squeeze them in between doctors appointments.

I really wanted to spend some solid time this summer working on lesson plans for next year. And then I looked at my calendar. I realized that I am going to be gone for 5 weeks of my 10 week vacation. There was no way I was going to get much solid lesson planning completed. So I decided to designate this the summer of projects. For me. Most of them are small enough to be completed in 1-2 days, so they should keep me focused, active, and occupied on days when I am home so I don't drive Jon too nuts.

First up, a jewelry case. Arizona has this crazy thing where there aren't doors in a lot of  master bathrooms. So the steam created from the shower goes everywhere. It is enough to  keep the bathroom from staying nice and warm when you get out, and to tarnish all silver jewelry in the adjoining closet. I needed something to get the jewelry off of the top of my dresser, and protected from steam. This idea has been brewing for a while. Here's what I did (I need to work on my photography skills, I know. Bear with me):

Step 1) Start with gathering your materials. I bought an 11x16" frame that had the front glass hinged like a door. Other materials I needed included also a piece of uncut matte board, fabric, a box cutter, fabric, fabric rotary cutter, super/tacky glue, hammer, nails, screwdriver, screws, decorative brads, and a ruler.

Step 2) Cut the matte board to the same size as the back of the frame (which I pried off of the back of the frame). Then spray it with glue and place it on top of the fabric. Use the rotary cutter to trim the fabric to the same size as the board.

Step 3) Figure out where you want to hang jewelry. I lightly hammered in nails, and then screwed in some screws to create small holes. I also did this to make sure I liked my placement.

Step 4) I am not much of a scrapbooker, but I was surprised at the scrapbook section of the Michael's. They offered all sorts of things that could be used as hooks (as well as a lot of ideas for future projects). I bought some small jeweled metal flowers and glued them to the top of some of the brads. I don't know that I love the butterfly brads that I bought, but whatever. So......., remove screws, push brads through the holes to the back, and spread the brad legs. Be sure not to push the brad all the way through, you need the gap to hang the jewelery on. I put a little glue on the back to secure them.

Step 5) Sandwich your newly constructed board between the frame, and the backing and nail it back into place. Hang on the wall, and place jewelry in case. Voila!

I still want to add a knob of some kind to the door, and could have placed one more brad in what appears to be an open blank spot, but am pretty happy with it. If I really wanted it to look like a display case, I would only hang a couple things in it. But then it wouldn't be nearly as effective, and I have no plans on purging my jewelry. So there you have it!