About a year ago, I got a call from my friend Michaela who wanted me to help her with some packing. Now Micheala is one of those people who doesn't have a ton of clothes but what she has is quality. She was going through her jewelry when I got there. And wow, did she have jewelry! Most of it I had never seen before.
I'm sure I could be describing most people out there. (Boys, I bet you have more neckties, belts, cufflinks, etc. than you realize too!) Jewelry is tucked into too-small boxes or hard to navigate bags wherever you can fit them. You have some great stuff but where is it? All I can say is if you can't find it, you won't wear it. Guaranteed.
This is a solution to this without buying one of those jewelry cabinets (no money or room) or other jewelry storage solutions: the jewelry board. It serves a purpose and you can mount it on a wall. I know, how fun is that?
If you have a bigger closet, mounting it in your closet (or on the doors) may make sense. All I have to say is anything that uses wall space effectively and serves a function is cool in my book.
Materials
Cork Squares (I got three for $10 at a local craft store)
Small bits of fabric you like (the fat quarters you didn't use in your pillow project would work!)
Furniture tacks ($2 for a bunch, they look sort of like fancy pushpins)
Staple gun
Strawberry margarita (enjoy the tail end of fresh strawberry season!)
1. Put materials for margarita into your blender. Blend. Taste.
2. While you're thinking about what you could or should add to that margarita, place a piece of material around the square. Think back to when you used to cover books and fold down one side of your project crisply. You should have about an inch of fabric on the folded over. Any more and you'll be dealing with too much bulk. Trim, if applicable.
3. Staple gun one edge on what will be the back of your project.
4. Flip over and make sure what you have looks nice (and that the staples aren't poking through the fabric).
5. Do one edge at a time, checking the view from the front each time. Pay attention to how you're folding the fabric in the corners. Put an extra staple on each of the corners just to make sure.
6. Finish making that margarita. Yum. Put vitamins and/or fiber in too to make yourself feel like it is nutritious.
7. Now that you've made one jewelry, a second (and third) one will be much easier. Follow the same procedure.
8. Mount boards securely where they will hang. Be smart enough to keep the mounting hardware that comes with the cork squares, otherwise use lots of that foamy two sided tape.
9. Arrange jewelry in a way that makes sense. Use the tacks for your necklaces. Use them also to poke holes in the fabric/cork where pairs of your earrings will go. (You don't want to bend those earring posts!)
10. Admire your work. Finish your margarita in a satisfying slurp.
Happy crafty!