Thrift Store Frame to Jewelry Display! {a tutorial}

This tute is a long time coming! I made it during {Headband Week} in August, didn't write it up till September, and now here we are middle of October and I'm finally posting it! Oops. Onto the tute.

A thrifted frame to jewelry holder is one of the most common projects on a craft blog these days. Right up there with rosettes and an elastic waist skirt! Not that that is a bad thing, (I have BOTH on my blog! Well, now all three!) it's kind of fun to reinvent the wheel! Plus, it's one of those things that just WORKS, so why not give it a whirl? Aaaaaand I saw a million cute ones on Pinterest and I just had to try it. Stupid Pinterest.

See? I pinned it {here}

Or this one? {here} Gah, I almost feel silly posting mine!

Care to see it? Too bad, I'm showing you anyway.

I pretty much love it. Up until now, all my jewelry has been crammed in too small jewelry boxes, plastic bags, and strewn all over my room in heaps. Ugh, not cool. I love that everything is organized now and I can actually SEE what my options are! I kept all my fancy stuff in the pretty jewelry boxes, but the everyday stuff I hung up. Care to make your own?

You will need:

• A sturdy wooden frame, it's gotta thick and it's gotta be wood
• Sandpaper
• Scrap fabric
• Hot glue gun
• Nails
• Spray paint
• A handy hubby that is good with tools

This is my frame. I felt so bad for it. Obviously it had been around for years and years and it never even got used. :( No matter, I gave it a good home and now I love it every day. :) I unwrapped it and sanded the crap outta it.

And covered it with several coats of "oil rubbed bronze" spray paint. Ah, already so much better! And shiny....

Seriously, what is it with cats??

Next I wrapped the back of the frame in some pretty fabric and hot glued the edges down. Pull tightly so it's nice and smooth on the front!

I knew I wanted some lace strips at the bottom to hang my dangly earrings, so I glued some down as well. Pull REALLY tightly because the weight of the earrings will make the lace sag. I also glued it down in the middle so it would be a little more stable.

I marked where I wanted all the nails to be with a crayon I found in a drawer. I marked some at the bottom of the frame for really long necklaces, at the top for short necklaces, and on the sides for bracelets.

This is where hubby came in! He very patiently and oh so skillfully nailed nails (redundant much?) into all of those little crayon marks...and there were a lot of them!

"Thanks honey! Oh wait....can you do one more things puh-leeeeeeeeeeeeeaze??"

"Can you install these knobs I got from Anthropologie (on clearance! Three bucks each!) onto this other wood board I spray painted? No...I don't know how to install them. Use those power tools and figure it out kay? Love you!"

I stuck the back back into the frame while the hubs humored my request. No real instructions there.

Then I hung it up and filled it up! That took just as long as the project itself, oi. Oh, did you notice the headband holder?

Thanks for figuring that out hubs! Now I can hand up all my headbands in one place and not have to search the whole house looking for one. (On a side note, I have many more headbands now. This picture is over two months old!)

Ahh, it makes my little nook so much more organized. I've been wearing lots my jewelry now that I can find everything! If you haven't tried one of these yet you really should, they make life so much better. At least 20% better. (Bro hoof!!)

Headband Week- T shirt headband and linky party!

UPDATE: Linky is now open! Sorry about that!

I've got a super simple headband to wrap up headband week! This one was inspired by a headband that I already owned. Actually, I totally just copied it because I love it. It very comfy and is thick enough to hold ALL my hair back, even those little flyaways.

 This is how I wish I could be every moment of summer. At the pool all day in my super cute bathing suit, hair full of lemon juice (natural lightening agent!) and summer storms. Bliss I tell you. Oh yeah, headband. Cool huh? Wanna make one? This is the only one I busted out the sewing machine for but the whole thing only took a few minutes.

You will need:

• Old t shirt (as you can see I already took a chunk outta this one)
• Rotary mat
• Ruler
• Rotary cutter
• Sewing machine and all that stuff that goes with it

Cut a strip of t shirt 2 inches wide and 19 inches long. Fold it in half.

Line up your ruler and cut three long cuts through the center of your strip. Each a half inch apart and two inches from the edge. Open it up and gently pull. This will "roll up" each of those strips to give it more of a headband look rather than a cut t shirt.

Fold it in half again, right sides together, and sew with a 5/8"-1" seam. This will depend on how much your headband stretched out. If it stretched out a lot, sew a bigger seam, if it didn't stretch much, sew with a smaller seam.

Open up that seam, no need to iron, just press it open with your fingers.

Use a very small stitch and sew up each side to really give the headband some security. I used red thread so it would be easier to see.

And that's it! Pull all that hair out of your face and make a zillion more, because these are the ultimate hair-out-of-face headband. I like that the different layers make it a little more interesting than just elastic running across your headband.

In case you missed any of them, check out all the headbands from Headband Week!

{1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6}, {7}

Ok....I'm really sad headband week is over. I have so many more ideas so I might be doing this again! But in the meantime, I'll have your lovely projects to admire. :) Link up as many headband posts as you want! New posts, old posts, tutorials, what I wore, whatever! As long as headbands are the theme it's game for this party! I would really super appreciate it if you grabbed one of my buttons and helped spread the word, but it's not a requirement. I'll leave it open for a week, and have some features next week!

Headband Week- Poppy headband

This day was "one of those days." Totally blah, totally Monday, and one of those days you feel like you're having a "bad face day." Or am I the only one that gets those? I was so blah I needed a bright and cheerful headband as a pick me up.

Luckily at when I was at Joanns getting that trim from {yesterday}, I also snagged a ton of silk poppies on clearance 75% off, then with that 20% off coupon. Basically, it was free. And I still have a TON left over!

To make one, you will need:

• 4-5 silk poppies. I got a bunch that had about a dozen on the stem
• Felt
• Stretch headband
• Needle and strong thread
• Small beads for center
• Lace (not pictured, last minute thing)
• Hot glue gun

First thing you need to do is get those poppies ready for the headband. Pull them off the stem, they should pop off very easily.

Pull off the plastic backing, it will take a little more force.

These particular flowers had tons of little plastics stuck in them. It was uber annoying to pull them all out.

ALL of that was inside the little flower. Make sure you get all those boogers out so the flowers will lay nice and flat.

This is what each individual layer looked like, decreasing in size, if you were interested in making your own flowers. There were about 10 layers in each flower.

Then sew the bead on. I would very strongly discourage hot gluing it on, because you would have to hot glue together all 10 of those layers and you would end up with an inch tall flower. No good. Sew (haha) take that extra minute to sew it through those layers. Repeat all of that for the amount of flowers you want on your headband.

So lovely! I'd love to fill a vase with these and spend all day looking at them.

Arrange them nicely on your felt, however you want them. Play around with them, switch them up, overlap them until you've got something you like.

Glue them directly onto your felt.

And trim away any excess. Unless you like the excess, then by all means keep it there.

I thought it needed something more, so as an afterthought I glued some black lace on it. I used lace trim and just kind of folded it over itself, no science whatsoever.

Then glue it on your headband secured with a piece of felt. Shazam! New headband!

It might be a bit much for simple every day wear, but it really does pack a pleasant punch! I felt cheery just remembering that there was a bright bouquet on my head. Linking up {here}

How are your headband creations going? Linky party will open TOMORROW!! I am so sad to see headband week over.

Headband Week- Bling bling headband

This headband was another accident. While I was at Joanns taking serious advantage of the 20% off your total purchase (and went way overboard) I saw some awesome trim! I knew it would look great on a headband. I honestly stood there for a good five minutes debating over the price (it was kind of expensive) but I figured with 20% off and only buying 15 inches I could totally do it.

I like it better than ones I've seen in stores! I think the bling is pretty intense, but the fact that the headband is so thin it's a lot easier to pull off. Wanna make one yourself?

• Thin metal headband
• 15 inches of trim
• Several yards of thin ribbon
• E6000 glue
• Hot glue gun

Notice how I haven't been picturing any of my adhesive choices? That's because I never knew what I was going to use, and sometimes I would change halfway through. Such was the case with this headband.

First, wrap the headband with the thin ribbon. I just spread E6000 down and wrapped and wrapped very tightly. It's a messy process, but this gives it a much more professional feel. It's totally optional, purely asthetic, but I really think it helped take the headband from "homemade" to "handmade." Also, don't try this with hot glue. 1) hot glue + metal headband = conducted heat and burned fingers. 2) Hot glue dries way too fast, E6000 stays tacky long enough to get the job done. 3) Hot glue is just too thick. It will get even messier and bumpy and just not pretty. I learned each of these three lessons the hard way.

I honestly could have kept the headband like this, I loved the sleek black look! But, bling is better.

Hot glue the trim onto the headband. The ribbon will help the hot glue stick to the headband and the trim and the headband will be much more secure. (So I guess it's not purely aesthetic to have the ribbon!)

Peel the last few rhinestones off the bottom.

An cover the ends with ribbon. This is just to make it a little more comfortable behind your ears. Secure with hot glue.

And SHAZAM!! In 10 minutes you've got yourself a fun blingy headband.

I love that it's pretty and packs a tiny little punch. It was subtle enough to wear to church but I felt like it brought my outfit from "blah" to "awes!"

Linking up {here}

Headband Week- The big bow headband

First off, I must admit that this wasn't my idea at all. When LMM posted her {headband challenge} she included some headband inspiration. There were some cute headbands, but THIS.

This. This one from {much love illy} I LOVED. A backwards headband! (Though it doesn't really look like a headband...ah yes. I dug around a little bit and it is in fact a {hair clip} from her Etsy shop) I loved the idea and borrowed it to make my own headband.

Loooove it! I scaled mine down a bit so it would be a little more subtle. And it's felt, I love me some felt because I am lazy and don't like finishing edges.

I made it in pretty much the exact same way I made the {lace bow}, but we'll go over it again since that was like more than six months ago.

You will need:

• Elastic headband
• Scissors
• Felt
• Glue gun
• Ruler, maybe. I didn't use one. I hate measuring. 

Cut a strip of felt out. I think this was like 3 inches wide and 8 inches long? Maybe nine? I hate measuring. I just cut and go. Anyway, glue the ends together to make a loop.

Squirt a little dab of glue in the center of your loop, on the non glued side. Be quick!

Fold the loop over the little dab of glue. This will create that little pleat in the middle of the bow.

See how the middle is all nice and glued? Awesome. Fold back the non glued part and...

Cover with another strip of felt. So easy! I think this strip was 1 inch bye 4 inches? Maybe? I should have made it a little thinner.

Glue onto your headband. Make sure that the bow is going on the same direction as the headband, otherwise when you put it on it will look funny.

And slap that baby on. I feel like this headband is kind of like a mullet, except it's sporty in the front and cute in the back. I love how you can still see a bit of the bow poking out! I think this would be so adorable with super short cropped hair. Someone should cut off all their hair, make this, take a picture, and send it to me. Because I am way too scared to chop off all my hair.

Linking up {here}

What headband projects have YOU been working on? I can't wait to see them!