An Interesting Adventure

After months and months of actively looking at photos on the Internet of well organized craft spaces and finding out that many of the organizational pieces used were old items found in thrift shops, I decided to venture into the world of thrift store shopping.

At the end of the day, I walked away with 5 interesting pieces. After a thorough cleaning, I was very excited at the possibility of incorporating these pieces into my craft room.

When I found this piece, I knew that it had a definite function in it's first life. There are holes that were once used to organize something and the top level spins. Hubby thinks that it was once used for holding test tubes. Of course, thinking like a true crafter, I thought that it once held craft supplies. Either way, it was in tip top shape with little sign of wear.


The next step was to figure out what to do with it. Even though the investment of $2.99 was minimal for this piece, I knew that it had the potential to be of huge organizational value to me. So, there it sat on my table for a few days while I thought of every possible item that would fit into those 7/8-inch holes.

A couple of years ago, I emptied my collection of small beads into these bead organizers.


I was left with a slew of empty bead containers. To my delight, they fit perfectly in the holes.


I slowly developed a plan to pretty up my newly acquired organizer. I wrapped the tubes in pretty scrapbooking paper to hide the labels that were securely attached to the tubes. I used ink on the edges of the paper to give it an aged feel, and tied ribbon to the holes in the top of each of the tubes. Since the handle of the organizer was black and teal and was made of rubber, I knew that I couldn't paint it without the paint eventually chipping off. Ironically, the colors of the tops of the bead tubes were teal and lavender. So, by default, my color scheme was born.


This is the base of the unit. The plan was to paint it and to give it a crackle finish. Although I haven't painted anything in more than a decade, I think it turned out pretty well.

Going for a vintage look, I inked a paper doily and decoupaged it onto the center of the base. Ink and shimmer stained lace glued around the perimeter of the base seemed to be the perfect addition and completed the look perfectly.


I am sure that you already knew what was coming. Flowers, of course. I decorated the top of the unit with handmade flowers and embellishments.


I used lots of ink, shimmer mists, and a gold paint pen to add color and highlights to the flowers.


I love the bright, luminous effect of the shimmer spray on the flowers.


This is the finished piece. It turned out even better than I had imagined it would.


Now, to figure out what to put into each of the tubes.


Hmmmm.....I think that this may be the perfect organizer to hold my embossing powders and Perfect Pearls.


Something tells me that this organizer was originally made to hold these bead tubes as they fit so perfectly inside the holes.

What do you think?

I hope that you're having a fantastic weekend!

Aloha!


Post edited on 11/21/10 at 5:51pm