Jewelry holder upcycle or frame upcycle?

I'm not exactly sure what you would call this project, a jewelry holder upcycle or a frame upcycle. I'm leaning towards jewelry holder only because that is its intended purpose. As a librarian this is an important detail that can't be overlooked. Let's just go with earring holder upcycle, I mean, who really cares, right? Oh wait, I do.

I'm not sure why I am all crafty and domestic and such of late but I figure it is because we just moved into the new place and there is soooo much to do to make it feel like ours. You will either benefit from this madness or be completely tired of it but either way I hope you are somewhat amused by my industry.

For many many years now I have been hanging my earrings from an old piece of tatted lace that I found buried in a drawer at my mother-in-law's house. As my earring collection grew so too did the piece of lace until I got to this one tacked to the wall with push pins. Classy, no?

 It served the purpose in the old place but in this new place it started to look out of place. Sort of tattered and trashy for a place with 2 sinks and a jetted tub.

I started thinking about ways that I could take that tattered old piece of lace up a notch with things I already had hanging around the house. So, this morning, yes I said this morning (remember I seem to like to craft at 6am. It didn't help that I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm just surprised that I didn't get up and do this then. It would have been just like me. Tangent over) I rooted around in my supplies and surplus picture frames to give the old girl a face lift of sorts.

 

I found a piece of fabric I bought about 10 years ago in my cloth drawer. (maybe sometime I should give ya'll a little tour of my various craft drawers and boxes. When I write these crafty posts it seems like I'm pulling rabbits out of a hat)

I started with a picture frame with a pre-cut mat and glass. I had it leaning against the wall of the studio just waiting for a project. I took the back off and disassembled the pieces. I wasn't going to use the glass so that got stuck back in the studio for another use.

I placed my piece of fabric face down on my coffee table, put the mat over top then proceeded to fold up the edges and securing them with leftover packing tape. I tried to find my spray adhesive but it must still be buried in a box somewhere. The packing tape worked just fine. I didn't get all fancy with folding up the edges since they wouldn't show and the extra bulk would create a nice tight seal. When cutting the fabric I made sure that it would fold over the back of the mat but not cover it completely. Otherwise, I wouldn't have any mat space for the tape.

Next, I laid the piece of lace over top of the front of the fabric. Flipped the whole works over and put it back into the frame. I had to do a little tightening of the lace before I put the back of the frame back on but this was just a bit of tugging. The frame I chose had a cardboard back that had clips to secure it. If you decide to take on this project I would suggest that you either get a frame with a back or make one. Me? I'd make one but that's just me...I roll that way.

Here it is ready for earring placement. It took all of about 15 minutes to put this together. I think it took more time for me to take all the earrings off the piece of lace than it did to make the framed piece. When I am choosing a piece of lace from my hoard I like to chose a piece that has a lot of holes. This makes it easier to hang the earrings. 

Voila! Crappy camera phone picture of completed project. It looks so much classier. I hope I don't have to live up to my earring holder's standards. I may have just set the bar a little too high.

It looks like I may need to make another one before I make that next earring purchase or when I find just the right piece of costume jewelry to take apart to remake into earrings. Since I am something of an earring whore that will probably be all of a week or so from now.

What do you use to hold earrings or jewelry? If you wear them of course.

Peace out,
M