Monday Mood Board: Colour-Matching

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Small Storage DIY

Small, plain wooden trays are often used as packaging for small items such as tealight candles or craft items, and are useful for organising small items. The trays are very plain, and sometimes only roughly finished, but it is quick and easy to turn them into decorative and useful drawer or desk-top organisers.

First use some sandpaper to smooth off any rough edges. I simply decorated these trays by cutting felt inserts to sit in the bottom of each compartment- this is a useful project for using up fabric odds and ends.

The compartments were measured, and squares of different coloured felt cut out and fixed into the bottom of each compartment using a small amount of glue.

The trays could alternatively be lined using leather or decorative papers, or be decorated using paint. I have these trays in the bottom of a shallow drawer in my jewellery bench, and they are perfect for holding jewellery making materials and semi-finished items.

A Cabinet of Curiosities

A tiny cabinet of curiosities- perfect for displaying some interesting little things. To give an idea of scale, the three tiny ivory mice on the top are less than 1/2cm tall!

The polymer clay unicorn skull was featured in an earlier post, and there are DIY instructions for the leather flower here.

The glass cabinet was a bargain find in a bric-a-brac shop (only 20p!), and the display changes every time I find a new tiny piece of treasure.

DIY Ribbon Key Ring

I needed a bright and easily-spotted (i.e. hard to loose!) key ring for keys for a cabinet, hence this quick and easy project!

MATERIALS:

Wide embellished ribbon

Leather hole punch

Coloured leather

Fabric scissors

Rivet pliers

Brass rivet

Key ring

Glue

Awl

Cut a length of ribbon twice the desired finished length of the key ring tab. If applicable, remove any beads/sequins at either end of the ribbon (where the leather will be glued on top of the ribbon).

Next, fold the ribbon in half length-wise, and glue the ends together (extending the glue approximately one centimetre down the ribbon). Cut a piece of leather to cover the ends of the ribbon (it will be folded in half over the ribbon ends).

Cut two holes in the piece of leather, making sure that the holes line up when the leather is folded in half.

Next fold the piece of leather in half, and glue in place over the ends of the ribbon. Make sure that the two holes in the leather line up, and fix a rivet in place in the hole.

Trim the sides of the leather if necessary, and add the metal key ring.

This quick and easy idea could also be used to decorate a bag, to make a Christmas decoration, embellish a wrapped gift etc…

Leather Flowers DIY

 

I have been inspired by all of the lovely summer flowers blooming at the moment; these little flowers can be made from leather, suede or felt, and are a great way of using up small leather scraps. The flowers can be uniform in colour, or you can go wild and create a multi-coloured bloom!

Soft, relatively thin leather and/or suede works best, as it allows the petals to fold open rather than appearing stiff and upright. The flowers can be made to any size, and can be attached to brooches, hair clips/bands, bags, hats etc.

MATERIALS:

• Optional: brooch back, hair clip etc as desired.
• Leather scraps (not too thick)
• Sharp scissors
• Glue

First of all cut out the flower petals, plus some narrow strips to form the flower stamens. The petals don’t have to be perfectly shaped, as long as the edges are cut neatly and they have a straight bottom edge: different sized-petals work best.  For the red and purple flower I used 18 petals and nine stamens (six short blue ones, and three longer green ones).

First of all glue the stamens together in a bunch to form the centre of the flower:

Next, start gluing petals in place: start with the smaller petals, and attach them a little way up from the base of the stamens.

Keep adding petals, using larger and larger ones, with the final few being attached level with the bottom of the stamens.

Et voila, one finished flower!