Cheap chic organizer boxes for my craft room

Here is one of the 3 counters in my studio. It looks pretty good in this photo because I was cleaning it up and trying to get better organized in there. When I'm working on a project I usually trash the joint, so this is looking acceptable.

I have alot of stuff crammed into my studio. ALOT. I love the multi drawer units for all my small stuff and I've never met a glass jar that I couldn't use for lace, buttons, flowers, ribbons... the list is endless. I also have five bookcases full of fabric, I kid you not. But for the in between stuff I made do for a long time with an assortment of mismatched dollar store baskets, priority mail cardboard boxes, shoe boxes and what have you. I can store alot of stuff that way, but my craft space wasn't looking too pretty or organized. And I wasn't going to spend a bundle on matching containers!

So with all the Mod Podge projects blazing their way thru blogland these days, I knew I could make a big difference in there.



Here's a sturdy box with a lid flap that will fit excellently on my high shelves. I sat down with a cup of coffee, an ancient and dilapidated paperback thesaurus and some music on the CD player and a while later I had this.....




I know, it's a painful sight. But this old tired thesaurus was in such bad shape that the pages tore even when you just opened the book. At least I gave those pages new life with this project! Soon, I had this....






LOL! I guess the paper was flying every which way because at the end of the day I had 18 boxes that look like THIS....







I made some labels from card stock and chalkboard paint and there ya go, changeable labels on my super cheap organizer boxes.


Ahhhh, much better! I have more storage than I can shake a stick at now and the boxes look good and make me smile. The Mod Podge actually brought out the golden hues of the paper edges really well, so they look all mellow and vintage. I like that alot!

I even added a book page panel to the right hand space on my waterbed headboard that I use as a wall display unit. I just Mod Podged the pages to a piece of foam board and voila, a coordinated background to go behind some of my stuff.

AND, that project for my studio led to this project for my Etsy shop. I thought with a little more effort and some finishing details like muslin liners and better labels, these would be a nice addition to my store. Take a look....

And then, because the look of the vintage book pages was just too compelling, I did this....
I like it. I like it alot! It looks like old bakelite and it really disguised the flaws in this old glass piece. Now I'm wondering what else I can do with old book pages....hey, that old shelf is looking kind of shabby......

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