Monday, July 29, 2013

Don't scrap that burlap

You can use it for a craft. As you know, I always do a follow up DIY project with the packing material found in my Eco Emi boxes. If you missed the past ones, here's January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, my first September Eco Emi DIY, my second September Eco Emi DIY, my first for October, my second for October, November and December of 2012, as well as January, February, March, April, my first Eco Emi DIY for May, my second for May, and June of 2013.


Today's Eco Emi DIY project was inspired by the scrap of burlap fabric used as decorative wrapping inside of this month's box. I decided to use the actual box as a frame around the burlap, which is perfect for hanging jewelry. I designed the jewelry frame with other materials found inside the box, as shown (brown paper shreds, a thicker green paper shred, a sheer green fabric pouch and a coupon card from Eartha Essentials), and some duck tape I had on hand. Here's how I did it:

To start, I deconstructed the cardboard box and cut out the two large rectangles.

Then, I used a pencil to draw the inside of my frame, using a leftover cardboard strip to create straight lines.

I cut out the inside of the frame from the first cardboard rectangle and repeated the steps on the second cardboard rectangle, making sure both were the same size.

Next, I decided to wrap some of the brown paper shreds around one of the cardboard frames for interest. I grouped two to four of the shreds together at a time, taping them to the back of the frame ...

... and wrapping them around, as you can see.

This is what it looked like almost finished from the back ...

... as well as from the front. I only did the top and bottom, but you could use this technique on your entire frame, if you'd like.

At this point, I still wasn't sure exactly how I wanted the front of my jewelry frame to look, so I moved on to the back of the frame. I opted to cover the back of the second cardboard frame with black duck tape.

After covering the back of the frame with black duck tape, I continued the theme on the sides of the front cardboard frame. I also cut the thick green paper shred into four equal pieces to add a little pop of color to the project. I taped them onto the frame in the same fashion as I did with the brown paper shreds.

I wanted the burlap to be secured between the front and back cardboard frames. To do this, I first cut the burlap to fit, and then taped it in place on the back cardboard frame.

I set the front cardboard frame on top and taped it into place with the same black duck tape. Here's a view of how I applied the duck tape to the front frame ...

... and wrapped it around to the back. I did this to both sides, intentionally leaving the bottom flap of tape out, as shown, for attaching the stand.

To make the stand, I cut two equal-sized strips of cardboard from what was left of the box.

I covered both cardboard strips in black duck tape to match the frame.

I used the two flaps of tape left at the bottom of the frame to attach one end of each of the tape-covered cardboard strips to the frame.

Then, I used more tape to connect the top of the strips to the frame, as shown.

The jewelry frame was basically complete at this point, but I decided to give it a bit more function and detail by adding the sheer green fabric pouch to the front (it works well for storing bracelets and such, so they can be seen), along with part of that Eartha Essentials coupon card (I cut out the word "Essentials," as this jewelry frame was the perfect place for displaying some of my accessory "essentials").

Here's the finished jewelry frame, with examples of how you can display accessories on it. Let me know if you make one, too :-)