A Situation

We had a situation. A Bow Situation.

Two years ago my handy husband created these great shelves for me for Evie's room.

(Incidentally, he'll also make YOU a custom set for about $30 plus shipping.  Send me a message via my etsy site for more information.)

I stapled some ribbon to the bottom of one of them and all her bows were nicely stored... until they weren't.  My daughter is a total DIVA and has bows for every outfit she's ever had. It didn't take long for the FOUR FEET of ribbon to be completely full, the headbands to overflow the shelf and all the barrettes were just completely unmanageable because they slid right off the ribbon and were left on the little cards they came on to keep the sets together. In short, a mess. And that's how we lived until yesterday.

TA-DA!!!

Craft-a-palooza involved 2 days and a grand investment of $2.  Yep. $2 is all I spent.

The first thing I made was a new framed bow holder to use in addition to the one we already had.

I didn't take pictures as I made it but trust me, it was so easy you won't need them.   I started with this idea I found on Pinterest. But I didn't like everything about it so I modified it a little bit.

Materials:
1 natural wood document sized frame from the $1 store
Paint and paint brush
Quilters low loft batting
fabric
ribbon
glue/hot glue

The first thing I did was take the frame apart and discard the glass. Then I painted the frame glossy white. You could spray paint it. Thanks to a previous project, I learned that spray painting is not one of my best skills so I slapped on a couple coats of left over paint from when we painted our baseboards. The frame was so cheap and rough, it didn't need sanding and the heavier the coats the better to hide it's many imperfections.

While the paint dried I worked on the rest.  The back of my cheap frame was a flimsy cardboard so it needed to be beefed up a little.  I laid it on top of some batting and cut around it leaving about an inch all the way around to fold over the edge.  I folded it over and glued it down.  If your backing is more substantial staples would work great but my cardboard wouldn't handle it.  Then I did the same thing with the fabric.  Mine is leftover muslin from my Christmas Stockings.  On the corners fold the point down first then glue the straight edges to keep it a little neater. I used clothespins to hold the fabric taught while the glue dried.

Next cut 4 strips of ribbon about 10 inches long.  Glue or staple the ribbon on the back side at regular intervals. When the paint dries on the frame pop the back into place (I let it dry overnight).  The back side is pretty messy but it's against the wall so no worries. I made a paper flower for mine, I'll get to that part in a moment.

...And the front full of bows. I had everything but the frame on hand so, total investment = $1.

Then the next day I set about making a headband holder.  I found this one on Pinterest and really liked that I could store all those Gymboree bows that tend to slide down the ribbons inside it.  Again, I modified it a smidge.

Materials
1 large container of Oatmeal (empty, duh)
2 sheets 12x12 scrapbook paper (double sided works great so the Quaker guy doesn't show through)
Glue and/or Mod podge
1 dollar store Candle Stick

I already had everything but the candle stick so total investment = $1!

First measure your oatmeal container. Mine was 9 1/2 inches tall x 16 inches around.  Cut both your 12 x 12 pages to 9 1/2 x 12 and save the scraps. If your paper is patterned  match up your pattern and glue your pages together to make a 9 1/2 x (approx) 23 inch piece.  Cut your piece to approximately 91/2 x 17 so there's a little overlap when you wrap it around your container. Apply glue to your oatmeal container and glue the paper down firmly. I used mod podge. When the glue was dry I applied another coat of mod podge to the  outside to make it a little more water/hairspray/detangler proof. When the outside was dry I applied glue to the bottom and glued the candle stick on. That E6000 stuff would probably work pretty well for this.

While the candle stick dried, I used a scrap of paper to cut a circle the size of the lid and glued it on with mod podge.

Here is the finished product filled with barrettes and holding the headbands-

While the glue was drying on the oatmeal container I was looking at the left over scraps of paper and they were the perfect size to make this little paper flower (yeah, I found that on pinterest too).  

Evie helped with the flower so, it's not perfect but it worked. I didn't do the cut edges as it says in the tutorial though.  The purple center is the opposite side of the paper cut with a 1 1/2" circle punch from Creative Memories. The flower in the center is also a Creative Memories punch. I think the paper is Stampin' Up but I'm not sure. It was a thoughtful gift from my sister in law.  When the flower was dry I glued it to the corner of the bow holder  to cover an imperfection (what do you expect for a $1 frame?)  There ya go- Coordinating Bow and headband holders for a grand total of $2!