Wednesday, February 2, 2011

One man's trash is a crafter's....Ballard Designs Inspired Container?

Super easy craft alert!

With my craft space re-do in full swing, I knew I needed some sort of containers to corral crafting supplies like glue sticks, scissors, and foam brushes. I also knew that I didn’t really want to pay a lot of money for something, and I wasn’t exactly digging the plastic-and-metal options my local Dollar Tree offered.  So I did what any other crafter would do and I started trolling through the blogosphere. And lo and behold, Brown Paper Packages did not disappoint (as usual).  With her tutorial on these formula containers, I knew exactly what to do!
I started by washing out some empty Gerber snack containers and made sure they were thoroughly dry.


I took them outside and gave them a quick coat of brown spray paint. Since they were going to be covered in jute, I didn’t worry too much about perfection with my paint job. Why paint these you ask?


Well. I did a trial run with these and just started wrapping willy nilly. Since the jute is naturally uneven, no matter how tightly you wrap it, there are going to be gaps in between the rows. Which left me with some school bus yellow container peeking through. Not very Ballard-esque. And NOT what I was looking for. So heed my warning and paint first!
We’ve already sung the praises of jute before, but seriously, if you don’t already own a spool of this stuff, RUN, do not walk to your nearest craft store and get some.  This stuff can be used for so many different things, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not having some on hand.


After the paint dried, I got to wrapping. I started by gluing one end of the jute to the top of the container. I would put down a line of hot glue and then fit the jute on top of it, lay down another line of hot glue, fit jute over it, lather, rinse, repeat.
A little time later and voila! A container that is perfect for keeping my craft room neat and tidy...and looking good while doing it. Can't beat that!



The Copycat Rundown:
Total Cost: FREE! A spool of jute costs $5 at Walmart and it will last you FOREVER. Just do it.
Total Time Spent: About 2 hours for all three. I wrapped the jute while watching a movie, so the time flew!

Would we do this again?: Absolutely. I'm a total jute junkie.
Credit: Brown Paper Packages! While mine don't have cute labels like hers do, I figure its something I can at least work up to at some point!

2 comments:

  1. Great container! Yet another bonus to having a small child. Fantastic packaging for baby items. My pencil holder is a decorated flower pot made for me last Mother's day.

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  2. I love it! I have to try it. I made a Christmas Tree with this stuff last year.

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