Paul Revere

It's going to be a big week people: Gossip Girl season premiere tomorrow, then the new 90210 on Tuesday. Due to San Diego broadcasting shenanigans, I of course can't actually watch them live like a normal person. If the CW is smart, they will appease me by streaming it. But fear not, one way or another I will persevere. After all, who's been talking at you about 90210 and Gossip Girl for freakin' ever? You're welcome.

Click on any of these to see full size.

Anyway, it's a long weekend, which means I'm doing the same thing I'm always doing all weekend and all week, mad work. However, I also have taken time out for crafting, hence the title of this post (I always name my craft posts after tracks from Licensed to Ill, and while this one doesn't work at all, it was the first one I thought of).

I actually didn't mean to do crafts stuff. I was looking for my digital camera, and never found it, but in the process wound up digging through basically everything I own. I came to the conclusion in this process that I own some great stuff that I have stored in random places, like my collection of heavy metal buttons and tons upon tons of cell phone charms (photo 1). This made me decide that I wanted to display some of this stuff, since normally what happens is I put it on my desk, then decide my desk looks too cluttered, then put the stuff away in one of my drawers, then forget it's there.

I decided to rectify this situation by putting up some kind of board I could tack stuff to. Being totally cheap though, I decided that $10 or less was too much to pay. And besides, in my extensive search through my stuff, I found the detritus of numerous different craft projects (photo 2). And so I embarked upon creating my own board -- there are lots of decent instructions for this kind of project on the internet like here and here, but you know how I roll, I totally winged it.

Here's what I used: Two old cardboard boxes (I save all boxes due to my serious-ass moving issues); about two yards of white denim (saved from a bag I made like six years ago); fabric-covered buttons my mom made but then didn't use when she reupholstered a chair for me; tons of assorted ribbons (some also left over from chair project, others from me like saving ribbons from packages) -- I think that's it. Oh no wait, duh -- my big moment of inspiration was when to make it thicker I decided to stuff it with the legs from a pair of jeans I'd made into cutoffs (photo 3). I did briefly consider just going to Michael's or something and buying quilt stuffing, but that would have ruined the whole using-stuff-from-around-the-house thing. I also considered stuffing it with hair from my dog (she sheds like crazy) but then realized that would be totally gross.

I also used regular stuff -- scissors, a glue gun, one of those paper tape measures they give you at IKEA, needles, thread, whatever. So what did I do? I glued one of the pieces of cardboard to a piece of the white denim, cut it, and wrapped the fabric around the corners. Then I spent a while measuring out where I wanted the buttons, marking those spots, then laying the ribbons across them, pinning, and cutting them. Then I used the glue gun to wrap the ends of the ribbon around the edges and glue them down. The next part sucked the most: I sewed the buttons through the ribbons and cardboard, then removed the pins. At that point, I took the other piece of cardboard, wrapped that in white denim, and glued all of that to the back -- this reinforced it, making it stiff enough to stand, as well as covering up all the stitching, ribbon ends, etc. And then -- voila! (photo 4).

I did actually leave it plain overnight, then put up the stuff on it just this morning. I erred on the side of less, to leave room for more new stuff, and also figuring I can switch it up from time to time. I'm definitely pleased with the results though (photo 5) -- my desk pretty much faces into the corner, so this is nicer to look at than just the wall (which I avoid hanging stuff on, between earthquakes and the fact that it's a rental). Anyway. It probably was technically way more than $10 in material and certainly more than $10 worth of labor, but I think worth it for being unique and for reusing stuff I already have. I feel possibly a bit of a crafting spree coming on! Uh-ohhhhhhhhhh!

P.S: No, I never did find the digital camera. Pics here are taken on one I borrowed from a friend.