Oh Lawwwdy, have I ever been a crafty one lately!

Just check out this little gem I picked up at the thrift store last week…

Mmmmmmm Hmmmmmm…. you know you’re jealous, girls! Not only was this gingerbread wall hanging/picture frame/coat rack thingy missing a peg, but that little gingerbread guy…he was stencil-painted onto fabric and even had a little quilt batting stuffed behind him! Whooo-Wheee, that’s a rare thrift store find IN-DEED.

Seriously though…that sucker was $2.93! I mean COME ON! Three bucks for that? I doubt you could have paid anyone else three bucks to TAKE it out of the store. That baby was headed for the burn pile fo’sho’. But me? I had plans for this little guy…

See, I’ve been checking out these nifty little picture frame makeovers on Pinterest and such, and seems that all these brilliant folk are taking old picture frames and repurposing them into nifty little earring hangers. Now I love me some recyclin’, so I figured: I know how to use a can of spray paint, so  what’s keeping me from having a cute little place to hang my earrings? Not to mention these displays would come in handy when I sell my jewelry at events, because people can easily see all the merchandise. So…off to the thrift store I went to fetch a suitable picture frame, and little gingerbread dude is what I came back with. That worked out nicely because I figured I could hang bracelets and such on those little pegs, at least once I replaced the missing one. : )

SO, I started tearing the backing off of that bad boy….

And my truly rockin’ husband acquainted me with some manner of wire screen stuff. It wasn’t exactly the type of screen you’d have in your front door, it was a little heftier than that. He introduced me to that and a pair of tin snips, and off I went. I cut a piece suitable for the back side.

Then the adventure really began….

Now my friend Jamie, who I’ve known over 20 years (wow, that makes me sound so old!!) and is the most amazing do-it-yourself-er on the planet, can attest to the fact that I don’t do boy jobs. Yes, boy jobs…you know… like killing spiders, replacing light fixtures, and using tools. Especially power tools. Those things are testosterone territory for me. This is common knowledge.

But yesterday, I used an electric staple gun. It was a little above my paygrade…too much power for me! It was loud, jerky, and scary. That sucker knocked me back about a foot when I pulled the trigger. Seriously, people, my life flashed before my eyes for a sec! But anyhoo…a few of those crazy staples got the screen fixed to the back of the frame, I glued a brand-new Shaker peg into the missing hole ($3 for a dozen-bag at Hobby Lobby) and once that was dry it was time to give the thing a new look. I used a bottle of oiled-bronze colored spray-paint that I’d used on another project recently, and it is really pretty. It looks chocolatey brown-black when it’s dry, with a little glimmer of bronze underneath. I gave it a couple of coats and let it dry. Lovely.

Then it was time to make a pretty backing for the screen. Now this part is optional, but if you put some sort of backing behind the screen, then it looks a lot nicer if you decide to hang your earring hanger doo-dad on the wall. So I ironed a piece of pretty fabric and laid it out to affix it. The problem is, I really didn’t want to use that crazy staple gun again, (because I really don’t like going to the hospital, and I was sure that my clumsiness had already been given its portion of mercy that day.) But…hot glue covers a multitude of sins, people… so the glue gun was heated up and I went to town. This was a much less dangerous way for me to put two things together. When it was finished I hung my earrings on it and voila! Here’s the finished product:

Tah-daaahh! Super easy, very cheap, and a heck of a lot more aesthetically pleasing than a gingerbread-man-whatchamacallit hanging around to hurt people’s eyes.  Not to mention…extremely useful! I love taking something funky and turning it into something pretty and functional. Now I don’t have to go digging for my dangly earrings in a bowl when I want to wear a pair.

Could you put one of these to good use?