Repurposed Crafty Earring Organization

One day while driving down my street, I saw a bunch of frames (without glass) set out by someone's curb for the trashman to pick up.  Well, as I am always looking for hidden treasure, I decided to pick them up. 

I had the frames in my garage for about 6 months before I decided what to do with them.  (Which required a little cleaning up after living for 6 months in my garage, & after being in someone's trash pile).

Here they are before:

The other 2 frames I kept "natural", but the ugly green frames, got a new look with crackle finish.  At the bottom of this post, I showed what I used the blueish frame for.

First, they were painted black, using some latex paint I had left over from a previous kitchen paint project.

By the way, the paint was so old when I opened it, the colors had separated to this:

Weird, huh?  After much stirring, it resumed it's previous black color.

After the black dried, I applied a layer of Weathered Wood to get the crackle finish.

Then, again after drying, I painted the top color, which is a creamy off-white (all craft paint & crackle medium from Michael's).  I did try to keep the brush as dry as possible, so I had a light layer, with the black showing through besides what "cracked":

It starts "cracking" pretty soon after painting, & here it is finished:

Ok, so now that the frames were painted, & nice & dry, I started in with the rest of the project.

I bought these plastic needlepoint sheets from Michael's for about 99 cents each.  This is what will provide the "framework" to hold my earrings.

First, I cut them down to size to fit on the inside of the back of the frame (within that "lip" that the glass normally would sit on).

Then came the hard part.  How to affix the piece of plastic to the wood frame?

I put a layer of wood glue around the frame & glued down the plastic.  This didn't hold it very snuggly, & some of the plastic started "warping" in areas, so I knew this would not be the end of securing the plastic to the frame.  I let the glue dry first, before proceeding on.

Next, I tried to use small nails hammered into the plastic, but this was challenging because the "lip" was so small, it was difficult to get a good angle to hammer the nail flat.

I ended up deciding to use a staple gun to fasten the plastic.  The staples were so long, that it would not go all the way through (which probably was a good thing since they would have shot through the front of the frame).

You can see below, a close-up of the nail & staples after I only was able to get them part-way attached:

And fully done.  I know it still doesn't look very good, but remember this is the back of the frame.  I then took my hot glue gun & when around the rim to provide another layer of glue attachment.

Both of the frames finished:

And with my earrings on display:

For the other frame I kept "natural", I decided to take a different approach.  For one, the plastic sheets I bought were too small to use on this frame, & also, I needed something that allowed me to hang earrings with different clasps.  The cream frames were good for post or french hook earrings, but not for the ones that have clasps.  I needed something to "hang" them from.

So, I took some hemp twine (used for jewelry making which I got from Michael's), & I fastened 2 pieces horizontally across the frame & secured with the staple gun:

By the way, this frame was much easier to make!

Here it is with my earrings:

I thought it turned out great.

Both of them together:

I am pleased with how they turned out.  But what happened to the other frame that had the bluish tone?

Here it is.  I ended up using it in another project, & you can read the full posting here.

Hope this posting was a source of inspiration for you to look everywhere for treasure, & don't be afraid to find the "rediscovered potential" in everyday objects or even trash!  

Check out this post featured here: (Also visit Sandy's fabulous blog!)

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