Bit by the Bug

The Craft Bug that is. :)

For anyone who is the least bit crafty knows, when an idea enters your head you just can't stop thinking about it until the project is complete. When the craftiness bug bites, you can't get it out of your system any other way than just making the craft that is floating around in your brain.

Well, that happened to me this morning actually. Last night I was feeling like Mara Kate's room needs to be purged and reorganized. The task seems overwhelming with all the toys, clothes, papers, crayons, paint and books but I know I won't be able to rest fully until every last thing is gone through and reorganized. I also know that will take a lot of time, so I will spread that larger project out over the next few weeks, but I had one idea of how to organize one small area of her room better and I could not focus on anything else until I tackled this small craft project.

I've thought for awhile I needed to get something new to hold all of Mara Kate's hair bows. When she was little, her bows were tiny and fit nicely into a small box on top of her bookcase, but as her head has grown we've been slowly upgrading to larger bows and they are too big to fit into a box...so, this idea was born!

I had seen those decorative bulletin boards before that have padded fabric and crisscrossed ribbon that hold pictures on them, so I went with that sort of design and decided to make something a bit smaller to hold Mara Kate's bows. I knew I could go out and buy one of those pre-made boards, but I challenged myself to make one with only things I already had on hand. Here is what I did:

I started with this cardboard box and cut out one side to be my "board".

I got out my scrap fabric and ribbon. I found this pink fabric from a dress I recently made for Mara Kate and this ribbon and thought it would go well together.

I hot glued white felt on top of the cardboard as the first layer of padding.

Felt glued down.

White fabric glued onto the cardboard as padding.

Pink fabric cut and ready to be hot glued over the white fabric.

Glued on top of the white fabric. Some packing tape on to help hold the edges in place.

Front view.

Hot glued ribbon--view from back.

View from the front.

Finished product hanging on the door.

Bows in their new home!