DIY PICTURE FRAME JEWELRY HOLDER

     

I have seen a few variations of these jewelry displays on Pinterest and decided to give it a go. I love jewelry and accessories but always seem to lose them. Probably because my idea of storing them is tossing them in a little pile on my desk, floor, purse.. basically anywhere. As you can assume this results in me losing or breaking everything. So this project is right up my ally- something I could use to help organize my jewelry. Now this was not all for me- this was actually a project I did for work. I created these displays ( the big one is for me) for displaying the beautiful and really cool jewelry from my work for our retailers. You can read my other blog here.

Materials:

¼ inch square Wire Mesh Screen

Staple Gun

Wire Cutter

Pliers

Scissors

Small picture hooks

Saw Tooth Hangers

Vintage Frames

Twine
Scissors 

I did two variations of this jewelry display frame- one with a mesh back and another with twine. All you do is remove the glass and backing from the frame, and staple the material you want and how you want it to the back of the frame. Use your staple gun to secure it on. Cut off excess material. DONE!

So simple. I am a big fan of quick and easy projects. Especially ones that do not require too much clean up. If you're interested in more jewelry holders, check out the animal jewelry holder we made here!

For this Vintage Frame DIY Jewelry Display photo shoot I got to raid our inventory and pick some of my favorite pieces to photograph! You can check out more of the jewelry pictured below at www.Nina-Nguyen.com.

Top Left: Seafoam Stalactite Necklace

Bottom Left: Petal Amethyst Druzy Necklace, Bella Geode Earrings, Bella Ammonite Earrings

Bottom Right: Bella Ammonite Earrings  

THRIFT FINDS: PART I

Thought I would share some of my favorite thrift finds! These were all found at either Salvation Army or Arc, none of those fancy-schmancy thrift storesss. I think the shoes were the most expensive thing at 5 dollars. Check out some thrifting tips from Amy!

1. Frame from thrift store, not picture

2. Shoes from The Leather Collection

3. Vintage pitcher

-Jerica-

MINTED

Over at Minted there is an awesome design contest going on! They are giving away weekly $200 gift cards and a grand prize of $1000! The site takes submissions for all kinds of independent artists for things like invitations, stationaries, photos, cards, envelopes, artwork; you name it. You can look through hundreds of professionally designed invitation prints, with most averaging at about $2 an invitation. Not too bad! Its a way to support smaller artists and get invitations and cards that you actually like. Here is a little collage I put together for the design contestfrom one of the wedding invitations on the site, with a neutral/pale palette.

wedding2 board by Jerica. See more Minted.com

COCA COLA CUPCAKES WITH BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

My friend has this odd obsession with Coke. It's kinda ridiculous- maybe obsession is the wrong word... more like addiction. Well I am only fueling the fire with these Coca Cola Cupcakes. Since it is finals week he has been under some stress with studying so I decided to make him a treat to help him cope. I think it may just be a girl thing to want sweets, chocolate, and tons of food when under stress but maybe a guy might appreciate it as well! Either way I know he can't turn these down. I included 4 Coca Colas in the pretty glass bottles- the ones from Mexico that are made with real sugar! (I am not a soda fan but all my soda drinking friends tell me it is a lot better than American coke).

I got this recipe from an Australian blog, Grab Your Fork and made a few adjustments.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 c  flour

3/4 c sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

1/3 c Greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c unsalted butter

4 Tbsp dark cocoa powder

3/4 cup Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola icing:

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

2 c  powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp Coca-Cola

2 Tbsp Cream Cheese

Decorations (optional):

gummy cola bottles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees .

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, egg, yogurt, vanilla .

3. Heat butter, cocoa, Coca-Cola on low heat and mix.

4. Mix everything together and then fill each muffin tin 2/3 way full. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.

5. For the icing- beat the softened butter with coca cola, cream cheese and powdered sugar.

6. Once the cupcakes have cooled, top with icing and gummy cola bottles.

-Amy-

DIY VINTAGE BOOK FRAMES

This project was floating around Pinterest some time ago and I can't seem to find where I pinned it but it is a really fun project. All you need are some old books (got mine from the thrift store of course) and to cut out the pages. 

MATERIALS:

Vintage books

Exacto Knife

Glue

Ruler

The easiest way to do this is to run your exacto knife down the pages on each side, at the beginning of the book and the end, as close to the spine as you can get, and it will make the pages fall out in one nice chunk. After that, use the ruler to help you keep a straight edge and cut out whatever part of the cover that you would want a picture to go and in what ever size. Do whatever feels right to you! Go with the flow! Just be yourself! The sky is the limit! (I hope that helps your decision).

Shown above, I used the book pages that were cut out to create a little display of a brooch (also from thrift store). Just glue the pages together to make sure they stay together when you hang them up! 

-Amy-

LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES

I was looking for a recipe that called for ricotta to use mine up, and a way to procrastinate from studying for finals, and I found this! Lemon Ricotta Pancakes. Who knew? The ricotta makes the pancakes extra moist inside and you whip the egg whites before adding, which adds so much volume and fluff. The end result is a pancake that melts in your mouth. Stop drooling!

LEMON RICOTTA PANCAKES 

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon canola oil

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese, egg, egg whites, lemon juice, lemon zest, and canola oil. Gently fold this mixture into the dry ingredients until flour disappears. Don't over mix. The batter will be thick.
3. Heat a griddle or a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray.  Drop about 1/3 cup of batter onto the hot griddle or skillet. Cook the pancakes until browned on the underside and beginning to set, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the pancakes on the other side, about two minutes longer. Serve warm with maple syrup or fruit topping!

 -Jerica-

CABINET UPCYCLE

Like I say in every DIY, this is super easy. Because it really issssss. And I get so many compliments on it! It adds a lot of interest to any pieces of furniture you might have that just aren't doing it for ya, in my case it was a thrifted tv stand that a roommate had left. I ended up using just regular black old acrylic paint because I had a huge bottle, and I always figure that paint can't be thaaat different. And I was right! This had a nice gloss to it as well. 

Unscrew the handles and sand the wood if needed. I sanded down the cabinet doors a bit so that the little varnish it had wouldn't repel the paint. Let the paint dry and apply more layers as needed. Then simply take your paint marker (mine was from hobby lobby, except silver and not 'extra fine') and have at it! I'm curious to see how a different color combination would look!

-Jerica-