I stuck them all in the cabinet and could never find anything. Plus look at all that wasted space at the top! A search for just the right one became futile and eventually I stopped looking. Little did I know all I had to do was look in the cabinet NEXT to the spices!

Add in a little tape, glue and cardstock and voila — spice rack.

Here’s how you can make your own.

Gather your materials:

-Tape (I used blue painters tape because that’s all we had)

-Glue (I used spray adhesive because again, that’s all I had)

- 12×12 cardstock. At least 2 pieces depending on the finished size of your rack.

-empty boxes (I found the ones with about a 2″ depth worked best for the sizes of the spice bottles)

-scissors

Determine how to stack the boxes to fit your spices.

I had a few of the shorter (2 inch?) spices so I laid one flat and stacked one on top to form an L shape. The red box goes under the blue one. It’s a little hard to see since I taped it up already in this picture.

Cut and tape the boxes together

Once you found the right combo, cut the boxes if needed and tape together. My boxes weren’t the same height so I had to cut one down. I taped a stabilizing piece to the open end so it wouldn’t collapse.

I also taped over the open end so nothing would accidentally slip in.

Unless you plan on moving the shelf around a little tape around the bottom will do.

Cover with cardstock

Measure the front and top sides of the shelf and fold your paper to size. Cut the width if needed. Sorry no photos of this step but here’s how it will look after.

I had to use two sheets. One to cover the top “shelf” and one to cover the front of the bottom “shelf.” You can see in the photo it wasn’t long enough. Oops! What’s the saying? Measure twice cut once? Once you get everything cut to size spray the underside of the cardstock with spray adhesive and stuck it on.

Tada! I didn’t do the sides because honestly who’s going to know besides me?

Here’s a close up. There is also a rack on the left but there was still pasta in the box so I didn’t want to cover it just yet.

Now cooking is a little bit less stressful!

I cut out 7″ circles from design paper. It’s cardstock so it’s really nice and sturdy. I then cut out 5″ circles of solid color cardstock. Lastly, I printed the letters on regular white paper and cut them out with 4″ circles. I glued the 4″ circles to the 5″ and then glued it to the 7″ design paper.

Next, I punched out two holes on the top of each circle so that I could thread craft ribbon to string them all together. 

This is a super easy project (especially with the cirle paper cutter) that you can make for just about any occasion.

All you need is: holiday cardstock, snowflake punch (or any other holiday themed punch), string and stapler

1) Punch out the snowflakes. The number of snowflakes depends on the area that you’re decorating. I decided to use multiple strings hang the snowflakes

2) Holding two snowflakes together (decorative side facing out), staple the snowflake to the string. In my case, I carefully placed the string in between the staple so that I could adjust the placementof the snowflakes by sliding it up or down.

3) Continue to staple the snowflakes to the string until you reach the desired length.

4) Hang on a rod and voila!

In addition to a window, you can hang the snowflake garland just about anywhere: on a door, above your child’s bed, on the ceiling (that would be super cute), on the mantle, etc.

All you need are: orange cardstock , string, glue/tape and of course, a wreath

(NOTE: For the spiders/bats, cut them out from black cardstock or do what I did and purchase Martha Stewart Crafts Spider Silhouettes)

Step 1: Cut out 4″ circles (the number of circles depends on what you want the wreath to read. Mine is “BOO!” so I cut 4 circles)

Step 2: Write the letters out in a thick black marker

Step 3: Glue or tape to a ribbon or string and tie to the wreath

Step 4: Adhere the spider and bats

Step 5: Hang on door!

If you have kids you know that they would never take the letters off and toss em across the house and become attached to one letter and carry it around with them and make you look for it when they’ve lost it. Nope! What kid does that?! Or maybe you’re like me and a little anal retentive then you would never obsess about finding a missing letter to the point of dumping out every toy bin to find it. Nope! Not me!

Ok so maybe me. We’ll call it the “Great search for the letter H.” It lasted for about 3 weeks and got to a point where the Little Peanut would walk by the dishwasher and yell out “H where?!” and come running over to me wanting to look for it. That’s when I decided I would make a replacement using old calendar magnets that I saved (never know when you’ll need a magnet!), corrugated cardboard box, and color card-stock paper.

Step 1: Make a letter template, cut it out.

Step 2: Trace your template onto the magnent, cardboard box and card stock paper.

Step 3: Cutout the letters

Step 4: Glue (I used Mod Podge) the cardboard box piece to the magnet. Let dry.

Step 5: Glue the cardstock to the cardboard box piece. Let dry.

Step 6 (optional): To add a little water protection to the front of the letter cutout contact paper and place on top.

Step 7: To avoid paper cuts make sure the card-stock isn’t too much larger then the cardboard box by trimming off an excess around the side of the letter. I used an x-acto.

Step 8: Stick on your fridge and enjoy! You can see my letters are the “H” and “I” in the photo at the top since they’re purple.

This would be tedious if you do a whole alphabet since you have 3 layers to cut but it would be fun for a name, shapes, or animals. The added layer of the cardboard box makes it more sturdy for little hands that like to crush and bend everything they can get their hands on.

Awhile back I had cutout a few and taped them to the wall above her changing table. For a long time she wanted to take them down but I convinced her that they were decoration…. until one day last week when she batted her eyes and pleaded with daddy for them. So down they went. (She is totally daddy’s little girl!)

She was trying to make them “fly” by holding one in the air and flapping her arm around. That’s when I thought about attaching them to ribbon so she could wave them around (and so they wouldn’t be littered all over the house!)

I just used tape (but glue would work just as well) to attach the butterflies and made a loop on the end for hanging -

Or for her to put them on her wrist to “fly.”

I bet they would look cute hanging from the ceiling too. Hmmm.. I bet she would love waking up to dozens of them “flying” overhead on her birthday… the wheels are churning!

Click here to download our butterfly template to make your own!

I suppose the easy route would have been to cut out another handle on the back but well… I didn’t think of it until now. There can never be too many storage boxes for toys though so here’s the new and improved version – boxes with a ribbon handle on both sides.

This box was the perfect size so I didn’t have to do any cutting (my arms say thanks!) and just mod podged the paper on. Insane amounts of hot glue were used in attaching the ribbon so I think they’re pretty secure but I’ve already told the Little Peanut the box is for Lego’s only- no rocks! (BTW did you notice the little Lego people in the photo? She insisted they be there.)

Here’s a close up:

And here she is with her new box. Don’t mind the blurry photo. She’s like Flash from the Justice League sometimes!

Want to do your own? Here’s how:

1. Check out Ashley’s tutorial on how to make the box, except skip the part where you cut out the handle. I did steps 2-3 first before adding the decorative paper/fabric just in case I messed up the marking/cutting.

2. Measure and mark where the handles will be on both sides of the box. Mine are 3 inches and I wanted them centered but a little bit closer to the top.  You’re marking where to feed the ribbon through.

3. Using an x-acto cut slits in the marked places. Just a vertical line. Make sure the height is the same or smaller then your ribbon. My ribbon is 5/8 inches.

4. If you haven’t added the decorative paper do so now. While waiting for it to dry you can do the next few steps.

5. Measure your ribbon to be 2x the length plus 6 inches. Your ribbon is going to be folded in half to add extra durability. The extra inches are used for gluing the ribbon to the box. My handle is 3 inches length so the ribbon is 12 inches.

6. Cut out a piece of rectangular cardboard about 1.5 inch longer in length and 1 inch longer in width then the handle. You’re going to glue this piece to the inside of the box behind the handle so you want it large enough to cover and then some. My piece is about 5.5 by 2.5 inches.

7. Make sure the mod podge has dried before continuing on- I speak from experience as I was anxious to get the handle on the first time! Using the x-acto knife cut through your paper from the inside of the box through the slits you made in step 3.

8. Feed the ends of the ribbon through the slits. I used the tip of the x-acto to push the ribbon into the box. Make sure you leave enough slack so your fingers can hold the box. You should have about an inch on each side inside the box.

9. Get your glue gun and glue the ribbon down. Be generous!

Make sure to do both pieces and inside the loop. It should look like below after your done gluing.

10. Glue the rectangular piece on top of the ribbon. Again, be generous with the glue.

11. That’s it you’re done. Enjoy your box!

The box pictured doesn’t have nice paper on it but yours should!

Here’s what I did:

1) I dug through my fabric bin and found a neutral fabric for my son’s table. I measured 40″ X 80″ to allow for a good drape below the table top surface. I then cut out paper pieces to outline the stove “coils” and “knobs”:

2) Next, I outlined the pieces with chalk so that I could then sew on the ribbon and felt appliques:

3) Here’s the fun part: I sewed on the ribbon “coils”, added the felt knobs and for additional interest and color, stamped on the alphabet in the middle section. No reason why he can’t learn while playing, right?! Now I have a Top Chef in training!

BONUS: You know how I love multi-functional stuff, right? Well, this table cloth also has a red-checkered underside that I can flip over and/or use as a picnic blanket. I also sewed on corner pockets to store items (keys, toys, etc.) that will keep the blanket from blowing away!

* Image from Make It and Love It.

She’s currently in the “I can do it myself Mommy!” phase and insists on  dressing herself. She’s still getting the hang of shirts and pants but has mastered hats. The cute thing is she puts them on without caring where the brim is and most of the time it ends up on the side or back. Which makes her look even more like a fashionista.

Last week I whipped up a basic crochet hat without a brim.

While it looks cute itself I wanted to sass it up a bit and decided to add a little butterfly applique.

I think it gives it a finishing touch. The great thing about the applique is that it could be changed out pretty easily making an old hat turn into a new(ish) hat!