making something out of nothing

A while back, my friend Victoria of [Florence & Mary] sent me a decoupage sign kit, it came complete with a white board, decoupage papers, glitter, and some ribbons and trim.

I stashed it in a drawer and sort of forgot about it. When I was sorting out the drawer recently I found it again and an idea crept into my mind: To use the board for a cotton reel holder.

I've been wanting a small holder for just a few reels of cotton, but the ones I've seen are all on the large side. This makes sense, they are after all to keep cottons organised and easy to reach. But I wasn't keen. And in truth I wanted something primarily to show off my little vintage cotton reels.

So I set to work.
With another flash of inspiration, I gathered up a stash of pencils. It seems with every magazine my darling girl gets each week, a million pencils are attached to the front. I end up with so many that I get fed up with the sight of them. I checked, and they were the ideal size to cut down and use as pegs for the cotton reels to sit on. I removed the outer wrapper on the pencils, then cut to size. A too-large saw was useless (thought it would make cutting easier but it didn't), so I switched to a hacksaw, which was also too large, so in the end it was easier to use a combination of stanley knife and scissors to cut the pencils. The stanley knife was used to carve one end with an angle, so the pegs would stick upwards - rather than out - on the board.

Next thing was to attach the pegs to the board. Glue was easiest, so glue it was. A blob on each peg, then I used batons of wood to hold the pegs in place while they dried. Could have been neater, but as usual I was too lazy to measure things out.
Left overnight to dry, it was ready for painting, scuffing up, and decorating the next day.

I kept it simple, and used the pom-pom trim that came with the decoupage kit, and finished off with a piece of dark brown ribbon. It has a very vintage-y feel to me, which is exactly what I wanted. Love that I've managed to make something I wanted out of things I had kicking around the house.