Cardboard Wall Organizer

I knew the moment I saw this organizer that I had to make one with my toilet boxes (I am still working on the first one, I still have one whole box left to use).  It went together really quickly, her template made it sooooooo easy to cut out the pockets, no math or measuring involved!












Wow, that was fast and easy and that’s about when I got lazy.  It seems sturdy, it’s double layer cardboard, I bet I don’t need to add a layer of paper mache, I’ll just paint it and it will be fine.

And it is fine, but now that I have it up I realize that I want more pockets, I’m going to need it to stand up to some serious paper/magazine storage.  I also need to reinforce it with some paper mache and that will also give me a better base to paint.  So I’m calling this one the test organizer, the actual organizer still needs to be made.  My command center has gotten totally out of hand and I’m going to need all the extra storage I can get. 
I love how the organizer fits perfectly between the door and the corner, yay for using wasted space!  You should see all the stuff that is now stored under that very cluttered table.  I’m definitely doing a before and after shot of this one.  I’ve lived with my original solution long enough and now that I know what I need and what isn’t working I can adjust it to be more functional.
How do you keep your command center organized?  Everything just seems to pile up here I feel like I am constantly de-cluttering.
BTW, I completely forgot that yesterday was Monday (duh), sorry I'm a day late :)

Andy Warhol Inspired Art for $3.88

I have had this idea floating around in my head for a while, but buying canvases was a little out of my budget.  When I saw the toilet boxes I knew they would be perfect.  I started by cutting the cardboard into 16” squares, my boxes were double layered so 2 squares equaled four layers of cardboard.After all of my squares were cut I glued each set of two together and weighted them down overnight. The next day I used paper mache paste to add strips of newspaper onto the cardboard squares,  horizontally on one side and after that dried, vertically on the other side.  Once they were mostly dry I layered them between plastic wrap, so they wouldn’t stick and weighted them to get them nice and flat. I painted gesso on the fronts and sides and then it was time to do some sketching.I used a photo of a trooper helmet (Star Wars) and was inspired by the style of Andy Warhol.  I used two shades of turquoise and two shades of orange acrylic craft paint to fill in my design.Picture hangers will be hot glued to the backs for hanging, they are really light weight.  The only supply I bought was the paint, for $.97 each, the grand total for this project was $3.88, plus my time.  I have been working on this project exclusively since Saturday.  These will be perfect Little Sir’s wall, I wanted something fun and colorful that would last for a few years.  I have to get his room painted next, we’ll be using a light aqua with one orange accent wall.  He wanted all orange, but I thought it might be a bit much.
Not too bad for a toilet box, I have one more project to try with the remaining box, cardboard may be my new favorite medium!

A Productive Weekend

I had a really productive weekend, but I don’t have any finished projects to share today.  I am on row 91 of my new knitting pattern.  There are 139 rows total, so I’m making good progress.  I love the detailed border, so simple and elegant (and difficult to photograph).  I can’t wait to see this one finished. Here is what is left of one of my super thick toilet boxes (the bottom of the pile).  I know it looks silly stacked up like this, but I needed a lot of weigh.  Hoping to start on the fun painting part later today.

While it may not look that impressive, that was what I did this weekend.  Stay tuned for what’s going on with the toilet box, really, it’s going to be awesome!