Card Pyramid Organizer

Cards can be tons of fun for very little cost, but the biggest down side is that the entire deck becomes useless once you lose so much as one of them. And no matter how careful you are with putting each and every card back in its box, the mysterious card napper (a distant cousin of the left sock stealer) will eventually find a way to make off with one or two, or 17, if you're me.

And so, in the spirit of upcycling, why not use your past failures to help you organize and keep track of other things so that you won't as easily lose them?

Triangles are the strongest of the architectural shapes in terms of downward force. What does this mean for you? Go ahead and pile on the jewelry. These flimsy cards may not look like much, but in terms of weight, if you can wear it, this can support it!

Just use plain white glue to secure the pyramid shape...

...And then grab a cute mini paper punch...

...and punch out holes for small dangle earrings!

Photo Frame Earring Organizer

So I ran out of space for my earrings (again), so I decided to make another organizer!

This one's super cheap and easy-- all you need is a large photo frame, some plastic netting, and a hot glue gun!

Start with your plastic netting. Mine was from a bag of noodles. I believe garlic usually comes in these types of bags too though. But if you can't get hold of plastic netting, I think fishnet stockings would work quite well too!

Just cut off the top and bottom and make one straight cut down the side to get a rectangle.

Then grab your photo frame (mine was 8.5 x 11"...the size you get will obviously depend on the size of your plastic netting) and take out the glass and the backing.

You'll notice that your plastic netting stretches in just one direction. Lay your netting across the back of your frame, making sure that the stretch goes SIDEWAYS. If the stretch goes up and down, then it will sag when you put earrings on.

Stretch the netting out to almost its maximum, just so it makes a bit of a trampoline effect if you drop a light object on the stretched area. When you have it stretched evenly, secure the netting in place.

Grab your hot glue gun and start gluing one small area at a time. You'll want to kind of massage the glue through the netting to the frame with the tip of your glue gun. Try not to press too hard or long though, otherwise you'll melt the plastic of the netting!

Once you glued around the entire frame, you can cut off the excess netting.

Then grab the backing that came with the frame...

Cut out a rectangle that's about this size proportionally to your frame.

Then cut that in half diagonally to make two triangles.

Grab some pretty tissue paper and cover your triangles with it.

Then glue your triangles onto the back of your frame, hypotenuse facing the frame (who said trigonometry wouldn't be useful outside of math class?)

You're done! The frame should now stand with a slight backwards tilt.

Put it on top of your dresser and stick earrings on it. This works great for dangle earrings as well as larger post earrings. 

Earring Pyramid

So this is what I'm currently using to hold all of my "normal" earrings (posts and dangles)....

As you can see, it's a basic square-based pyramid shape. I used leftover base molding from a house renovation project for the frame. The bottom pieces are about 6" long and 1" high, and the sides are about 7.5 x 1". 

Then I used a 1/16 drill bit to drill holes along the bottom and sides for post earrings. I staggered them so that larger earrings could fit on the top row without blocking the holes to the lower ones. I also drilled some holes in the sides for even larger earrings.

When all of your pieces are drilled and sanded, assemble them with hot glue and then spraypaint if desired.

I then strung embroidery floss around the inside of the boards so I could hang danglies too. Use a dab of hot glue and make sure you pull the string taut so it doesn't sag too much when you put weighty earrings on it. You may want to put a bit more hot glue over the string too just in case. 

Here it is from the outside.

And there you have your multi-functional earring pyramid :)

Charm Porcupine

So far I've made tons of little earring charms with a loop that can be interchanged on one pair of kidney earwires. But these presented a bit of a problem storage and display wise, because I couldn't hang them from a traditional earring display. So...time to make my own! 

I was charging my camera as I cut and drilled this, but just pretend the wood is in whatever shape it's layed out as :)

Get a strip of thin wood. Mine was about 14" x 4" x 2cm.

You'll want to cut it as shown above, in half first, and then one large triangle in the middle of each with two half triangles on each side....

...like this!

As you see, the two half triangles can be put together to make a triangle the size as the one in the center.

Now go ahead and drill holes. I belive I used a 3/32" drill bit, but you can try out one hole first to see if it's the  right size. The eventual goal is to fit one toothpick in each hole, so if you're not sure on the size, try a smaller drill bit first and work your way up until the toothpick is snug.

When you're done drilling the holes, get your hot glue gun ready-- you'll be using it a lot from here on.

First you'll need to glue your half triangles together to make a full size triangle. Try to do this quickly and push the wood tightly together.

Then, grab half as many toothpicks as there are holes, and cut each toothpick in half. Stick each toothpick half into a hole, blunt side out so you don't prick yourself, and apply a little bit of hot glue to the inside are to secure them.

See why I call it a porcupine now? ;)

After every toothpick is glued in, you can glue the four triangles together into a pyramid shape. Just as before, try to work quickly and press the wood firmly together for the best fit and hold.

At this point, you can paint this if you like or keep the natural wood look as I did.

And finally, the fun part -- put all your charms on it! :)

But what to do if you only have a small number of these dangle charms? What if building a whole earring porcupine is just too much work? Or maybe you just don't have the tools needed?

I'll show you how I made a more traditional earring holder too, and how you can easily hang these charms on that or a store-bought one ;)