Love the look of vintage chests, found knobs and cabinet pulls, why not make your own. Crew Member, Betsy Skagen shows us how to make a mini little chest with the 7gypsies Ordre Du Jour Collection, but she also shows us a special way to make an inspirational project that reminds us to stop and enjoy life, be thankful and take chances. Betsy’s chest has 6 drawers, but you can make it as bit as you like and you can fill the little drawers with thoughts, wishes or things to be thankful for.
‘It is a new year and we artists need inspiration. We need craft inspiration big and small–even inspiration in miniature, like this altered art miniature cabinet. For a variety of reasons last year was a tough one for many of us. Artists gone forever; those in the U.S. saw friends and family divided by politics; then there was Syria, Orlando, Haiti, Brussels and so much more. In my hometown came the end of Prince’s Purple Reign and the police shooting of Philando Castile, who worked at a school two blocks from my house. Yeah, it was a tough year, but a new year has been born and we must go on. Difficult times do not stop art. In fact, quite the opposite–tragedy often demands the soul to create. As the saying goes, ‘Only in Darkness, can you see the stars.’ – Betsy Skagen
The 2017 Miniature Inspiration Cabinet is filled with tiny index cards of inspiration. Each day you can open a drawer and pull out a random card to be inspired. Like a bad year reincarnated, I created the Miniature Inspiration Cabinet by upcycling an old cardboard box and then I added legs; and made dividers, drawers and teeny tiny cards.
Start with a cardboard box in any size – if it has dividers all the better and if not just make your own.
Cut up the cover to create drawer dividers and glue them into place. As you can see from the photo, I used chipboard for the horizontal dividers to provide extra sturdiness.
Make drawers by measuring the width, length and depth of the divided areas to then make a pattern similar to the one in the photo below. Then cut the drawers out of chipboard, score along the fold lines and glue together.
Use a strong glue to adhere wooden finials to the base of the cabinet. Then paint the cabinet and drawers.
Cut drawer fronts from the 7gypsies Ordre du Jour 8 x 8 pad and adhere to the front of the drawers. Pierce a hole in the front of the drawers where the knobs will go and add six matching hitch fasteners. They blend so well with the 7gypsies paper that you cannot even tell they are not part of the original design.
Use a light-adhesive masking tape to adhere two sheets of the Ordre du Jour notebook-looking paper to the top right corner of a blank 8.5 x 11 inkjet paper so that you can run the paper through your inkjet printer.
I created a Free pdf of Inspirational Sayings that you can use to print onto the Ordre du Jour sheets. Please make sure you run a test page on your own printer for alignment before using one of your Ordre du Jour sheets.
Adhere a second Ordre du Jour notebook sheet to the backside of the typed sayings. Then cut into little index cards and ink the edges with brown ink. You can also cut out the pre-printed sayings in the Ordre du Jour pad, stickers and other embellishments and adhere to additional miniature index cards you prepare.
I wish you a creative and fulfilling 2017! -Betsy
Great Stuff I Used:
7gypsies Ordre du Jour 8 x 8 pad
Idea-ology Hitch Fasteners (2 sets)
Cardboard box
Chipboard
Wood finials (four)
Brown paint
Vintage Photo Distress (brown) Ink
Beacon Fabri-Tac
Gold sticker quotations
So if you are looking for a fun way to remind yourself to stop and smell the roses, be thankful for those around you or just a feel good each day, create a sweet box like this and fill it with wonderful mini index card. This is also a great idea for a baby shower – fill it with words of wisdom for the new parents or a bridal shower – fill it with advice for the new couple or how about a birthday gift with a card for each thing that is special about that person. The options are so many.
'DIY Miniature Inspiration Cabinet' has 1 comment
March 6, 2017 @ 6:07 pm Cathy Frailey
Could you show how to fold the drawer pieces or maybe provide a PDF for the pattern? It’d be easy to make them bigger/smaller to accommodate whatever size is being made. I love it – I’ll probably make a small one!