Saturday, January 9

Desktop paper clips stash with used ribbon spool: DIY

Holiday season usually brings with it the extensive use of ribbons - for gift wrapping, home decorations, and crafts. What do you do with left over spools from the tons of satin ribbons? Throw them? Trash them in the recycle bin?

I decided to keep use mine to stash away paper clips on my desktop. The fun part about it is that you do not have to burn your pocket for the super quick effort.

Materials that I used for the table top tiny knick knacks container -


-- a crafting or pen knife
-- tacky glue
-- some decorative ribbon
-- sand paper
-- a pair of scissors
-- some metallic acrylic paint
-- paint brush
-- Washi tape to keep handy
-- Burlap paper which is really jute cloth stuck hard on a paper
(you can use some fine quality jute fabric instead)
-- fabric flowers to embellish
-- 3-D outliner in gold colour to keep handy
-- a ball-pen, to mark out the circle on burlap card stock sheet (use an empty refill or pencil otherwise)

-- most importantly, you need the used ribbon spool which is essentially made from cardboard

For a start, use the pen knife to cut open one base of the spool.


This will leave rough edges on the other side, which you may smooth out. You can choose to sand these edges, or leave them rugged for that earthy look. After this, pick up a sheet of burlap or jute from the cardstock bundle. Alternatively, use either thick jute fabric or some patterned paper.



Use the base of the ribbon spool to mark out a circle on this, with a pen or pencil.


Cut the circle out.


Keep this aside. Now use some sandpaper to roughen the surface of the spool's base.


Stick the burlap circle on to this surface.



Let this dry in sunlight or at a window.

It is time now to decorate or embellish the container.


I used gold metallic acrylic paint to paint the protruding base and the rough edge of the cut out part of the container. And let it dry out. If you are running short of time,

The outer surface I used another piece of decorative ribbon to cover, and let some of the cardboard show to keep it looking real. A fabric flower went into the center to cover the hole. This covering is not necessary, but I wanted the effect.



Once this was done, I used the same decorative ribbon to embellish the spools inner suface too. The stash holder is ready for use. You may use this to decorate a note-board, the altar at home. As for me, my stash of large sized paper clips fit in perfectly.


Drop in your display tacs, ball pins, or maybe a key that you would otherwise forget.

Pictures courtesy: Radhika M B

For permissions to re-use, write to: radicreative@gmail.com


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