A Graceful Holder for Your Magazines, Patterns or Papers

For years, I’ve had my knitting and crocheting books in an unfinished wood magazine holder but now I have a charming decorated holder using the This & That Graceful line from Echo Park and a few embellishments.

To do this, you use the basic decoupaging  technique.  If you haven’t done this, you simply affix paper to the wood object using Decou-Paige, Mod Podge,  or any waterbase sealer-glue-finish product.   To make sure it is flattened, I roll brayer over each piece I add a few times.  Once you have the entire object covered, you add a coat or two on top. It only needs to dry about 20 minutes between coats.  You can glue embellishments on before or after the coats of finish. 

Here’s the specifics of what I did. I painted the inside with a light color of acrylic paint before I began. (Alternatively, you could cover the inside with paper.)   Then I covered the outside with coordinating colors of coordinating paper.   I used a variety of sizes and shapes, scalloping the edges of some; tearing the edges of others.   Since I am going to use the magazine holder for needlecrafts, I stitched some of the pieces using the Sew Easy tools before affixing them to the holder.   It puts the holes in the paper for you so that they are all even in the pattern you choose. Then you sew them with coordinating thread.  I used a couple of different stitches. 

Once you have the base cover you can add embellishments and decorations.  The rectangles on the other side of the Red Floral were perfect for this holder since referred to buttons, lace, snaps and knitting.   I tore them and inked them.   With the exception of the “Lace,” I affixed  them to the holder prior to adding embellishments.    On the one that said “Lace” I added some lace that I had inked with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.  (I put this one before coating with finish so that the lace would be protected from wear and tear.  I cut out letters for my title using Tim Holtz Sizzix Market Sizzlets Decorative Strip die.  After adding some decorative stickers from the This and That line, I put 2 coats of finish all over the outside of the holder. 

After it dried,  I added Tim Holtz Hangar Clips, Tim Holtz snaps and buttons with thread tied through  the holes.    I affixed  these with Glossy Accents.

On the narrow sides of the holder, I added KaiserCraft Wooden Doilies.  I affixed them to each other with Glossy Accents, added a small circle of paper and buttons. 

This is a great project to make during a crop.  You can complete it in one evening.  By doing it a crop, you can pick up just what you need as you go.