Marilyn Gossett Designs: A Place for your Keys!

Do you ever get frustrated because you can't find your keys? I know I do!

While shopping at Craft Warehouse, one of my favorite craft supply stores; I was browsing in their wonderful selection of unfinished wood supplies. I found this shadow box with a little piece of string and clothespins built in to hang something inside. I thought this

would be a little different twist to putting my words on the outside of the box or frame.

I am always thinking about how to use our CraZy TACKz in a way that is a little more creative than poking them straight into a wall. Not that they don't work great for that, but I favor a piece of wall decor that is also useful and attractive. Below I have posted pictures of the steps necessary to create this shadowbox-key holder. Here are the supplies I started with to complete the project.

This is how the unfinished wooden shadow box looked before I took it apart to decorate.

This next photo is of the box taken apart. There are three parts, four counting the glass in the front.

The top piece shown has the string attached and there are extra mini clothespins to hang your pretties with. I put a wash of a brownish green paint on all of the pieces and let it dry thoroughly before the next step. (Carefully remove the glass and set aside while you are working on the wood pieces.)

Here is the back of the frame. I cut the paper to fit the piece of wood and used decoupage medium to attach it. Allow to dry, glue other embellishments to the piece as desired. I used some little cut out scraps of memory card stock and some little metal sprocket pieces that I found in the scrap-booking department.

I cut paper strips to fit the sides and front of the shadow box frame, then cut out banner pieces on my personal die-cut machine. They are about 2"cuts, with slightly smaller pieces for the inserts. The letters are from a package of alphabet stickers and measure about one inch high. As you will see in the picture of the finished project, I clipped them to the string with the extra mini clothespins.

Here is another picture of the finished project. The basic clear CraZy TACKz were decorated with gold glitter and I used a jewelry pliers to gently push the tack into the wood. The CraZy TACKz are not recommended for use with a hard wood, but most unfinished wood pieces in the craft stores are made from a soft wood such as pine or bass.

Here is the final picture and a close-up view of the CraZy TACKz in the bottom of the frame. See how cool they are for hanging the keys? If you plan on putting quite a bit of weight on this, make sure the frame is anchored to the wall securely. Hope you enjoy this project, I will be posting more in the coming week. I stocked up on wood that looked fun to decorate when I was at Craft Warehouse. If you enjoy getting new project ideas and ways to use CraZy TACKz, please join this Blog and keep in touch.

Hope you are enjoying the summer!

Happy Crafting,

Marilyn

Design Consultant

for

CraZy TACKz

www.crazytackz.com

www.marilyngossett.com