This part
should be titled “Hidden Treasurers”. As
I spent so many days culling more and more I finally got around to looking
through some boxes, baskets and tins that had been stored unopened for
years. I don’t mean 1, 2 or even five
years. I mean years and years.
I knew what
was in them but since I had closed my sewing business I had not really had a
need to get into sewing and embroidery storage containers that had belonged to
my mother and grandmother, both long deceased.
However,
since I was trying to gain as much space as possible in this room for the three
of us to work comfortably I finally opened them and started digging
through. I found so many treasures that
I could immediately see uses for not only for actual storage, but for the
building of projects once the room was done.
I also found
I could easily create more of some of these items to increase their value
potential for storage options.
We’ll start
with the shipping box I knew held my grandmother’s embroidery tools. My Granny loved to embroider. I wrote about
the lovely tea towels she made over the years in my TeaTowel Memories post. She also did
quilts, baby blankets, bedspreads,
tablecloths, satin pillow cases, you name it.
If it could be embroidered she did it.
So I was certain all the box contained was her hoops, a few needles and
skeins of floss. I was wrong.
Not only
were there other sewing tools like thimbles and needle threaders, but there was
a little ingenious notebook holding some of her floss.
It held numerous small plastic zippered bags that could
easily be labeled with colors or what have you, they looked like tiny Ziploc freezer
bags. She used it to sort out her
threads for different projects. Most of
the bags were empty.
I immediately
looked past the floss and at the possibility of a paper crafting uses for it.
The bags were too small for embossing folders or dies,
and it would need to be something thin and not sharp. Unmounted stamps popped to mind!
But my mind wouldn’t stop there, what if it was slightly
larger? Of course there are all sorts of sticker notebooks out there that are
on the same line using a 3 ring binder and ready made pouches. OR you could make your own using pieces of
repurposed cardboard, book rings, and freezer zipper bags with holes punch in them in various sizes to
make the exact size you needed.
So I put that project in the “to do” section on my brain,
for when I needed a rest break.
As I worked my mind drifted to what it would take to
create such a notebook. I quickly
realized all I needed to purchase would be the rings because I purchase the
freezer bags in bulk at Sam’s Club and because we seldom use freezer bags I had
an over abundance of them on hand.
By inserting a piece of scrap cardstock in the freezer
bags they would be rigid enough to use my 3 hole punch on them to put them in a
binder or to allow the library rings to go through.
The day before we had hauled a over-sized printer box full
of corrugated cardboard downstairs to go to the recyclers on Friday. There was my cardboard source.
The cardboard could be decorated with scrapbook paper I
had ran through my Xyron or I knew I still had some end rolls of contact paper
on hand. I’d need to see what colors I
still had. I love using up what is on
hand to make room for new stuff.
I then thought long and hard about what I would really
want to put in them, yes them, because I was thinking numerous versions of this
project in various sizes. Also would I
want to give up the shelf space for such notebooks.
Then there were the three ring binders we had in the
closet to consider. Yes, I have numerous
three ring binders on hand that could be re-purposed easily to hold various
items. Should I want to donate the shelf
space to them and use my Sterilite drawers for other uses. I decided that the “build a notebook” project
would go on hold for a few days at least while I made up my mind exactly what I
wanted to put in them.
If I needed 1”-3” notebooks I could use the three ring
binders that we have so many of. Bigger
projects I’d need to build. So more
decisions would need to be made.
On one group I am on one woman used just the ring strip
from several binders to make one very large sectioned notebook for all her
stickers similar to the sticker systems that are for sale on the net. That would require a permanent location for
me to do though and I simply do not have such a location, or that many stickers—yet.
The reason we have so many three ring binders is years
ago a company dh worked for moved their offices and discovered that since they
were paying the movers by the pound that it would be cheaper to replace a lot
of their equipment and office supplies than to pay to have them move them. So for one weekend the employees were offered
the opportunity to take whatever was left in the multi-floor office
building. We worked so hard that weekend
and came home with everything from thumb tacks to microwaves, including over
100 three ring binders in various sizes.
Over the years we have slowly been using the binders up, but I still had
several of the thinner ones we had yet to touch and as I had culled the office I found
many of the 3” ones contained pages of no importance so they too could be
emptied and reused. So that was a consideration if
I wanted to do full size notebooks too.
Decisions, decisions.
If I do create some I’ll definitely do a separate post on
it.
Digging further through the embroidery box I found a pair
of snub nose pliers. Yes, I could see me
possibly using those in my creating in the future, they went into the carousel
on the work table.
There was also a small manicure set with a pair of very
sharp little detail scissors and orange sticks that I could use to curl papers
with.
4” plastic canvas circles emerged as I dug through ,
rulers—what crafter doesn’t always need a ruler? And embroidery transfer
patterns..ideas for uses for those formed quickly. Because I have the capabilities to do svgs I decided the transfers could be VERY useful in creating some of my own designs. All these treasurers were in a shirt box.
When I saw the embroidery transfers I remembered
somewhere in this room I had a Ramen box full of this type of transfers. I would need to find it and put them all
together. Especially since I had figured out an additional use for them.
Because I am
trying to not only organize things, but make them attractive I started thinking
about what I could put my granny’s embroidery floss in. I know that I’ll be using it for various
projects, especially stitching on cards and scrapbook pages, so I didn’t want
to get rid of it. Then I remembered I
had a lidded Americanna basket not being used for anything in another
room. It turned out to be just the
perfect size to put the floss in.
I decided to
donate the plastic canvas to our local charity resale shop, because I haven’t
worked with plastic canvas in years and probably won’t any time in the near
future.
I of course
kept the little notebook. There it took
me just a few seconds to put the few unmounted stamps I have in it. They fit perfectly.
As you can see I added a self adhesive index tab at the top of the page to indicate these were Celebration stamps. I'll add more tabs as I add more stamps. The tabs were, of course, leftovers from a much bigger project of years gone by.
So I had decisions to make as to what to do with it
all. I grabbed up my mother’s large
sewing basket thinking maybe some of it could go in there and well, that is
another post.
Jan who loves it when she finds treasurers like she found
today in OK
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