DIY Tea Box

It has been quite a while since I've posted a project. Almost a year. It is time...

It's winter again. The hardwood floors in my old house and lack of insulation in the walls make for a miserable few months in Minnesota. There is a solution: hot beverages.

Tea has become a staple in this house. So much tea. It began taking over an entire shelf in one of my cupboards. Containment and consolidation was needed, thus the Tea Box project came to life.

My cupboard shelf went from cluttered to satisfyingly empty in one evening.

Materials Needed:

• Wooden box of your choice. 
• If the box doesn't have dividers, you will need:
•  1/16" thick basswood
• Scissors
• Wood glue
• Ruler
• Paint brush
• Brown acrylic paint or a wood stain
• White gel pen and pencil
• White transfer paper (optional)

When I went to my local craft store, I brought a tea bag with so I could make sure the box I chose would work. I tried to find a box that already had dividers in it, but the compartments were too small. Instead, I picked up a 24"x2"x1/16" sheet of light basswood so I could cut my own dividers.

Using a tea bag for reference, I measured how many tea slots would fit in the box and marked each side with a pencil. Then, I cut pieces of basswood to fit snugly. The basswood I found was thin enough to be cut with plain scissors. Using wood glue, I lined the bottom and sides of each divider, placed them where I penciled my measurement marks in the box,  and waited about until the glue dried before moving onto the next step (maybe 30 minutes to an hour).

To "stain" the box, I used brown and black acrylic paint I already had at home and watered it down. I wanted the wood grain to show through, so I used a very thin mixture of paint and applied a couple of coats. The first coat I applied was too light for my taste, so I added a little bit of black paint to the mixture for the second and third coats.

Once finished with the stain, allow the box to dry completely. Once dry, you can apply your lettering to the top of the box. I didn't take pictures of this process, but it's fairly straightforward. I sketched the lettering I wanted on paper and then used white transfer paper to neatly transfer the lettering onto the box. You can definitely freehand on the box--but I don't trust myself to get things right the first time. Once I had the outline traced, I used a white gel pen to fill in the design.

And voila! The box is done! It was incredibly satisfying to organize all of my tea bags into my new box. 

Thanks for checking out my project! If you enjoyed this, please explore the rest of my blog. I've got lots of random crafty things to peruse.

You can also pop over to www.MessyEverAfter.com to see what else I'm working on.

DIY: Easy Striped Curtain Panels

Disclaimer: I am not a perfectionist so, my tutorials will have more of a "eh, good enough," tone. Please continue if that doesn't bother you.

I am super cheap. And I tend to have specific ideas of what I want in the things around me, so often times store bought, ready made items just won't work for me. When Jake and I bought our house, I wanted to get everything finished on a very stingy budget. One thing I wanted was for the windows to have classy, long curtains. Most curtains in the stores around town just weren't the length I wanted, so I decided to make them on my own out of sheets.

If you are wondering about cost, I found twin flat sheets from Walmart for around $5 a piece, so one window got a fancy makeover for $15. But if you have sheets that you aren't using at home, you can do it for even cheaper.

Skills needed for this project:

• The ability to cut and sew in a straight line (Four lines, to be exact.)

Materials needed for two panels:

• 3 flat twin sheets (I picked 1 cream and 2 beige sheets) 
• scissors
• a sewing machine 
• pins to hold fabric together (or just wing it and have a relatively straight line. I did that for the curtains pictured above)
• two feline helpers, if you really want to make things entertaining

Below is a handy little diagram of where you will cut each panel. I have numbered the panels to show which panels will be sewed together. That diagram will come soon. Patience. I know you're all like "Show me more diagrams, Kelly!", but there is a proper order to things.

Now get to cuttin'!

Open up the sheets and lay them out like the pictures below. Repeat steps 1-3 with all three sheets.

You will have 6 panels now. To start, you will pair panel 1 with panel 3, and panel 5 with panel 4. Look at the diagram below to see how panels will fit together. 

The thin vertical lines indicate the sewed hem from the sheet. So when pairing together 1 and 3, you will sew the rough cut beige panel side with the hemmed cream panel side. And the rough cut beige side of panel 5 will be sewn to the rough cut side of cream panel 4.

Time to bust out the pokey pins. Don't let your feline friends try to steal them like mine did.

For step 8, I like to leave the hem open so that the curtain rod can go through. When the curtains are up, the gap doesn't really show. If you are concerned about it, I don't really have a solution. Here is where my 'eh, good enough' mentality comes into play. And if you are concerned about the seams you sew coming apart, then do that back stitch thingy at the beginning and end of your lines. (As you can tell, I don't sew much.)

Now you will pin  the last two loose panels to your slightly finished sewn pieces. Pin panel #2 to panel #3, and panel #6 to panel #4. Again, keep an eye on the rough vs. pretty sides of the panels. Consult diagram #2 to make sure everything is how it should be. Now, sew it up and you're pretty much done.

My finished panels were pretty wrinkly so I threw them in the wash for a clean scent and a wrinkle free warmth. Pictured below is my dining room window with my new curtains slightly billowing in the breeze. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below!