My Paper-Covered File Cabinet

A while ago I walked into Jo-Ann Fabric Store to get some craft supplies. For the record, I go to Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann's at least once or twice a week. Because I have coupons and I need stuff, people! Since I make Craft Kits for Kids, (SHA-BAM! Did you see that sweet plug?) I need a lot of craft supplies like pom-poms and wiggly eyes and chenille stems and blah, blah, blah ... you get the idea.

Since my basement craft area has a budget of about zero dollars and zero cents, I pretty much use what I already have to organize and beautify. Here's my craft area:

The brown shelf in the middle of the wall was my big splurge: a bathroom storage cabinet I found on sale for $14 at Target. The storage containers on either side are from my old classroom when I taught elementary school. They are backed with extra fabric from my daughter's curtains.The ribbon rolls underneath are on dowels that I painted white and hung with more ribbon. Seriously, you make do, right?

See the "table"? I took an old white cabinet door and stapled fabric to it and then glued on some brown ribbon. It's being propped up (underneath the blue fabric) with plastic storage bins filled with my craft supplies. It was a mess under there and it was hard to figure out what I have and what I need. It was hideous. Hideous!

But then I walked into Jo-Ann's and I saw this by the door:

And they were selling it! For ONLY $25!!! Cue Angels singing. And you see the drawer dividers? My craft supply storage problem could be solved with this sexy beast.

I wanted to wrap my body around it and hug it and love it and call it George.

I bought it immediately, muscled it (with some help from the old ladies at Jo-Ann's - thanks old ladies!) into my Blazer and drove home illegally with it hanging out the back of my car about a foot.

Then I spent the next week trying to figure out how to beautify it. And this is what I did!

Materials:

Filing Cabinet

Scrapbook paper (make sure to wait until it's on sale, because you'll need a lot!)

Mod Podge

Brayer

Craft Knife (like an X-Acto)

Sand Paper - fine grit (optional)

1/4" Ribbon

1" Ribbon

Tacky Glue

Measure and cut pieces of scrapbook paper to fit the front of the drawers. Mod Podge them on, using the brayer to smooth out any air bubbles. Don't worry about measuring the drawer handles, you are going to cut them open with your craft knife after the Mod Podge has dried. Cut little strips of paper for the edges and Mod Podge those on, too.

Cut out the handles with a craft knife. They don't need to be pretty because you'll be covering them with the ribbon later.

I'm kind of a freak and I wanted my paper to fit perfectly across the sides of my cabinet. I didn't want, say, 2 whole sheets of paper and then 4 inches of another sheet. So I measured my cabinet and figured out how much I needed to trim the pieces of paper to make sure they fit. You can still see the seams of the paper, but I chose a print that's continuous, so it still looks nice. Also, I overlapped the corners of the file cabinet with the paper a little to give them a nice rounded look.

Apply two or three more coats of Mod Podge and let dry. Wet-sand if you want to make it extra-smooth and beautiful.

Measure and cut pieces of scrapbook paper to fit inside your handles and Mod Podge them in.

Cut your ribbon to size and glue it on with the Tacky Glue. Hot Dang! You are done!

Oh, and those coordinating magazine holders? I TOTALLY DID NOT cut out those FREE flat-rate cardboard boxes that you can get at the post office. And then Modge Podge on pretty paper and then glue on matching brown ribbon. You know why I didn't? Because that would be illegal. So don't do it! I'm glad I didn't do it. Whew!

And look! I feel so organized! I'm not ashamed to admit that I spent two hours and two glasses of red wine happily organizing all my stuff. It was like a date night with myself. It just makes me happy!

Ahhh.... How I love organization!