How to Make a Jewelry Organizer from a Printer's Typeset Tray

Disclosure: I received an Elmer's Spring DIY kit and compensation to purchase other products needed for this project.

UPDATE PART 2: My Jewelry Organizer won the Elmer's Spring Creation Contest. I'm absolutely thrilled. Aside from receiving a visa gift card for winning, I also had the privilege of drawing 3 more winners from the comments via random.org to each receive an Elmer's DIY kit. The winners were: April, Barbara (VinoLuci), and Bestie.

UPDATED: This giveaway has closed. The winners as drawn by random.org are wendyp, JulieB and Miranda Taylor. You will all be receiving emails from me shortly.

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Remember when I made the jewelry organizer for Marisol's bedroom? Well, recently I received an email from Elmer's reminding me about it being that time of the year for spring cleaning, organizing and makeovers and they wanted to challenge me to create something either on my own or using their Spring Creation Guide as part of an Elmer's Spring Creation Contest. The only stipulation being that I had to use their newly improved Glue-All.

I'm always up for a good challenge, especially when it comes to crafting and decorating so I happily accepted and set to work making this:

Cause, mama didn't have a pretty jewelry organizer, and instead, her jewelry looked a little like this:

Yes, I'm hiding my head in shame. Terrible isn't it.

In my head, I knew how I wanted to organize it, but it was a matter of finding the right supplies. I briefly considered picking up a few drawer organizers that I had seen at my local craft store and sticking them together, but the thought of spending over $20 per organizer was not going to be a cost-effective way to tackle this so I decided to hit up my local antique mall to see what I could find. Tucked away in a corner, I found this fabulous typeset tray for only $15.

But it obviously needed a lot of work. The first order of business was to break out that Glue-All and set to work making repairs to the cracks and sections that needed to be stuck down again.

Next up was to cut a piece of wood using my X-Acto knife to the length of the tray to attach to the top with Glue-All, I also reinforced it with a couple of nails.

Now we are onto the fun part. I wanted to keep with the antique feel of this type set tray so thought I would try my hand at creating a cracked finish. I've never done this before, but it was actually much easier than I thought, albeit a little time-consuming.

Step 1: Apply a sealer to the wood. Set aside to dry.

Step 2: Apply your first color - I used walnut. Again, let it dry.

Step 3: Apply the crackle. Don't dry completely, but allow it to dry enough that it becomes tacky.

Step 4: Apply a second color of paint - I used coral. Within minutes you will see the cracks starting to appear. By the time the paint is dry, it looks fabulous.

Step 5: Apply a varnish.

The final step is to attach hooks and whatever else you want to hang your jewelry. I opted for a few different items: hooks, eye screws and some decorative rings.

UPDATE: JUNE 14, 2012 - Just recently I came across Gypsies antique brass loops and hooks. These have a sticky back on them and are perfect for hanging earrings and bracelets in the small compartments. You can hang them from the back of the organizer, or hang them down from the top of each compartment. Use the hooks if hanging bracelets, but leave it off for hanging earrings.