Wood Crate Linen Cabinet

By contributing writer: Ginger re-posted from Gingerly Made

Frugality and simplicity can effect so much of our lives. Today I want to talk about decorating our homes.

As a craft blogger, I spend a lot of time making things, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on supplies. I'm sure you are no stranger to the pallet and wood crate craze everyone seems to be on lately. Well, I'm no exception. I love that you can find pallets or crates for free to cheap and they give a rustic charm to your decorating that I personally love.

It took me a long time to find some crates. I was actually a wee bit frustrated about it because I had this project specifically in mind. Finally I found some on found some on craigslist! They were not the size or shape I wanted, but I figured since I couldn't find any elsewhere, I'd get them anyway.

Before

I had to be creative in how to arrange the crates since four of them were this odd L-shape. Which meant that they also needed some restructuring. But we went from these flower display crates to this awesome crate linen cabinet. Or bookshelf. Whatever you want to use it for. I just wanted it for a linen cabinet.

Here's what we did.

Because of the L-shaped crates we had to remove the slats from one side and reattached them to the other opening up the front of the crate. Basically, we had to move the slats around so the correct side would be open once stacked up.

Then we painted the crates, used wood glue and nailed the crates in place as we re-stacked them.
 

It turned out REALLY good! Then I filled it up with Mason jars for my Q-tips and cotton balls, lotions, and homemade natural soaps, towels, and wash cloths. And most importantly as the linen cabinet is sitting beside the tub, a place to set my book after I'm done taking a bubble bath. Ah, simple bliss.

 

 

 

 

BumGenius Snap Conversion Tutorial + KAMSnaps $25 Gift Card GIVEAWAY!***CLOSED***

Many Cloth diapering moms like myself have some well loved BumGenius 3.0 diapers on which the aplix is getting worn out. These durable diapers have plenty of wear left otherwise, so what to do?Thanks to KAMSnaps, I have found my answer to that question! Let me just show you what KAMSnaps can help you do! I'd never worked with snaps before in my life, but found out they're actually pretty easy if you have the right tools!

I received the below set of pliers from KAMSnaps with an awl for making the holes that the snaps go into and a screw driver for changing out the die. The metal piece to the right of the awl is an extra top die for larger snaps, and the 3 round black pieces on the far right are the bottom die for different size snaps.


One of the awesome things about KAMSnaps is that they carry snaps in all the BumGenius colors as well as G Diaper colors, and Fabrite PUL! As I mentioned, I'm converting my BumGenius 3.0 in Grasshopper, so KAMSnaps sent me the grasshopper colored snaps!
The snap pieces on the far left and right are caps. The second from the left is the stud (male), and the next to last is the socket (female).

I just love it that KAMSnaps are exclusive sellers of engraved Ooga Booga snaps! They have a bunch of other designs of engraved snaps as well! Here's a close up of the oh so popular Ooga Booga! The size 20 snaps are the ones typically used for diapers. The HG pliers come with a different size bottom die in, so the first thing I had to do was change that out. It's easy to tell which bottom die you need by just placing one of the caps in the die. It should fit perfectly like this:


Following the instructions from KAMSnaps web site, I used the provided screw driver to remove one die and put in the size I needed. It was very simple!


I had never applied snaps before, but I found a link to this video at the bottom of KAMSnaps instructions for snap pliers that shows how to use these HG pliers. Since I'd never done it before, I practiced on an old cloth wipe. It worked well, so I'll show you what I learned as we continue with the conversion of the BumGenius. Here we go...



First you have to remove the aplix. For this you'll need a seam ripper (pictured below), or an exacto knife or something like that.


First I ripped some of the top seams to loosen it up.


Then I could peel back the aplix and see the seams really well to rip them. As a novice sewer, this is something I've had a lot of practice at! :) You have to really take your time and be careful. Never pull hard on the fabric or aplix. You want to leave as little evidence of the former seam as possible.


Once the front strip of aplix is off, it's time to remove the tabs.


I found it helpful to cut the top off to reveal the seam for easy ripping.


Again, rip some top seams first and then start ripping underneath.



Finally, the aplix is all off and we can focus on snaps.


On KAMSnaps blog, you can find a snap placement template compliments of Bella of Musings of an Organic Mama Squirrel. This saved me a lot of trouble as I did not have to make my own template. You don't have to use this one of course. You may want fewer snaps more spaced out.

First, cut out the template.
Then, use the awl to poke holes through the dots.


Decide where to place the snaps. I decided to have the middle of the top row of snaps about an inch from the top of the diaper.


Tape the template down, and use a writing utensil to mark the diaper through the holes in the template.


After removing the template, take the awl, and poke a hole through each dot. Be careful not to puncture the inner liner of the diaper.




Next take one of the un-engraved caps, since it will be on the inside of the diaper and not visible, and poke it up through the first hole.


Next, you will place a socket over the protruding part of the cap.


Take the pliers and make sure the cap is completely centered in the bottom (black) die and press down hard. It's really important that the snap be centered, which is a bit challenging as you'll be feeling through the liner for this part. In the following picture my hand is awkwardly placed for the sake of taking the picture.
To make sure it is sufficiently pressed afterward, you can take a stud and put it into the socket. It should make a snapping noise.


Rinse and repeat for each snap until you're finished!


Next, cut out, hole punch, and tape your template for the tabs. I chose to put 4 snaps to make it toddler proof later on.
Use the awl to punch the holes in the fabric.


This time you will use your engraved caps as this is the part that will show! Place the cap through, top to bottom, and this time place a stud over the protruding part of the cap.


Center the snap between the pliers and press.




Be mindful of how the engraved image will look on baby. I did not think about that and put them upside down. No big deal to me, but I know to look out for that next time!



Conversion complete:
This experience has opened up so many crafting possibilities for me! On KAMSnaps tutorial page, you can see lots of other ideas. I saw there a tutorial for adding snaps to prefold diapers and adapted it a little to make my prefolds easy to snap using the angel wing fold. It gave me even more ideas for a project I'm planning!

KAMSnaps is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky reader in the U.S. or Canada!

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*14. Enter KAMSnaps Going to the Dogs Giveaway Marathon. You can earn an extra entry in this giveaway per giveaway entered in KAMSnaps Marathon for the duration of this giveaway! *UPDATED 7/29/2010

U.S. and Canada only. This giveaway is open until August 26 at 12:00 a .m. The winner will be chosen using a random number generator. I will email the winner, who will have 48 hours to respond. If winner does not respond within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen. I will post the winner when the selection has been made and confirmed by the recipient.

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This tutorial is partying with:


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