Crafty Gal and the Teeny Tiny Shelf

Whilst home in the B-lo this summer, my mother insisted I go look in her yard sale piles for anything I might want. (My mom has a propensity to yard sale cherished items, and save old tupperware bought from other people's yard sales. Yep, true story.) So, I was looking for my childhood photos amongst the piles, and spied this shelf. Sorry, I only snapped a phone pic of the total "before". You get the idea... old, stained brown, and really really really tiny openings. Apparently it was made to hold thimbles. I decided to take it home, and my mind started swirling with a plan for photos and the Teeny Tiny Brown Shelf.

** click on photos to enlarge
Last week, I finally got my idea going. Here are the photos of what I did, which was really quite simple.
First I removed the shelves, which just slid in and out, or I would never have done so. I also cleaned the shelf off at this point, as it was covered in dust and yard sale grime. I numbered the shelves so that I wouldn't be playing shelf puzzle later. 

I also laid them out and numbered my fancy dollar store tablecloth drop cloth. See my set up? I had 260 popsicle sticks to spray paint for Hadji's class too, so I was doubling up on the crafty gal time. Crafty gal mulit-tasker.

Next up I spray painted a bit of aqua blue paint on the pieces. What?!!? yes, I wanted to have a wee bit of that blue peeking through later on when I sanded the shelf.

Next step: Spray paint that baby white. I did two good coats, since I didn't sand it before hand. What? Don't judge, I said I was a lazy crafter, and its not like this is a piece of furniture. 

After that, you get busy sanding. I used a lighter grit paper, just to be careful. I just wanted to knock the "I just got spray painted shiny white!" look off, and give it more of a vintage vibe.

 Onto the photos... I just resized photos to a teeny tiny 1in x 1.375 in. Yes, that is the measurement I used. I dropped them onto a 4x6 document and printed them up. Then, get your sharp scissors out and get cutting. I left a wee bit o' white border, since I knew it would blend with the white of the shelf. I just free-hand cut these.



Then take your lovely pile of teeny tiny photos, and a glue stick, decide where you want to place them, and get busy. I realized too, at this point, that I should have vacuumed out the shelf after sanding. The wipe down didn't quite get all the grit out, but I only got a little light headed blowing it out, so no big deal.

I staggered the photos, just placing them where I liked them, putting an object shot amongst the portrait ones. I decided the shelf looked a little bare, so I gathered some little "5's" from my collection. (that idea is from my pal Chrissy. I now seek out anything with the number 5 to add to my collection. Feel free to contribute at any time :) )  Here are the finished results. I am pretty pleased with them, as was my mom when I told her. So glad some thimble collector didn't find the shelf at her yard sale before I did.

Bonus, it already had a hook, and I had an empty nail. Welcome to your new home shelf. Project Teeny Tiny Shelf... Done.