Adventures in Zumba and a new craft!

Sorry the post didn't make it up yesterday. I didn't finish it until late.

So Tuesday night was Zumba again. Thankfully there were no stair related incidents this time, but our Zumba teacher was out sick, so we had a sub. I was intrigued by the fact that is was a guy, but figured since it was only my second class that I should give it a shot. He was actually very good, other than the fact that he was killing me. His style was definitely more fast paced/high energy all the way through to the end, instead of last week's kind of up and down pace. The best part of last night though, was that the instructor looked exactly like a younger version of the master I used to take TaeKwonDo from. At least he did now that I haven't been to TaeKwonDo in 3 years.... Anyways the first time he kiyuped (sp? - the yelling noise made to channel energy in martial arts) to signal a change in movement, it was all over. I spent the rest of class trying not to burst out laughing, or die. We will see what next week's adventure will be. :)

I also completed a craft this week! I made an earring holder a couple months ago, and loved it so much I decided to make a necklace holder to go with. I have seen a couple ideas for them on Pinterest and a couple blogs over the last year or so, but apparently forgot to pin them. This is how I made mine: I found a 12" x 12" picture frame that was pretty close in color to my earring holder.

I then painted a design on the frame in silver acrylic paint so it would match a little closer to my other frame, which came with a silver design already painted on it. 

Next I took the backing- in this case a piece of 12" x 12" cardboard, though I'm sure you could use whatever backing came with your frame. I poured a couple tbsps of rubber cement (this amount with vary depending on how big your frame is) onto the cardboard and brushed it out to cover the entire piece of cardboard. I next took a piece of 12" x 12" cork and fitted it on top of the cardboard. I weighted this down with several heavy books while the glue dried and sealed the adhesion. Mine took about 10 minutes to dry.

I forgot to take a picture of this next step, but it's pretty simple. You can either leave this as is, or you can take a piece of fabric (in my case burlap) and cut it with a border large enough to allow you to wrap the fabric around the edges and glue to the back of the cork/backing piece. My cork was only about a 1/4 of an inch thick, so I made my square of fabric 13" x 13". I snipped the corners of the fabric in on a diagonal in each corner to make them lie flat. I then took my hot glue gun and glued the fabric to the back of the backing on all four sides.

Once the fabric was attached I fitted the cork and backing back into the frame. The frame I used has the bendable tabs. I would highly recommend using a frame with these to make it easier to fit this back into the frame.

After I put the frame back together I needed to choose my hangers. I have seen these made with thumb tacks and picture hangers, but I wanted something silver in color to match the surrounding design. I decided to go with thin finishing/picture hanging nails. I decided how far apart I wanted the nails based on how bulky most of my jewelry is (which is pretty much not bulky at all) so I made my nails just less than an inch apart. Because my backing was cardboard I was able to just push these nails through until I could just feel the tips reach the back. I don't recommend using anything too long, because you do want this to hang pretty flush with the wall. If your frame had a harder backing you may need a hammer or a screw gun for this step.

I placed the nails all along the top of the picture frame at mostly even intervals as I hate actually measuring things. I then hung the picture frame and started hanging my necklaces.

And this is my finished product! :) I love it! The only thing I think I'll change, is I think I'll add two more nails under the two I am using for bracelets so I can hang a couple more.

What do you think? Have you done any fun crafts lately, or had any weird flashbacks?