The easiest DIY earring holder ever

When I first starting wearing jewelry--not just the snowman earrings or gold cross necklaces--but really wearing fashionable jewelry, I wanted to display it on my walls. 1) I wanted everyone to see my goods. Too much? Well too bad. 2) I wanted it to be displayed as art. And 3) Having it hanging from something sitting on a dresser just took up way too much space. So why not hang it on the wall, right?

I haven't written about this in the past, but this was how I had things hanging previously. I bought a single window shutter from Etsy (You can find ANYTHING on Etsy. Seriously.) and hung all of the fish-hook earrings from it. BUT, over time, the weight of all the earrings pulled down the shutter and it became very easy for them to fall off. It wouldn't be that big of a deal but the kitties lunge towards the noise of it bouncing off the bathroom tiles, snatch it in their mouths, and hide under the bed until they think it's safe to come out and play with it. Annoying much?

Before (top) and After--all weighed down (bottom)

I didn't have any ideas of what I was going to replace it with until this past weekend. I just happened to stop by Home Depot to buy some chicken wire for our fence out back. What did I need it for, you might ask? There is a rogue neighborhood cat that's been coming in through the spaces between the boards in the fence. And it just loooooves to torment Asher and Sophie through the windows in the middle of the night. I'm not kidding. Jerry and I could be in the deepest sleep and wake up while almost pissing ourselves because there's loud banging coming from the windows in the kitchen. It's happened often enough that we know it's not a burglar but this retarded cat. So chicken wire, snips, and a stapler in hand, and holes no more!

And then a light went off in my head. I have leftover chicken wire, so why not staple it to an empty frame to hang my earrings? Genius, right?! I grabbed a frame we had in a closet upstairs and tried to use it, but it was too big. The next night, I stopped by TJ's to browse the clothes but stumbled upon their clearance section in Houseware and found these colorful chalkboards in frames for like $10! When I got home, I took out the chalkboard--still not sure how I'm going to use it--and decided to use the frame to hold my earrings.

So I grabbed my snips and cut the chicken wire to the shape of the frame with a little excess so that I could staple it to the front. Why would I staple it to the front and not the back? I knew I needed some room for the hooks of the earrings to sit so I kinda had to bond emotionally with the industrial look. Ha.

I'll show you the finished picture in a second, but if this is something you would want to do or if you want to change up how you hang or display your earrings, this is what you would need.

1) Chicken Wire, 2) Snips, and 3) Stapler

It's a pretty simple process and I think you can figure out how to work this in. The one thing I want to ask you to remember is to hold down your stapler with your other hand. Otherwise, the staples won't be flush with the frame and it will cause the wire to be loose and wiggly. And that will make your earrings fall out, bringing you back to square one.

What do you think? Have you done any crafty projects with chicken wire? Tell me in the comments below. I want to hear about them and maybe we can inspire each other!