01 August 2017

How to Make Your Own Display Stands

A few days ago, I was thinking about tiny easels, as one does. I got an idea about how to make very simple, inexpensive display stands for flat-finished smalls, and I cleaned up my sewing room just so I could make some! 






These little stands take just minutes to make, and I would have gone on making them if I hadn't had to fold laundry and do other responsible things. Here's how you do it:

If you're making a stand for a regular-sized small finish, these two sizes of craft sticks will do. They're from JoAnn Fabrics and are the mini jumbo (bag of 50) and the mini (bag of 150) size. You'll also need some long beads of some sort. I used wooden ones, but any of this 
size and shape will do. You just need beads long enough to accommodate the width of your finished piece. For a larger stand, just size everything up. (The mini jumbo sticks are like regular popsicle sticks, but wider. The wider width works well for embellishments.)

Hot glue a few beads to a mini jumbo craft stick. Make sure to glue them along the lower edge.

Use another craft stick to make sure the beads are even.

Glue another stick to the beads. ***Make sure the beads are glued to the center of the second stick. This will give your stand a slight backward lean.

This picture is of my prototype, where the beads were glued to the bottom edge of both craft sticks. It worked, but I wasn't happy with it so I took it apart and re-glued the second stick as described above. So on yours, the beads should be glued to the middle of front stick. Add a couple of the mini sticks to the back to support the finished piece.

Add a couple more mini sticks and that's it!

Since stitchers like to examine the back of things, here's the back. These Halloween and Thanksgiving finishes are pretty large and these little stands hold them just fine; they're very stable.

To decorate the front, cover the craft stick with ribbon/trim/fabric before you glue it to the beads, but wait to add embellishments until after you've completed the stand. Glue them on to the upright stand. The purpose of this is to make sure the embellishments are even with the bottom of the stand and not below it, which might make it sit unevenly.

As you can see, there's really no end of possibilities with these little stands. Once I had it figured out, I could make one of these--including the embellishment--in less than 10 minutes. They can be made to match specific finishes; the stand holding the Halloween piece is decorated with the same trim used on the finish, and a fuzzy black cat from JoAnn's. The wooden leaves on the Thanksgiving stand are from Hobby Lobby, and the snowflake, deer, and fall buttons (I removed the shanks) are from various craft stores. 

All of these finishes are freebies I've previously blogged, but here are the links again:

Noel freebie

Thanksgiving freebie

Haunted Tea Party freebie

27 comments:

  1. I love this! What a wonderful idea! I can envision seasonal easels and switching out pieces, etc, not just the holidays. THank you so much for "publishing" the instructions.

    JHM
    http://needleworkerssamplings.blogspot.com/

    Ps if it ok with you if I refer to your blog in my blog?

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  2. Fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing. Of course I would actually have to finish off some ornaments first...

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  3. Wow, Honeybee! What a fabulous idea and a super tutorial with pictures! You are so creative.

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  4. Nifty idea! Well done and super cute too!

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  5. Your finishes are so cute and I appreciate you showing us how to make the stands.

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  6. I love these stands. You are so creative. Thanks for the tutorial. I have to make a few of these.

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  7. Ingenious! I've recently been thinking about how to display my unframed work- this is a fabulous idea!

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  8. Great idea ! I am making some too, but those are much more simple for the same result. Brilliant !!

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  9. That is so clever!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us 😃 If it's not too much trouble could you tell me the measurements of your craft sticks please? We don't have Joanns here in Scotland *sob* and I probably won't be back Stateside for several years. Have a lovely week,
    Helen

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    1. Helen, the mini jumbo sticks measure 4 1/2"x5/8"x1/2" and the mini sticks measure 2 1/2"x3/8"x1/2". These stands are really versatile and can be made in any size, so I'm sure whatever sizes you can find will work.

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    2. Thank you so much Honeybee! They certainly are very versatile, I can see I'm going to have great fun with these! 😃 Happy stitching,
      Helen

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  10. Very clever! Thank you for sharing.

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  11. Honeybee, I think these are darling and a brilliant way to show off little pillow ornaments and thank you for the step by step photos! I will most definitely be making some of these, I love the additions of the charms or buttons on the bottom, this is such a great idea!!!

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  12. This is such a great idea, easy to make and so versatile! I love the way you've embellished each one.

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  13. THANK YOU!!!! These will be soooo useful for all the not-so-small "smalls" I have. I think I'll have more fun decorating the bottom front edge of your stands than I did stitching/finishing the projects. THANK YOU!

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  14. So cute - love these and thanks for sharing your excellent how-to's!!!

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  15. Brilliant! I love these. Thank you for the information.

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  16. If you don’t have a hot glue gun, what would be an alternative adhesive? Cold glue gun, Goop? Thanks. Think these are a terrific idea.

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