Adventures into Alice’s Decluttered World - DIY Closet Dividers

It's time for another adventure with Alice!!!! I know you all have missed her but she has been ever so busy prepping for her little bambino who is due in a few weeks. She and Mr. Alice are in baby planning mode and boy do we have a surprise waiting for you! In the meantime, we wanted to share with you Alice's latest DIY project.  We all know that Mr. Alice is pretty creative...Alice, however, is not. So, while he was painting the nursery (hint to future surprise), she was doing her best to come up with something relatively easy that could be her contribution to the nursery. Well, enter her fabulous DIY Closet Dividers for Baby Alice!!!! 

We will show you how an empty cardboard box  grew up to become pretty closet dividers.  Alice wanted me to start this tutorial by saying you should not do as she did and make a mockup first to see how it works. This will allow you to see if you need to change a step to work better for you. Alice obviously didn’t do this (hence her suggestion), so this became a several step process with several drying times so it took longer than originally planned (or she is just a slow crafter takes the long way to do things lol her words not mine!). Oh, and make sure your perfectionist hubby (Mr. Alice) isn’t around to give you “tips” along the way lol (again her words not mine…ok some were mine and some were hers ☺)…Ok on with the tutorial…  First, Alice started with a template from Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/pin/364158319841485060/. She traced the template onto cardboard making it a little bit bigger so it would be the size she wanted, then cut it out. The 2 in. circle is centered 2.5 in. from the top. Most of the blogs said to use cardstock or thin cardboard, but she wanted it to be sturdier. She used a thicker cardboard box that she “recycled” for her and Baby Alice’s purpose. ☺  

One problem that Alice encountered, with using a thicker base, is that she had a hard time getting the center “closet rod” hole to be a decent circle in the thick cardboard. In entered Mr. Alice with his cape and his power tool lol…a drill to be exact. It actually did the job perfectly. He used the 2 in. drill bit. Now for those crafters out there (again remember that Alice is not) you could use a circle paper punch ☺ instead, but Mr. Alice was happy he saved the day and Alice had her hole lol.  Alice’s closet rod can be removed so she decided to forgo the side opening that you see on so many closet dividers, but feel free to add one if you need to. She also decided on a rectangular shape as opposed to a circle, because she felt the circles would be more likely to spin, making it harder to see the sizes on them. Plus her paper was really cute and who wouldn’t want to show that off?  Trying to keep expenses low (whole purpose of this crazy craft), She borrowed some mod podge from a crafty friend since AGAIN Alice doesn’t craft very much lol. She used her handy hobby lobby coupons to purchase the cute paper, that fits baby Alice’s nursery theme, and a few foam brushes. The total cost was approximately $5…obviously if you already have your supplies you can get away with doing this for FREEEEEEEE. Oopps I digress again…  Using a foam brush, put the mod podge over one side of cardboard. 

Lay it glue side down on the paper leaving room to overlap on all sides.  Let this dry. They wanted to make sure the glue sealed so They stacked them all up & put weight on them (yes Mr. Alice's idea again). You laugh, but at least those weights are getting used and don't act like you don't have some sitting under your bed too...

 Once dry, take scissors or exacto knife to cut 90 degree angles on 2 corners. Cut sides off 3rd side to have less to fold. They used a ruler or straight edge to get a smooth, crisp fold. 

You don't want the glue to squeeze out when you press down the paper so only add glue to within 1/4 inch of the side. Add glue to the short sides first and seal down. Then add glue to the long side & press down.

 They stacked them all up & added weight again to seal & dry.  Once dry, you’ll notice that some of your paper may lay over your circle so use the exacto knife to complete the circle opening. Or if you are a perfectionist like Mr. Alice, you could measure & cut BEFORE gluing down. Alice says she is more of a reactor-type so she cut at this point. 

They had a lot of excess paper that they hated to go to waste but the size of Alice's dividers only allowed her to use one sheet per divider. Smaller ones could probably get more than this. She will probably save larger scraps to use in dresser drawers either as dividers or taped to inside of drawers (also a Pinterest idea) so then when Mr. Alice says "I don't know where the clothes go". Alice can say, "bless your heart, the drawers are labeled...." (Way to think ahead Alice, because you know it will happen!)  Now take your straight edge & exacto knife (or scissors) to cut off excess on top & bottom of divider. 

Now, Alice can't cut a straight line to save her life, and she doesn't have crafty tools remember?!?!?!. So, the ruler was her best friend on this project. Again, if you have the tools, use them...if you don't...a ruler is fine.  Use the ruler to create your straight edge on the last side. 

Add glue to 1/4 of edges of cardboard and lay last side of paper down on glue. Let dry. 

 Using exacto blade, cut out circle. Again, possibly could use punch but ...you know the story here by now... 

 Very carefully, since you put glue to 1/4 inch from edge, take blade & cut 1/8 of inch from edge on back side of divider. I used the ruler to keep straight edge all way down. 

 Peel back excess paper. May be easier to fold & break once the slice is made. Try not to cut thru all pages but if u do, mod podge should seal it up. Basically you are trimming up excess & cleaning up edges to be uniform. Also be mindful of the corners to keep them covered. Mod podge should seal those also.  Print labels with sizes you want to use. Pick whatever font & size you like. Alice chose colored paper to make it stand out in closet but not take away from the cute paper. Remember to print 2 of each label for front & back of dividers. 

 Alice used craft scissors (yes borrowing from another friend) to make fancy edges around her labels. Almost done! Use your mod podge to lightly seal the edges of the back side of divider. (When she added too much of the mod podge, the paper started to warp.) She also started with the back side to see how it would work. Add glue lightly to where you want to put the label the gently press label into glue. Alice tried to just glue over the label, but it wouldn’t stay still so make sure to add the glue first. Since she used glossy mod podge, the entire divider had a shine so she lightly covered the entire divider for uniformity and then let it dry.

  Repeat the steps on front side to add label and mod podge if you need the shine. 

 Let dry and ALL DONE!!!  

 Don’t they look cute hanging in the closet? Even Mr. Alice was impressed (or he was just ready for Alice to get all her stuff off the kitchen table…lol.) Now all they need are even cuter clothes to hang in closet!!!