As some of you know, I recently moved into a new place with my roommate and now that I’ve unpacked (for the most part) and gotten semi-situated, I’ve started the process of styling and decorating the space.
I wanted to start by reorganizing my bulletin board, which has more-or-less acted as a dumping ground for two-years worth of ticket stubs, receipts, photos, coupons, business cards, etc. Not only does it look messy and cluttered, but the pile-up ultimately buried valuable items like gift certificates and coupons, and also photos or cool images I originally wanted to display.
The biggest challenge was thinking up innovative ways to keep and display some of the things I collect. Since I’m a big fan of live music, I’ve grown very proud of the concert ticket stubs, wristbands and music festival collateral that I’ve collected over the years, but I’ve never been able to think of a tasteful way to display them. I was inspired by our friends at Young House Love and their creative ideas for making sentimental art. Here were some of my favorite ideas from Sherry and John:
Sending yourself post cards from your travels and display them in a tall vase via Young House Love
Collecting strips from photo booths in a glass via Young House Love
Saving keys from places you’ve lived via Young House Love
Solution #1: Paint Cans
For my ticket stubs, I decided to store them in clear, plastic paint canisters that I bought at Michael’s for a few bucks. It’s an easy, neat way to collect and display my growing collection. I bought one paint can for all of my concert ticket stubs and another for tickets with more dynamic imagery. For example, some big sporting events print collectible or limited edition tickets that I wanted to highlight.
Solution #2: Frames
I also found a dual frame that was perfect for displaying pamphlets I kept from Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 and 2012. I also incorporated the wristbands from each festival into the design.
Solution #3: Gift boxes
I also needed a solution for other memorable items that I wanted to keep, such as wedding announcements and invitations. These are obviously very sentimental and big moments in the lives of my loved ones, and I anticipate the collection will continue growing as I get older. Since a lot of these paper goods are double-sided, I thought it’d be a shame to collect them in a scrapbook or photo album. The same applies to music festival pamphlets and playbills from musicals that are fun to thumb through. My solution was simple – store them in a cute, tasteful gift box. This non-overt solution gives you the freedom to look through them whenever you want. So after a few months of being displayed on my fridge, baby announcements, Christmas cards and other memorable collectibles of that nature are still kept, cherished, but stored and out of the way.
Now my bulletin board is decluttered and can finally serve its original purpose of displaying colorful photos, stickers, business cards and a few commemorative concert/sporting event tickets. I’m pretty pleased with how my projects turned out. How do you like to display your sentimental memories?
OK ALISON 