Yubinuki (Thimble Display Case) Frame Tutorial

Yesterday I went to IKEA with my Mum. I needed to buy some replacement rail fittings for my family room curtains, and I have also had my eye on a shadow box for my yubinuki. I found this frame for $20.

I used a large piece of heavy weight thin cardboard and made some shelves to fit inside the shadow part of the box.

Got some thimbles you want to display? I didn't actually plan to make a tutorial at the beginning of this project but it turned out so good I wanted to share.

Here's the how to:

1. Measure the depth, height and width of the box. My frame was 3cm x 22cm x 22cm.

2. Determine the number of shelves you would like inside your display. Then divide the height of the box by this number. (I wanted 4 shelves so divided by 4... my gap was 5.5cm) Double check that the items you want to place on the shelves will fit this gap. This save alot of heartache later... if the items wont fit just recompute with one less shelf.

3. Cut a length of card to the width and height of the box plus 2 times the depth of the box multiplied by the number of shelves.
(For me it was 22 + 2x3 + 2x3 + 2x3 + 2x3 = 46cm)

4. Measure out 1 unit of depth then a shelf height then 2 units of depth and a shelf height etc until you have Score and then folded the shelves up, glued them with pva glue and pegged them to dry. You may need to cut down your shelf height by up to 1cm to get them to fit just right. Just trim little bits off at a time... if it is too small you can't disguise it.

Not a very nice colour (at least not what I wanted to see) so I used some felt left over from a previous project (either the Christmas advent stockings from 2009 or the bunny hats from Easter 2010) and covered them over using thin double sided tape on every edge. I guess you could also use just about any leftover fabric or possibly thin paper... maybe plain is better than a print though.

5. Cut felt 2cms larger than the original cardboard and tape it down beginning just slightly over the end of the cardboard. Trim excess felt on the sides but leave it on the top and bottom. Use a little double sided tape to stick into the base of the frame and lay out your treasures. Very carefully place the shelves into the frame and add the backing. Done!

Here it is filled with some of my yubinuki which I have converted into thimbles. Sorry the photo is a poor quality. Oops I forgot to pull the top bit of felt taught before I closed the back of the frame. I will remember to do that when I add more thimbles.

I plan to fill it with 4 thimbles per shelf but it is almost school pick up time and I have promised to make banana muffins after school so I had better sign off for now.

Seeing as I already had the cardboard, glue, tape and felt this neat display just cost $20. Hope you like this project.