Trinket Shelf

Trinket shelves can be useful for people in all walks of life, not just us Witches and Pagans. They can be used to hold mementos, private items one doesn't want to hide somewhere and forget, or to display treasured items. 

I've seen plenty of Pagans creating various boxes in a variety of mystical designs, but I didn't want just another box to throw stuff in haphazardly. 

**Image property of prospective owner. See link above**

I've also loved the idea of printers boxes, but I'd be damned if I could find any in my area, so I decided to create my own little trinket storage for display in my new little cottage when I get my bookcases (and close when I have less than understanding visitors).

Here's how you can make your own Trinket Shelf. You will need:

-Hinged unfinished wooden box

-Paint in a desired color

-Popsicle sticks

-Thin dowel rods or bamboo skewers

-Decorative embellishments

-Mod Podge

-Hot glue gun and glue

*Note, all of these items I bought at the dollar store.

If you're not looking to close your shelf, then you don't really need a hinged box, but I wanted a hinged box, so that's what I got, lol. I then painted the entire box black (except for the inside). I then painted the inside a nice purple (DecoArt in Lavender). 

I allowed it to dry, then added some silver embellishments I got on a roll from the dollar store to the outside front of the box (they had a wide variety to choose from, I decided on this one).

I will note, I made a boo-boo. I should have gone over the box in Mod Podge before adding the silver embellishment, but I'll deal with that when I DO get some Mod Podge (the past couple of months have been a disaster on my bank account).

I then used some rather large popsicle sticks (think tongue depressors at the doctors office lol). I did a rough measure of how wide I'd need them to be, then roughly cut them with a pair of scissors. For each shelf in the box I used 3 sticks. I then used another large popsicle stick, and doing another rough measurement, I cut them into smaller pieces to hold them together. 

Taking the dowel/bamboo sticks, again, I rough measured the length I'd need, scored the sticks and snapped them off making a cleaner cut than if I were to try to actually cut them with scissors or just the craft knife. Measuring the inside of the box with a ruler, I determined I wanted my shelves to be roughly 6.5 cm from both the top and bottom of the box. I then hot glued the sticks to the sides of the box, then rested the popsicle stick shelves on the sticks. 

And there you have it. A simple display shelf for your trinkets. 

I plan on adding a Goddess image to the inside of the door, and some other embellishments to the outside, between the "chain".

My local dollar store also has hinged boxes with windows to display your items without them getting overly dusty or overly handled. You can do the same as above with these boxes, just be careful not to paint the glass as you paint the door. 

What you can add to this box now is totally up to your imagination.