DIY Wood Shadowbox Tag Organizer

I am thrilled at how today’s DIY wood organizer project turned out. Not only does it keep all my craft and gift tags all in one spot, but it is also a beautiful decor piece in my craft space.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many tags I could squeeze into this DIY wood organizer!

Supplies needed to make your own DIY wood organizer:

• 12×12 inch Unfinished Wood Printer’s Tray (2 of these)
• One Step Stain and Polyurethane
• Wood Glue
• 5.75 inch Black Utility Knife
• Medium Clear Plastic Storage Jars (I used 3)*
• Small Clear Plastic Storage Jars (I used 3)*

*Note: the two above sizes of jars will fit in the finished shadow box stacked (small and medium) on top of each other. You will want to gauge how many jars you will use for your own shadow box depending on how many small tags you have.

The shadow boxes aren’t quite deep enough on their own to contain larger tags, so for this project we will be stacking two shadowboxes together. The great thing about the shadow boxes is that the compartments perfectly line up to make this pretty simple.

You will need to remove the bottom panel of one of the shadow boxes. Let’s do some demo!

Carefully run a craft knife around the perimeter of the bottom panel. You will need to make a couple of passes to loosen up the adhesive holding the bottom on. Once it is separated, gently pull the bottom panel loose.

Continue to lift the bottom panel. Mine broke in half. That’s okay. Just don’t damage the sides or separations of the inside of the shadow box.

Discard the bottom piece and clean up the remaining pieces of wood, and sections of adhesive.

I used a craft knife to get the big pieces, and then sanded the areas that were rough.

The hard part is over! I promise.

Using a paint brush, apply wood glue to each division in the shadow box. Be generous with the glue, not every surface will be even, and you will want the boxes to stick together really well!

Line the two boxes up, and clamp them together for the glue to completely dry. (If you don’t have clamps, you could use some heavy objects to hold the shadowboxes together as they dry.)

Once the boxes are clamped, take a damp rag and wipe off any excess wood glue.

Let the glue set, and then remove the hardware from the boxes.

Now you can stain/paint/mod podge your shadowbox however you like. I chose to stain mine the super lazy way. With spray stain. It was awesome for getting down into the smaller spaces in the shadowbox. Just spray in a well ventilated area.

Let the stain/paint/ mod podge fully dry.

Replace the hardware.

Now it is time to gather and conquer your tag stash!

I am slightly embarrassed about what I have going on in my craft room.

Random boxes and baggies. Sweet.

Separate your tags however it makes sense to you. I divided by size, and colored vs white.

For smaller sized tags, use these plastic jars!

They fit perfectly into the shadow box.

The medium and small sized jars will stack on top of each other.

Continue organizing your tags until you are in love.

This looks so much better than boxes and baggies, am I right?

Of course, it goes without saying that you could use this shadowbox for other organization projects. Twine, stamp sets, washi tape, scissors and tools, etc.

I sure love mine. This DIY wood organizer looks really pretty in my craft space.

Beautiful and functional. That’s two thumbs up from me!

Shaunte

Shaunte is a 30-something, chocolate-loving, SAHM from Utah. She has been scrapbooking since 1997, the dreaded era of photos cropped with deco scissors. Since then, her work has evolved into a clean, linear, photo-focused style. Her favorite subjects to scrap are her husband and five kids (never a lack for subject material there).