Mens Jewellery Stand for Pin Badges, Cuff-links, and Tie Clips

Men don't seems to have quite as many ways to accessorize an outfit as women do. My adornments of choice are cuff-links - along with a tie clip for smarter occasions, and a pin badge on my jacket. And depending on who I'm meeting, or which event I'm attending, will determine how I amend my outfit. 

This project is a simply display/storage stand for those items... in a manly way!

Lay out your corrugated card (mine came from a crate of beer ;) on a flat surface, and place your items on it to determine the size. Using the pattern above, the portion of the left is the main surface, the rest is used as the stand. Cut on the solid line, and score on the dotted lines.

By folding the larger flap backwards, the smaller one forward you will have two edges with identical angles. (See - maths comes in handy, sometimes!)

Glue and tape the smaller part behind your base on the left hand side. I've used masking tape here, in case I need to remove it later. Note that the left edge is NOT set flush to the front - this is because the tie pins need space behind the stand.

Note: If possible, fold the card so that the grain of the corrugation goes horizontally across the stand.

Cut a strip of card from another box flap and fold it into a '[' shape, and glue/tape to the stand legs - these will help it maintain its form. If you have the time/patience you can add a base too for greater stability.

I made a mistake here! You will note from step 1 that there are two layers of corrugated card in some places on the stand - this is thicker than the pin on most pin badges :( So I had to remove the tape, peel back the top layer of card, and replace the tape.

If you're smart, you won't make that mistake!

I've used hand-made red craft paper from my local art supplier. It's about a pound per sheet. Place a generous helping of glue on the front and sides of the stand, lay your stand on top of the paper, and press down. Then, cut around it. Imagine you're wrapping a present, and leave a gap to fold over the sides. When folding up around the struts you will need to make two perpendicular slits so that it wraps around.

Pin badges can be simply pushed through the card and fixed at the back like normal.

Tie pins clip to the left.

The cuff-links need you to drill holes. I use a Dremel-like drill and, because it's card, I can make elongated '0' shaped holes very easily by moving the drill once it's in the hole. For the cuff-links that I have, the '0' shape means I can slot them in on their side, and rotate them once in.

Now is the fun part of filling up the board, and putting it on your bedside table.

Note: If you want to fix standard pin badges to the stand you could wrap a thick elastic band vertically around it, and place the pin behind or through it. The badge will tip forward slightly, and the friction of the rubber will stop it slipping down.

And yes... I'm a bit of a geek ;)