Decoupage Madness

I have gotten a little stir crazy with all this snow here on the east coast. The good thing about being snowed in is that I've tackled a few projects that I've been wanting to try. I know....I'm probably the last person on earth to decoupage, but none the less, I have now done it. It was so easy and I'm really happy with the results. I've been working on so many different rooms in my house lately. I have sewing projects in the works for my office/craft room and my master bedroom. I'm recently reorganized my kid's playroom and desk area also. I've been sort of all over the "map."

Mod Podge is my new friend. I decided that I would take some Dollar Tree glass vases and cover them in some map pieces that I had. The map started out as a whole piece of art work on the wall and my kids tore it down while playing and that was the end of that. My oldest son is really into geography and I decided to keep a global theme going in the playroom desk area to keep him interested and inspired to learn more about the world. So, I pulled out the torn map, cut my pieces to size and used my new best friend to decoupage the maps to the vase. I figured this would be a great pencil holder. I also found a shorter one that would be great for other small items like erasers, and craft scissors, or whatever.  Lastly, I had a canvas that was left over from another project and I decoupaged that as well for something to hang on the wall.

Dollar Tree vase that I started with

Map cut to size

And the finished products! What do you think? Not too bad. My son was very excited to get something new to put on his desk. I didn't get around to taking a picture of the finished products in the room, but I am getting around to taking pictures of my home room by room soon, so you'll see eventually.
My decoupage escapades don't end there though. I also covered a small vase for my office/craft room. Here it is from start to finish.

My fabric of choice found at Jo-Ann Fabrics

A bud vase that I've had for about 10 years, probably a dollar store find.

The decoupage process, drying on a set of skewers to prevent sticking to the paper towel.

The finished product in the room filled with some twigs that I had sprayed white left over from my holiday decor.

 This is the process so far in my office/craft room. The room is red and I've decided to use black and white accents. I covered the lampshade using fabric glue a few weeks ago. I showed the before and after in an earlier post. I really like the direction this room is headed so far. I picked up some fabric from Jo-Ann's and I am going to make panels for the window. I've also had my eye on some Ikea shelving that I am hoping to pick up soon and get that in the room for storage.

Well, I hope that you'll come back to see the finished product. Until then, have a splendid day!

Gina

Before and Afters

Hello! I've started the new year off and running with a few projects around the house. In addition to doing my "winter" cleaning...weeding out closets and toys from the house and organizing some areas that needed an overhaul...I've found some time to do a few decorative projects. 
First of all, my kitchen dining chairs got a face lift. My set came with a basic ivory fabric when I bought them. I know that it sounds a little cheesy, but up until a year ago, I had the chairs covered in a clear vinyl covering that I picked up at Wal-mart. I merely stapled the vinyl to the seats to protect them from my children.  But of course that wasn't really the ideal look I was going for and eventually I just wanted them to look like regular chairs and not something that crinkled every time you sat in them. So, I removed the vinyl and after living with my three children, my chairs went from ivory to DIRTY!

Chair Before

Chair Before...just plain Dirty!

 And AFTER....I LOVE the suede microfiber that I found at the fabric store! The best part was that this was on the clearance section and I paid only $14.00!!! Can you believe it? I covered six chairs and even tackled the piping, which at first I was completely scared to do. I scotch guarded my fabric first, then measured and cut each piece and stapled it right over the old fabric. 
Now that I sprayed them with the scotch guard (which by the way is a FANTASTIC product), anything that spills on them beads right off, and I can wipe them cleam with a sponge! And of course, we've already had some spills from the kids, and they have wiped clean not leaving anything behind!

 I really love my chairs and it feels good to have tackled a project that I have seen done a lot and hadn't actually gotten a chance to try up until now.
My next project was covering a lampshade for my craft room. I've had this lamp for a while, I like the clean lines and the simple drum shape of the shade. 

 Very simply, I found a great fabric to complement my room. The room is red with black and white accents. I cut my fabric to the diameter of the shade and glued it using fabric glue. I added some trim around the top and bottom and it was done. It only took about 15 minutes to get this look....probably one of the fastest projects I've accomplished that had the greatest impact. What a difference!

I'm in love! I have left over fabric and I'd love to use this black and white print somewhere else in the room. I'm in the midst of refinishing a chair that will go in the room and in thinking that it'll need a pillow...we'll see where my creative juices take me! I'll share once the room is complete!

Gina