Tuesday 13 March 2012

Decoupage and Zombies

A long-awaited day off- Nugget dismissed me from Granny's house with a, 'Have you not left yet?  Cheerio.' and I returned to base with one thing on my mind.

Decoupage.

Actually, I had two things on my mind:  decoupage and catching up on the hours and hours of TV I seem to have missed recently.  Monday's a good day for zombies, vampires and motorcycle gangs. 



Since before Flora was born we have collected Ladybird books and some are really a bit past it.  Flora's getting a new room (it's actually the same room she's meant to have always had but where else am I going to dry my washing?) and a cull was necessary.  It's my fault.  I can't leave a Ladybird book in a charity shop- it's the drawings.  How can anyone resist them?  I open the wee book and I know immediately if it was one I read as a child- it's not unknown for me to start squealing like an idiot when I recognise the pictures.  I have a thang about vintage kids' books in general.  But it's just me.  Andy & Flora roll their eyes and claim they smell (the books, not Andy and Flora. Although....) and the books languish in an unloved pile.  Some of my favourites have been old Enid Blyton short story compilations.  Utterly un-PC. Brilliant!  Uncle Robert returning from sea with cigarettes for Father and lighting his pipe in the nursery, or learning about being brave and not a 'silly little coward who will never have any friends'.  Eeek!  
  
(Off topic- I spoke to a lady today whose three year old grand-daughter has her own iPad.  *actually properly lost for words*)

So I dug out some cube shelves I bought in Mozzers for the princely sum of £2.98 and gave them a ridiculously light sanding.  Have I ever mentioned how dreadful I am at the prep work?  Even thinking about it now is making me yawn.  Dullsville. 



Once sanded, I guillotined the books.  I felt quite guilty at this stage- books aren't meant to be destroyed, are they?  But I got over it pretty quickly.  The pages looked lovely away from the mouldering covers, all piled up on my table.


Anyway, couldn't take any pictures of the actual decoupage process because my fingers were too sticky and the camera is too important but, suffice to say, there was a lot of PVA glue involved, some sharp creases and at least two incidences of swears (#1 Jumper stuck to table #2 Me stuck to jumper).

And.....voila!





 I was pretty chuffed with them.  And they hardly stuck to the table at all in the end.  

Lots of left over pages which will not go to waste.  I have been eagerly eyeing up all sorts of things to cover (glass? empty tins?  my bike???) and I think I might cut some leaf shapes and use them on the walls in a sort of mural/collage/thing for Flora to pick off the wall and get shouted at for.

Result!


Luv Egg on a Stick

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful shelves, and what a great thing to do with those lovely old books. Love the way you write.

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