A Little Pinterest Craftiness...

If there's two things I love, one is Pinterest and the other is Anthropologie.  Each is a crafter's dream.  I found this Mari Makes Blog Post for recreating an Anthropologie shade on Pinterest and fell in love.  Since I had two plain lamp shades in my bedroom I decided they were just the ones for a makeover.  The directions provided on Mari Makes are right on, although I struggled with the look at the inside top of the shade.  

I have basic $18 lamps from Target that are cylindrical in shape and white.

Setting the lamp on paper to prepare for the gluey mess.

I used this matte Mod Podge  I love the matte finish for a lamp - no need for shininess on my shades for me.  I was concerned, too, that the amount of dusting life in the West requires would scratch the finish, so matte was a better option. I slathered the Podge onto the lamp with foam brushes.


This was the (emotionally) hard part.  I had to cut up a book for this project.  Remember how when you went from high school, where a mark in a book meant a fine, to college, where books looked like they'd been highlighted by the rainbow and possibly run through the wash machine by the end of a semester?  I was in shock for weeks over the fact that I was supposed to write in such beautiful (expensive!) texts.  Now I do it all the time, but completely deconstructing a book was another issue.  However, I decided if I was going to do this project I was going to pick a favorite.  I went to Goodwill and found a 50 cent copy of Wuthering Heights.  It was a hardback and had thicker pages, which came in handy.  When I got home, I ripped the pages out and then cut them into 2"x 2" squares.  I made sure the squares were mostly free from white space on the edges. 

The rubble of Wuthering Heights

I started slathering the squares with Mod Podge and layering them over one another to prevent gaps.  I only used about two layers, since WH is a fairly short novel and didn't give me lots of pages.  If you want less light to shine through you will need to use more pages or heavier pages.  After the first layer was on I let it dry quite awhile - about 8 hours while I did other tasks.  Then I put the second layer on and let it dry overnight.  

Thankfully, Nature provided a beautiful day so I took the shades outside and sprayed them with this Mod Podge Matte sealer.

I didn't like the look left around the top of the lamp, so I added black ribbon to trim it.  I'm now debating whether to add a black ruffle around the bottom for a bit of femininity.  What do you think?  Ruffle trim or no trim?