Past Project - Bookcase and Wallpaper

In late 2009, I seriously thought about putting this blog together and started prepping some posts with things I was doing around the house. I found them recently, buried in my documents folder, and thought I would share. I don't have enough of them to make this a regular posting theme, but they'll pop up every now and again! Welcome to past crafts..... 


A few years ago, between my divorce and my manfriend moving in, I rented out one of the spare rooms in my house to make ends meet. It worked out pretty well. She seemed tidy and was pretty considerate. I liked her. But like most things, our time together came to an end. And she left a wide variety of oddities when she moved out. The least of which include:

An unopened bag of defrosted frozen corn under her bed.
A mouse carcass in her closet.
All her pots, pan, dishes and cups.
A brand new stainless steel spice rack - spices included!
A box of mismatched shoes.
A bookcase.

Everything except the bookcase and kitchen supplies was very swiftly disposed of and her room fumigated.  The pots, pans, dishes and cups went to a new home with my good friend Adam. The spice rack still lives on my kitchen counter. The bookcase was given new life over the course of a weekend!!

She said she took it from her father's office and painted it black. My mother had dreams of re-mixing it as a buffet for my dining room (which sounds like a fabulous 'lesson learned from Trading Spaces') but I disagreed. It would always look like a sideways bookshelf to me. So for a few months, it just sat in the dinning room unused and unloved. But I  resurrected it's usefulness and put it in my work in progress art studio!!

Because I am a freak and never get rid of anything, turns out I had about a roll of wallpaper leftover from  my last office incarnation (FYI it did not go on the walls). So with things I had wasting space in my home, I made something beautiful!!

Please see supplies: straight edge and exacto knife (for cutting paper), tape measure, wall paper paste, wallpaper and (not seen) book shelf. 

If you can, start by removing the shelves, it makes the rest much easier!!

Measure pieces of paper so that it will fit into the back panel of the bookshelf and cut with the knife using the straight edge as a guide.

One at a time, coat the back of your wallpaper pieces with the wallpaper paste then line up with an edge of the back panel of the bookcase. Make sure to smooth out and bubbles before moving onto the next piece. Only 2 of the shelves in the piece are removable, so I had to cut three pieces of paper. 

Place your shelves back in and style as per usual! TA-FREAKIN-DA!! 


Here it is in a better quality photo in my still re-working art studio. I still love it!!

March is the Amy Butler Origami Bag Set!

I know, I know. I can't seem to start these things anywhere close to a reasonable time to get them done in their respective month. I didn't finish the January Cosmo Bag until mid February and the February Everyday Shopper was technically finished in March (but just barely). In my defense, these bags all have zippers and I wanted to take the class at Fancy Tiger over the weekend for some guided instruction on that.

These bags were tagged by a lovely lady I work with, Tricia. I just love love love the color pallet and the fabrics she picked out!

She's said she is going to use them for her crafting supplies, so if I have time I might embroider some crafting themed things on the front of them just for fun. I'm following the Jem Jam sew along of the Amy Butlers' Style Stitches book and the other participants have really kicked it up a notch! Check out the flickr page for it, if I don't embroider something on these bags, I might be shamed by my lack of ambition!

I'm cutting the fabric tonight in a desperate attempt to get these all done in March!

My First Zipper!

Have I stressed how much I love my local hipster craft shop, Fancy Tiger? I totally love that place. The shop is jam-packed with amazing and inspiring fabric, yarn, patterns - you name it, they've got it! AND they teach classes! 

I took a beginners sewing class probably a year ago and made a cute little iPhone cover out of some of their scrap fabric. It was an awesome way to get acquainted with a sewing machine and have someone confirm that you are indeed using it the right way. Of course, I didn't actually sew anything on my own for nine months, but that was my own fault. Then last month I took a pajama pants class with my girlfriend and we liked it so much we signed up for Sewing 201: Throw Pillow. 

So... anyway! Yesterday was the class and I made a cover for a 16 inch throw. I am aware that most people think it's silly to pay $30 to learn this simple project, and I have a perfect one word response. Zippers. I have never worked with a zipper. (I can't seem to think of a way to word that sentence in a way that makes me sounds like I can't literally use a zipper. I assure you, I can. I just had not sewn one onto anything before yesterday.)

I made one pillow cover out of some adorable fabric I bought there on sale last month:

The fabric. 

We also had to bring our pillow form and a zipper with us. The process was pretty easy, however I can't imagine that I would have been able to figure it out without instruction on hand. And even though we showed up about 15 minutes late (drove a few miles the wrong way on Broadway before I realized we were), we still finished on time and on par with the ladies who were punctual. Which means my friend and I are either geniuses, or the insturctor was awesome! (It was probably mostly the awesome instructor, but we are very intelligent.)

Zipper!!

I've always found that I have a blast at these things. There's something comforting about knowing that I'm not the only grown woman who didn't learn these things in home ec and because it's a casual learning environment, there's no pressure and it's just a lot of fun. 

Look at all the beautiful pillows we made!!

Group shot of all the ladies and our fabulous pillows!

Take that home decor companies! I will no longer over pay to change the look of my sofa pillows!! There's 6 of us who never will again!

I'm hoping to find an open spot in one of  Fancy Tiger's upcoming A-Line Skirt classes, but these things sell out fast. Keep your fingers crossed! Anyone want to join me?

PS - I just realized I put a bird on it! HA!