I have noticed with interest the number of people who pinned an article I pinned some time ago on Pinterest. It made me wonder if anyone actually gave the idea a go? So I thought I might share my attempt at being crafty with paper &  glue.

 The article about using scrap paper had caught my eye so a trip to the local crafty store, and I found a glorious selection of ‘Designer Scrap Paper’. I had a set of (let’s be quite honest) ugly black frames – cheap and cheerful some might say! They had come with some garish photos of flowers which were awful so I binned them and started again.

Now back in the day when  I was a stay-at-home mum I had dabbled in some crafts – paper tole was the craze at the time so I took a class and created some pictures for the children’s rooms. I did a bit of cross stitching, knitting and sewing so I am not a complete novice with crafts! But that was then – and I have not been very crafty for some years. In fact I think my husband was a little bemused when I began my new fad!

Designer Scrap Paper comes in a variety of formats – single sheets, pads in various sizes and in the largest range of anything I have seen!  It is a medium weight paper which I think is important when you are applying get glue – you wouldn’t want to use a tissue type paper otherwise it would rip, and be messy.

I very simply chose, cut and placed different scrap paper into my cheap black frames – the bigger frame was more of a challenge. Luckily I found a beautiful black & white photo of my grand-daughter. I trimmed it up and fitted it into the frame.  Voila!

I was pretty happy with the result – I was inspired so I got a bit more adventurous with my next project. I was creating a spare room for our adult married children to use when they visited. (3 of our 5 children got married last year! – I know what were they all thinking? and 2 of them live outside of Auckland so a nice space for them to stay when they visited was needed).

I had three old wooden frames in the garage that I painted in the same colour as I had re-painted the furniture. This colour was my ‘theme colour’ for the room – I was able to buy a pad of scrap paper in the same green tones. Again it was very simple, no glue just a sharp pair of scissors, a ruler and pencil. What do you think?

I did get happy with Mod Podge for a messier project and I was happy with the final result. I had been given an old grey filing cabinet which I had seen an idea for on a Pinterest board some time ago. I was feeling very crafty by now so it was not long before the filing cabinet had a coat of white paint on it and I was ready to cover it with glue and paper!

I only did the front of the cabinet – it seemed to much to do the whole thing. And I did take the handle off rather than try and go around it. With this project I used a blank piece of paper as a template. I then laid out my pattern of papers, to fit. This worked well as I was able to switch colours, patterns and cut outs before committing to the glue.

I was very generous with the Mod Podge glue – using a sponge applicator I brushed an even layer of glue on the back of each sheet of paper, applying some pressure once the paper was in position. Once I had covered the whole front of each drawer I let it dry until it was firm.

I chose to use a gloss Mod Podge – (you can get it in matte too). Once everything was dry I then coated the entire front with a layer of Mod Podge – I let it dry and repeated  the process 5 times. It’s like a varnish or lacquer? it goes hard. I popped the handle back on and am pretty please with the finished product. The filing cabinet looks prettier than it was, and fits in nicely to my home office ( another bedroom converted after the children left home!)

So, my question to you is. Have your pinned some interesting idea from Pinterest and actually done the crafty thing? Or baked the cake? Or is that great recipe or good idea something you will get  to ‘sometime’. In our busy lives, we need to take some time out for ourselves, and do something different, something creative – it’s amazing how relaxing it is 🙂

Happy crafting xx