Modern Day Mod Podging

Saturday night was an interesting evening for me. Hubby had to go offer some service with his church calling, and I was going to be home alone - the night before Mother's Day. While many thoughts of "what will I do with myself all evening?", and "how will I survive Mother's Day being away from my kids?" were rolling through my head, I decided to do something constructive and find a project.

Now, just so ya know, I am not a good "project" person. I let fear of messing up get in my way. I don't like learning things the hard way - I like to get it right the first time. Sad, I know. That is one of the things Les teases me about - and she is right, I have to change.

I am working on that.

I was way behind in my Google Reader blog stalking - had many posts to read from my favorite decorators and creative people. I worked to catch up - and I got an idea! Of course, I didn't MARK the blog I found with this idea, and if any of you know what I am talking about, send me the link.

What I found was a blogger/creative person who took an
Ikea wood box similar to these:

She Mod Podged it with scrapbook paper and it turned out very cute! Well, like the one above, I have SEVERAL of those wood boxes. When I bought them I intended on painting them to match the decor in my bedroom and craft area. You guessed it - I NEVER did because.....I couldn't decide what colors to paint them and I couldn't RISK messing up.

I have never "Mod Podged". I did "decoupage" back in the.......70's. I never liked the look - I thought it looked pretty tacky, actually.

Here is a wonderful example of one that Hubby made in the 70s at Scouts or something:

EWW. 'Nuf said.

So, fast forward to now - I have seen a lot of "decoupaging" or Mod Podging goin' on in the blog world. I got me some and read the instructions - yea, very few words on the "how-to's". But I thought,

"How hard can it be??"

Hmm....got lots of bubbles:

So, something I did NOT have in the 70s was....the internet! I looked up directions which told me how to do it better. I should have 1) lightly sanded the wood, 2) used THIN layers of Mod Podge on the box and then on the back of the paper being applied, 3) rubbed it all very carefully and then let it dry, 4) sanded the edges of the paper lightly - to make the paper and the box become "one", and 5) put another light layer of Mod Podge over the top to seal it. When I did all of that,

it worked -most of the time.

I remembered I also had little Ikea knobs to go with these, so I painted them - unfortunately, I chose a color similar to wood. Who knew?

And becuase I am impatient, I didn't screw the knobs on -
I just used craft glue.

The finished product:

I gotta say - I LOVE how they turned out!!

Will I take another risk anytime soon?
Not sure - we'll have to wait a little while and see.