decorating with dodi

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Thursday, July 23, 2020

Desperate Times...

...call for desperate measures. I was about out of ideas and supplies when I happened upon a post on a craft site that I follow. Staring right out at me were two pumpkins made out of books. For some reason, it caught my fancy and I looked a little closer. There wasn't really a tutorial...didn't really need one...but the lady said she used old books with the covers removed and that reminded me of the "uncovered" books that I had left over from all of the book bundles I had done.

That pretty much looked like the extent of supplies needed so, I was off and running. I ended up making a few changes on mine and embellishing a bit differently but the idea is so basic that you can really just take the idea and run!

Since I already had the "coverless" book, all I had to do was create a pattern and start cutting. I cut about 12 pages at a time.








Once I was this far, I fanned out the pages and realized that because the pages sit on different parts of the spine, when you fan the book, some pages will fan evenly and others just won't. Being the OCD symmetrical person that I am, I knew this would drive me crazy so I put a drop of Tacky glue every 5-6 pages or so and the book fanned so much better.


Once I got it that far, I thought it was just kind of blah so I decided to give the edges of the pages just a slight hit with a fine, antique silver glitter.


That turned out to be a bit of a process because there is a lot of waiting for glue to dry time...so, while it was, I started thinking about my stem options. At first I was going to go with a cut from a thick branch. Then, I tried a thick cinnamon stick. I kind of liked that but then remembered a pumpkin stem I had seen somewhere made out of twisted Kraft paper. I twisted some paper...which wouldn't stay twisted...so I added some Tacky glue...and it still wouldn't stay twisted. I was about to go back to the cinnamon when I gave it a quick cover with masking tape and then ripped some long, thin strips of the paper and tried gluing again. And, voila, that looked like it was going to work. I still wasn't crazy about the finish on it so I gave it a good coating of Mod Podge and called it a night.


This morning, all of the gluing was dry so I hot glued the stem to the top of the pumpkin. At this point, you can kind of make sure your page bundles are even before you add the stem. Once the hot glue dries on the top, your bundles are pretty much where they will stay.


Of course, that was still leaving me less than impressed so I made a quick bow and found a free autumn tag download. I can't say it is my favorite craft ever...nor can I guarantee that it will be around more than this year, but, it will fill one of the new spots that I have that need filling, it kept me busy for two days and, the price was right, so I am good with it.




I will say that it looks a lot better in real life than it does in these pictures. And, as the old adage goes, "If you give a mouse a cookie"...when I found this tag download, there were three other autumn tags as well. I went ahead and printed them out. Two will return soon but the third was perfect for right now. And so, I was on the search for where it could go and that meant moving some other things as well but, once again, it is keeping me busy!

Here is where the sunflower tag ended up.


And, as I was doing that, I remembered this. There are actually most of the supplies for three other projects on that table.


..and, just when you think there is not room for one more sunflower - at least my girls would think that...you would probably never hear those words coming out of my mouth - but, I digress - this happened. 


I had spied these sunflowers at HL when I was there with my brother and sister-in-law but, they weren't on sale. And, I almost never buy anything at HL if it isn't. When I ran it the other day, fall florals were on sale so I grabbed five. I can not even begin to tell you how much restraint it took on my part not to buy them all. These were not inexpensive but they are so much more realistic than most of the faux sunflowers in stores these days. Come to think of it, I might just have to make one more run...after all, one can never have too many sunflowers! Lol


Now that the pumpkin is done, I am on to my next craft. The supplies are on that table and it will be for Halloween...any guesses? I'll be back to share soon. Stay safe and stay tuned.




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