~A Little Bit of Glitz~

Hi there, remember me?  I've had a few ideas floating around in my mind about some posts I've been wanting to do and have been working my way through them but a day goes by, then three, and now here it is a week later and I haven't gotten a single one of them completely done or posted!!  Well, I'm taking care of that right now.   Aren't you glad?

A few weeks ago, I went in our local thrift store and found this little lamp.  I was needing wanting a spindle type lamp for my sewing area to provide better lighting and this one was only five bucks.  Other than being a bit dirty and fairly plain, it was in pretty good condition and it worked!

All I needed to do was apply a little paint and fancy up the lampshade some.  I had some leftover toile fabric from the shower curtain in the bathroom that I wanted to use, so all I needed was some trim.  I was at Hobby Lobby and spotted this pretty pale pink glass bead trim.  I'm not normally a fan of this type of trim but I'm wanting to add a few feminine touches to my sewing/craft room and this works well with the cream. sage green and light pink colors there.  And I also bought some dark sage green braided trim as a backup.  Plus, they both were on sale.  Woohoo!!

 I finally got to a place where I could set aside some time yesterday to transform this little beauty!  The lamp spindle was a flat white and I wanted to add a bit of color.  So, I pulled out my acrylic paints...Antique White and Snow White.  Once painted with that blend, I wanted to 'stain' it a bit with the antiquing medium in Apple Betty Brown but had to apply an acrylic sealer first.

Once that all dried, I applied another coat of sealer.  Kind of a "smudgy" type finish.  If I had to do it over again, I probably would have just stuck with the snow white not adding the antique white and going with something like a walnut color with the antiquing stuff.  It turned out to be a bit more brown than what I was wanting, but I like it.  I can always change it later, right?

 Now on to the lampshade!  I gave it a little bit of scrubbing to get the dust off.  It was kind of stained but I was going to cover it, so it didn't matter.  I didn't include the braid trim in this picture because I wasn't sure whether I was going to use it or not.  I wanted to use something that made the the entire fabric stick to the shade, so I pulled out the spray adhesive, which I had never used before.

 First, I had to make a pattern.  Grocery sacks make great pattern pieces and keep plenty of them on hand.  Laying the shade on its side, I used my trusty pen for drawing as I rolled the shade around in a semi-circle creating a pattern.

 I cut the fabric on the fold because the pattern went in one direction but ended up cutting it in two pieces anyway because it didn't turn out exactly like I thought it would.

Working my way around, I sprayed a bit then pressed and smoothed out the fabric a bit.  I really loved using the spray adhesive as it allowed me the freedom to reposition the fabric when necessary.  Can you see the ribbed edges of the frame?  Well, I didn't like the way it looked, so I decided to cover them with the braided trim as well as along the top and bottom, which I am really glad I bought.

 I decided to use hot glue for the braided trim slowly working my way with each piece, putting a little glue and then pressing down making sure I got it lined up right cuz once that sucker dries, it's done!

This project became an adhesive menagerie because I used double-sided adhesive tape for the glass beads.  The spray adhesive is a bit messy and, with the dangling beads and ribbon, I could see a catastrophe waiting to happen.  The hot glue wouldn't have allowed me to be able to reposition if I needed to.  So, it was on to the adhesive tape.  In fact, once I got it all on the first time, I didn't like the way it looked so I took it off and did it again.  It is a permanent tape but it takes a bit for it to set up.  By the way, use the scrapbooking kind or craft type, but not the Scotch brand type.  Something on a roll is easier to work with when you're working on a long piece like this.

Ignore the totes in the background.  Those are Christmas decorations that need to go in the attic (door on the left) but I need to put my shelving unit in there first.  Anyway....there you have it.  My little thrift store lamp with just a little bit of glitzy feminine touch.  What do you think?

Now I need to finish the next project/post I've got going on.  But I think I'll go get the massage I've got scheduled this afternoon first. :)

Hope you have a blessed day today, my friend~

            

TIP:  If the double-sided adhesive tape you are using is a bit too wide for your project, just fold the excess back so it's not exposed or in the way.  It's an easy fix without having to buy different widths of tape.

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