Today is a two-fer!

This post is a two-for-one! Hooray! Since I have made many different things out of these cheap IKEA lamps, I figured I’d lump them all together in one post. Anytime I go to a city with an IKEA, I have to buy some of these lamps. Cheap and perfect for crafts.

My two favorite things: Scrapbook paper and mod podge! Anything I can find to glue paper to will soon have paper glued to it. Originally, my dad turned me onto these lamps and this idea. It was to mod podge film strips to the lamps. What a wonderful idea! I have tons of film, as my prior major was photography.

So I decided that I wanted the big lamp for this project (The pack comes with the bigger one and a smaller one). I dug out my old film and started organizing. I decided that I wanted the film to go horizontally instead of vertically. Then I started gluing! This was my first mod podge project, so I didn’t quite know how it worked. I experimented a little and ended up having to use more glue than I expected, because the film wasnt sticking around the edges. But after awhile, it looked like this:

(Notice, some of the edges are sticking up- I used rubber bands to secure the film to the lamp until the glue dried.) Once everything was dry, I took off the rubber bands and everything stuck!

It’s not perfect, and some of the film overlaps, but as it was my first project of this type I was still pretty proud. Here it is in it’s final resting place.

(You may notice the keys in the frame next to it- that was a simple project I can describe quickly. While I was in Europe, I went to an antique store and bought a handful of keys for a few euros. When I brought them home, I knew I wanted to do something with them, but wasn’t sure what. I had this frame that the glass had broken, so I decided that was what I would use. I took a piece of printer paper, used acrylic paint and painted it gold, then used hot glue and glued the keys to the paper. then I glued the paper to the back of the frame, and there you have it! The frame is actually hanging on its own on a wall now, keys still inside, although it fell once and all the keys came off- so maybe try some stickier glue!)

The next time I got these lamps, I decided to put scrapbook paper on them. (With one of the smaller ones, I used tissue paper.)

Here is the one with tissue paper:

I tried to cut it so the seams would match and not overlap, as you would see this when the lamp is on. Be careful with tissue paper, because it’s very thin and when wet with glue can tear very easily. It also gets bubbles and warps, so if you’re a perfectionist, I would avoid this type of craft. :P

Here is one I made for my best friend’s daughter’s bedroom. After it was finished I decided to add a white ribbon around it, about an inch from the top.

These aren’t perfect either, but as far as I am concerned, home-made crafts are supposed to have a little personality!

This next one is my favorite. I found this paper and LOVED it, and had it for awhile before I found a project for it.

As this is the bigger lamp, my one block of scrapbook paper didn’t reach top to bottom, so I used a ribbon to cover up the seam. I used an extra layer of mod podge over the top of all of these to keep everything down and make sure the paper wouldn’t tear.

I have one more lamp that I need to cover, but I think I might wait until I know the perfect way to do it!