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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

{A School-worthy Lamp Makeover}

Do you know the saying about the cobbler's children having no shoes?  Well, a lot of times, I feel like that cobbler.  I make pretty things, but I often give them away or purposefully make them for others.  I've been trying to work on that--I did the whole craft room makeover, and I've made myself some jewelry.  Sadly, one place that was almost completely lacking the Pitter and Glink touch was my classroom.  I have a lot of photographs I've taken, a lamp I revamped on my desk, and a canvas I painted; but that just wasn't enough.  I decided to give an old lamp a school-worthy makeover.
I started with this plain lamp fresh from the closet, where all unused lamps wait patiently for their time to shine again.  Pun intended.  ;)
I covered all the components with aluminum foil to protect them from spray paint, and then I sprayed the entire base yellow, one of my school's colors.
To finish the base, I applied Rub 'n Buff to all the nooks and crannies to help them stand out.  And since a newly-spray-painted lamp base is nothing without a revamped lampshade, I had to work my magic on it too.
I put a piece of cardboard over the hole in the top of the shade and sprayed it with blue, my school's other color.  This turned out pretty neat, except for the fact that weird fuzzies were all over the shade after the spray paint dried.  My solution was to lightly sand the lampshade with 220 grit sandpaper  Then I used hot glue to embellish the shade with ric-rac and felt and fabric flowers.
I stuck the shade on the base, and now I have a school-worthy revamped lamp.
The spray painted shade reminds me of washed denim, and the blue flowers resemble pom-poms.
I love how the details on the base stand out because of the Rub 'n Buff.
This little beauty will make me smile when I look at it.  I'm sure I'll need that smile some days...  :)
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12 comments:

  1. Very cute! I forget to craft for myself a lot of the time. lol. It happens!

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  2. Dude! That lamp rocks!!! Love that rub and buff stuff!!!!

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  3. I love it! I need one of these for my classroom. I definitely understand that need for a smile every once and a while.

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  4. So adorable! Perfect for your desk at school!

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  5. So cute, I love the colors. I have a couple lamp shades that I want to change, I think I'll just spray paint them now! Thanks for the inspiration! :)

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  6. Your lamp turned out great! Makes me want to redo one of the ones in my craft room.
    Happy Wednesday!
    xo
    vivian

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  7. Super charming!! Love how it turned out!
    My latest post: Feathered Nest Friday

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  8. What a cute lamp! I feel like my personality and style comes out best in my clothing and home crafts but it always seems hard for me to translate that creativity to my classroom. I'm so glad you figured out a way to bring the pitter and glink style to your classroom!

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  9. I can't believe that lampshade is sprayed, it looks like denim fabric. awesome job!

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  10. That looks amazing! We'd love for you to share this at our party! http://housewivesofriverton.blogspot.com/2012/09/riverton-housewives-round-up-31.html

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  11. Hi, Bethany

    This looks great! Love the yellow on the base!

    Vanessa

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  12. Love your lamp! I like the base and I love felt flowers! That's beautiful!

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