Better After

This weeks Better After is a project that I have been meaning to do for a looooong time!!

My Grandad made these little shelves probably when I was about Abbeys age! There are 3 shelves and they have been around a long time. I used to put all my little ornaments and figurines on them. They were one of my most favourite things. At various houses we have lived in we have had these on the wall in Abbey's bedroom. I thought it was time to make them much more pretty and girly and more Abbey-like.

I didn't take during pics but I will explain to you in steps what I did ...

Step 1:  I pulled off the hideous green felt. Grandad put it on so my "things" wouldn't slip. Very thoughtful and I guess that is all that was around at the time ...... It left some of the shelves rather sticky which I was quite surprised with since it's been on there for a good 30 years!!

Step 2: I gave every surface a gentle sand. Just to rough it up slightly.

Step 3: Using the topper most shelf I made a template on cardboard. I tipped the shelf upside down and drew around it. I then cut around the template and then used it to cut out the papers Abbey had chosen for her shelf. To have covered the whole shelf in the same paper would have taken three 12x12 scrapbooking sheets. And of course because of Murphy and his law I only had a maximum of two of each of the sheets Abbey chose! I really wanted to use my stash rather than get new stuff so we decided to go with 3 different papers from the same range. These papers were from the DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies stack.

Step 4: Using Mod Podge I glued each sheet onto the shelf. To get the paper around the dowel I punched holes, again using the template, and then cut from the edge into the hole. I just glued it up at the cut when sticking it to the shelf.

Step 5: After letting it dry over night, the next thing I did was sand off the overlapping paper from the edges. You could also just cut off the overhang but I like to sand it because it gives it a nice smooth surface. I then had to do a touch up paint around the edges so in hind site I would paint the edges after sanding the paper next time.

And that was it!!

This is the end result

I LOVE them, so does Abbey!! Now I have two more of the same shelves to do for Abbey and one which is a little less "frilly" for Riley. I can't wait to get them all done and up on the wall in the kids bedrooms!