Craftiness!

Confession: I LOVE being crafty.

Confession #2: I'm not very good at it. 

I mean, really, I just used a hot glue gun for the first time a few months ago. Aaaand, I can't even sew. At all. Imagine the possibilities if I could sew! I should take a class... 

Ok, that's all beside the point....

Last weekend I decided to be a bit crafty, but I knew I had to start small. 

What could be smaller than a light switch plate? Is that what you call them??

STEP 1: Gather your supplies: light switch plate (either from your wall or from a hardware store); Mod Podge (I used the matte kind); an Xacto knife; some sort of paintbrush or sponge; whatever paper you're going to use to cover the plate; a magazine or some other surface you can use to cut on.

STEP 2: Have your paper ready (I chose to use a book page for this one), and cover the front of the plate with a nice layer of Mod Podge. Oh! And make sure you protect the surface you're working on! I used wax paper.

STEP 3: Press the plate face down onto the paper (not onto the side you want showing--did that. oops!) Flip the plate over and press down and smooth out the paper for about 30 seconds or so (let's be real, I didn't time myself--just press it down until it feels like it's sticking!).

STEP 4: Flip the plate back over, cut a slit from the corner of the paper to the corner of the plate. Put a bit of Mod Podge on the back of the plate and fold over each side (pressing down until it feels like it's sticking). Then, when it's "dry", trim off the little corner edges that are left.

STEP 5: Add a couple of layers of Mod Podge to the front of the plate (letting each layer dry before adding the new one). Sorry, I guess I don't have a picture for that. I'm sure you can figure it out.


STEP 6: Get a magazine (or some other surface that won't be super damaged when using an Xacto knife. Flip the plate over to the back and cut out the holes where your light switches go. Flip it back over the front (as shown below) and cut out the holes where the screws go.

NOTE: If I were to do this again, I'd do this step slightly differently. With the plate flipped over, I'd cut an X across the space where the light switch goes. Then, I'd simply fold over the extra paper onto the back and Mod Podge it like I had done with the rest of the paper. (Hope that makes sense--sorry I don't have a visual.) Just cutting out the rectangle made for some imperfections that I wasn't a huge fan of.

STEP 7:  Let dry and mount back on the wall!!! Below is one I did with a book page. The book pages are a lot more fragile than other paper, so this one ripped a bit when I was trying to get a bubble out of it. Oh well, little imperfections are still neat looking!

Here's another one done with a book page.

And, yet another one.... This was actually the first one I did, so I learned a bit from my mistakes. 

And, finally one done with scrapbook paper. I think this one turned out the best, although I LOVE my book-page plates!

Being crafty is fun (and can be easy!)!! Give it a try and let me know how it goes!