I'm constantly purchasing and spray-priming empty boxes and containers to prep them for the inevitable decoupaging. I pile them up and pile them up until the day finally comes when I can no longer stand to look at them, which is when I bring out the folding table and the Mod Podge.
Some back story on these projects:
Once upon a time there was a thing called a "newspaper." I've been working in IT for a long time, and I used to stop for coffee and the paper on the way to work every day. There's plenty of downtime working IT because we're basically data security guards, so I had time to kill. I would read the whole thing cover to cover.
One of my favorite sections was the comics page. But not because it was funny... you ever read Judge Parker? Mark Trail? How about Mary Worth? These are some of the most stuffy, boring, hilariously out-of-touch comics you could imagine. Every day I would laugh heartily at their ridiculous depiction of "cool" teenagers and drugged-out hooligans. I began cutting my favorites out and piling them in an envelope for later. Sometimes the whole strip, but most times just one bizarre panel, made even weirder by being removed from context. I have tons of them. I loved these comics so much that I even participated in a petition to keep them from removing Judge Parker from the paper!! HA! Then I pretty much switched to the online paper and stopped buying it. But we won! My voice was heard! Ahh. It was a great feeling.
So I finally put those strips to good use. This is a wooden tray I've been hanging onto forever.
It's just too much to photograph and post every panel, even though I wish I could. But here's a closeup of one of my faves:
See what I mean? Hilarious! I arranged them into a kind of pseudo-story so that one panel sort of flows into the next. It's not perfect, but it makes me laugh every time I read it.
I trimmed out some scrapbooking paper to put on the sides because I felt like putting more comics on would be too busy:
That's yet another box behind it that I'm still trying to find a use for.
I also have this jewelry box. This is the first time I've removed hardware, decoupaged, and replaced all the hardware, and I seem to have done it correctly! Hooray!
The woman right of center is saying "I don't need my "A" game to beat you, Muffy!" EVERYONE IS NAMED MUFFY. (Except everyone that is named Cookie. Hilarious!)
I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out. I purchased a set of shelves at Goodwill that I'm using as an "Outbox" for all this crap so I have somewhere to pile it all before it goes wherever it's going. These went into the Outbox to await their fate.
I also covered this dumb twee heart shaped box with black spray primer and panels from a free comic I got somehow. The comic wasn't good but the illustrations are, so I just removed all the wording and used only the pictures.
It's hella grim and depressing. I cut out the title and the name of the illustrator and pasted them to the bottom of the box. Credit where credit is due:
While digging around in my clippings, I found a disappointing rap magazine that I have had forever. It had three useful items in it:
1. A picture of Tupac, which I mailed to Gaby;
2. An interview with Method Man, which I considered keeping but then mailed to Gaby; and
3. An interview with Fat Joe, who I love to death, with an accompanying tiny photo of Joe in the corner of the front cover.
I cut his tiny Fat head out and crammed it into this blank pendant base, securing him with Mod Podge:
The husband thinks he looks like Confucius. He's not wrong. Then I wore it to work to see if anyone would notice.
They didn't.
One last item, and it isn't decoupage, it's just paper and a glue stick. I was regifted "The Book of Bunny Suicides." The recipient didn't think it was funny, and she had already tried to unload it on others with no success. I didn't think it was funny either, but the illustrations were good, so I took it and tossed it on the pile with a shrug.
Then a couple weeks ago I talked myself into buying a $10 craft magazine at Publix and now I can't remember what it's called. But one of the crafts inside involved making paper flowers with a big scalloped hole punch. I immediately thought of this dumb book, and how I could make gift tags out of the pages. I grabbed my 40% off Joanne's coupon and dashed over to purchase this miraculous tool! Of course the Martha Stewart section had a hella expensive version. (Pro Tip: Check out the Martha section to see what sort of crafting supplies the store sells, because it's a pretty good indication. Find what you're looking for, then head out into the rest of the store to purchase the less expensive version. Trust me.) I found a cheaper brand, got 40% off, went home, poured some whisky, put on "Spookies" (thanks, Brah!) and made a whole pile of these:
I punched out one piece of bunny page and then one piece of scrapbooking paper stock for a backer because the book pages aren't really very stiff on their own, and just glued them together. Then I punched a hole with a smaller scalloped punch that I already had. Later I'll tie them to gifts and write on them with a brightly colored Sharpie. The papers don't match up perfectly, which was a disappointment, but whatever, I'm only using them for gift tags. And I made use of the regift! Huzzah! (In my excitement I drunk-texted the wrong person, proudly attaching a photo of my accomplishment. She congratulated me and suggested I text the person that actually gave me the book. Then she decided to take full credit anyhow. She's a criminal mastermind.)
If I remember later I'll put the title of the craft magazine in here, because it had several useful ideas in it, and there were virtually no ads, just some crafting supply places and jewelry making conventions. I'll happily pay $10 for no ads. Especially when it helps me kill a few hours at work.
