It took me five years to do it.
Okay, not really.
But I did buy this huge letter W five years ago. And it sat in the dining room, and then on top of the china closet, and finally, in my clothes closet. And then it got packed up and moved to Florida with us where it resumed its spot on top of the china closet - until today.
I was standing on one of the dining room chairs looking for something on top of the china closet and I saw the W and I thought about how ridiculous it was that it's been, literally, years, and I have not completed this project.
And then I thought about how many other things I push off, I pretend that I don't need to do or just can't plain make a decision about and so I keep that task or project or whatever on my to-do list and it never gets crossed off.
So today was the day. Or rather, this afternoon was the afternoon.
I thought it would take much longer to decoupage my W than it did. I started printing pictures at around 12pm and it's now 8pm and it's all done. But it didn't take 8 hours. That would be silly because I don't have eight hours to do anything, ever and also because in between 12pm and 8pm I made dinner, folded a load of laundry, did the 2pm school pick up, colored, baked corn muffins, did the 3pm school pickup, did homework, served a snack, sang a few songs, cleared the table for dinner, did the 4pm school pickup (!), served dinner, cleared dinner, washed the dishes, packed five lunchboxes for tomorrow, did more homework, cleaned up the playroom, got four kids into pajamas and everyone into bed.
So this project must have taken, what, five minutes?
No. Not five minutes. But somewhere between five minutes and three hours, I would say. I guess it depends on how big your letter is and also if you decide to decoupage the sides and bottoms of your letter.
But let me back up here for a second and tell you what I did.
First, many years ago, I saw this project here and I loved it.
Then I printed them in black and white, cut them out and the layed them out on the W to see how they would look.
And that's when I realized that I did not have nearly enough pictures, so back to the computer for 25 more.
Wash, rinse and repeat. In total, I probably used about 100 pictures so just keep that in mind when making yours.
To attach the pictures to the W (which by the way, is nothing more than cardboard; I think it's a base for a papermache project, very light-weight) I used Modge Podge and a foam brush. Modge Podge dries clear so I was not neat about this at all, but I was careful because the printer paper is very thin and I did not want the pictures to rip.
Glue the pictures to the front and then do the same to the sides and tops and bottoms of you letter. The tops and sides and bottoms are really optional. In theory, you could paint them a solid color or just leave them as is, but many of my pictures wrapped around the sides of the letter a little here and there so it was all very uneven after I finished the front of the letter.
And I really do like how the W looks wrapped in pictures from all angles.
Now I just have to figure out where to hang it. I had the perfect spot for it in our old house, but now I'm not so sure what to do.
But I need to figure it out. It can't really live on the kitchen table.
Now on to the next project - pulling out all the Chanukah decorations and figuring out where they go in this new house of ours.
Oh, old house, how I missed you today with your fantastic W spot and awesome Chanukah decoration mantle.
I didn't know it would be such a challenge making this new house into a home.
:)
Jen