I Took A Page From Martha Stewart's Book!

The title, awesome, don't you think? The reason why I say I took a page from Martha Stewart's book is because well, my lovies, I happen to craft... a lot! Bet you didn't know that?

Yes, it's true. When I'm not killing myself on my pole or blogging about the best coffee or neatest little bar of soap, I'm probably sewing or crafting! I am actually a pretty creative little thing!

Unfortunately, I don't have Martha Stewart's patience or talent, but I like to try. I also like to cut corners.

So when I say I took a page from Martha Stewart's book, that's because I seen her doing a neat little hobby--decorating cardboard boxes with rolled magazine pages! Funny, my witty title, huh?

You see, with lots of shipping, I end up with lots of these cardboard boxes so one day I found myself stuffing junk in them. I thought 'what an ugly box that is, with all my lovely supplies stuffed inside. It just doesn't belong in this room, being all ugly like that.' I had recently gotten a shipment from I believe Zaphon (remember, the pink sparkly dress? Zaphon also wrapped it in gorgeous lavendar paper.) So I grabbed that lovely lavendar paper, taped it onto the box and bam! Beautiful storage box. Then I managed to come across some lovely purple ribbon so I tied it around the once ugly box and bam! A lovely gift for my lovely sister! I liked it so much, I started doing this with most boxes I got.

I ended up with a bookshelf full of these gorgeous boxes I've decorated... I'll have to add a photo of them to put in this post! I have pink, sparkly pink, funky print, leopard print. ALL sorts of neat storage boxes, each small enough to line my bookshelf.

 When I saw Martha Stewart crafting up a box with rolled magazine pages, I liked it enough to do it. Of course I can't take much credit since it's not my own idea, but it was so neat I couldn't pass up using someone else's idea! 

  The first one, I tried doing the pages unique--not straight up and down. Turned out looking strange, but I liked that I made it my own. The second one, I said to hell with that sideways idea--it's hard! Then I resorted to straight up and down. You can see that the straight up and down box looks strange, the pages are uneven, but oh well. 

 In the process of gluing, Fuzz decided to use the box as her bed! She is a huge fan of these boxes. I believe this one is her bed now. Ha Ha. She sleeps in it all the time.

WANT TO KNOW HOW?
Well, you could always watch Martha do it like I did, but I figured if I'm gonna blog about it, might as well give you some info on how to do it.

First, save magazines. Cut tons of pages out. Use glue, but here's your warning: DO NOT USE that crappy Elmer's "repositioning" glue. It was the worst waste of $2 I've ever spent. The crap won't glue a flies legs to paper. Instead, I found that the cheapest glue works best! I ended up using UH-OH stick or something like that-- it's purple. I've found most cheap, purple glue works best. At one point I ran out and used some purple cheap brand of glue that came from my 12 year old's teacher. Forgot the name, but it worked well!

Now, you have your good, cheap glue. If you're like Martha, you'll use a pencil and roll the paper up. (Start with a corner!) If you're like me, you'll say screw getting your pencil glued inside the paper and simple use your hands--much faster.

Then, you'll need a hot glue gun. Cut the rolls of paper to fit your box. This way they won't be sticking up, taller than your box. Then, hot glue those babies on the box. One by one. 

I've been pretty frustrated with this project, but it makes such lovely boxes. The glue is just annoying. Easy project though. You could even join the kids in on it.

  Before you go, say hello to Hubert!