DIY Library Book Container

I'm finally back!  After a crazy semester and a lot of soul searching as to whether I should keep up the blog.  When I started blogging, it was such a pleasure to discover other women my age who were interested in decorating and crafts, vintage and cooking, and all the little details that make life fun & warm.  Blogging has changed quite a bit and there is a lot of pressure to make your blog look perfect and your projects super creative and, for that matter, to be working on something at all times.  I'm not really up for that at this point.  However, I am up for continuing to share what I'm up to and to continue to connect with the amazing people that I've met & continue to meet!  Though, sometimes I wonder if you are still there...if ya are, could ya raise your hand in a comment, just so I know that you are still out there?

Having said that, I do have a project to share.  I actually finished this in the fall, but darned school got in the way of me blogging about it.  I saw this cute project on Pinterest:

(I'm sorry, I cannot find a link to the original creator, as my pinterest link says "Google".  If you know of the creator, please let me know & I will give appropriate credit.) We were always mixing up library books in our own books, so we definitely needed a special place for the library books.

Super cute, but I couldn't find one of those old magazine stands for less than $30 or $40.  Really???  But, walking through IKEA one day, I spied this:

$9.99. My little mind started going and thought "with a little paint and some lettering like she does, I might be able to work this out...."

What you need to do:

-take out the box pieces & spray paint the wood pieces whatever color you like.  Let the paint dry.

-print your desired text in a large font on a piece of paper & then rub colored chalk all over the back side of that paper.

-place the paper, chalk side down on the surface that you would like to letter & outline the letters with pencil (don't use a sharpie like I did at first -- it bleeds through -- whoops)

-pull off the paper & you will see the letter outlines in chalk.  Very carefully paint in the letters with craft paint & a small brush.  Let the paint dry. (for more detailed instructions on lettering, check out this link)

-put together the box as per IKEA's instructions & you have a box for your library books:

It's worked out really well -- we put all of our library books in the box, only keeping out the one that we are currently reading.  Before I go to the library, I ask her which ones she is done with and return those.  No more misplaced books!

 

Comments

[julie]

Hi! I love Hope's new library book box. You did a great job with the lettering. I think I need one for myself! I agree that blogging has definitely changed since we first began ours. I hope you'll continue as I'm always happy to see when a post of yours comes up! Enjoy what looks like will be a chilly weekend.

[Betty]

Blogging has changed. I still enjoy seeing projects, but long ago I decided I'd probably never get around to doing them. I had such good intentions. And some of my favorite blogs now have so many ads and other things that they're pulling in when the page loads that I end up clicking them away. Seems I'm always in a rush. I've seen some people stop blogging because of all the self imposed pressure they put on themselves. If they had just cut back and only blogged once every few weeks or so that would have been fine. Then they'd still be around. There's just more to life than sitting in front of a computer. Enjoy your life and post when you can! Your library return box turned out great!