Thursday, April 19, 2012

Let Me Tell Something to Jute

Haha. I kill myself... If you don't get the title check the awesome sauce that is "Happy Feet". Ramon the penguin and his saucy Latin self frequently says "Let me tell something to ju" and "Let me tell ju some ting". I love it!

Anyways, a few weeks ago I had a great idea. All over Pinterest I saw pins of glass vases and styrofoam balls being wrapped in jute (twine, hemp, etc) to give a space texture and a rustic feel. I wanted to incorporate this technique in my home, but I wasn't sure how. Then, one day at Hobby Lobby I was perusing the beautiful monogram letters they have. There are large ones and small ones, white ones, black ones, and a gorgeous metal one that I adore. However, an extra 25 buckaroos for something like that just isn't in the budget. So I kept wandering, and what to my 'wandering' eyes should appear?! A large, CARDBOARD (read- cheapo!) letter 'A' and roll of jute!

So I danced merrily (not really, I was clumsy and broke something and swore I would tell someone then freaked out because I couldn't find anyone so I just ducked away slowly...) to the check out counter and took my happy tail home.

Later on at my kitchen table I took my handy dandy glue gun and got to work.

I put a dot of glue on the backside to anchor the jute and began wrapping, like so:


Now when I got to the middle I just kept wrapping like normal, only I wrapped across the whole thing to get across the middle and then went back to just the one side, like so:


 Now when I got toward the top of the cutout in the letter the angle got kind of weird, so I had to loop it back and forth on that side a few times to keep it going without getting wonky-


To finish it up I just kept going on the right side, following same steps as the left. I added glue when necessary to stabilize the jute and make sure everything was nice and tight. When I finally got done it looked something like this:


Totally cute, right?! I can't explain it, but when projects go right I just get all Valley girl. Kraazay. Anyways, I LOVE it! It adds the perfect amount of texture and interest to the top of our cabinets:

Forgive the last picture... It was dark and it's a tad blurry. Our walls look very chartreuse in the picture, but they are definitely darker and more deeply toned. It's great though. I hope you all like it as much as I do!

I hope your week is finishing up better than mine. IEP Conference after parent conference after IEP conference after zzzzzzzzzzzz....

Sorry I'm a bit tired. Looking forward to getting some pics together this weekend for a quick house tour! Have a great weekend and enjoy some relaxation for me!

Until next time,

3 comments:

  1. I absolutely love it!!!! So, so beautiful! ♥

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  2. Love this idea! What section did you find the cardboard letter in? I've never seen those at our Hobby Lobby.

    Thanks for following!

    -Ashley

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  3. Thanks, Steph!! Trying to keep up with you, you crazy DIY lady! :D

    Ashley, thank you very much! I'm so flattered! I found it around the aisles with the unpainted wood items- they had an aisle with birdhouses, letters, boxes, etc all made out of unfinished wood, and then an aisle of the unfinished cardboard pieces that were similar (boxes, balls, containers, etc) and the letters were tucked away in that aisle. Not where I expected at all! I hope you find them!

    -A

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