How is it possible that a new lamp including the lampshade is cheaper than a lampshade alone?
Anyway, I was glad that my parents gave me their old lampshade including a fully functional lamp. I needed a new one since my old lamp took a lethal flight onto our living room floor…
Ugly as the lampshade was, it needed a thorough makeover. I took some photos of the process. You can click on the images to enlarge them.
That’s what the thing looked before. What you can’t see is that the fabric was covered with yellowish stains – eeew!
I had the idea to use my collection of Washi Tape (aka Masking Tape) for the makeover. Full of confidence, I ripped off a strip of tape and attached it to the lampshade. The strip didn’t stick at all, it simply peeled off. Aaargh!


I needed a primer. My choice: Ordinary wood glue – it dries fast and works great on fabric. With a broad brush, applying the primer was a snap.


My idea was to attach the tape in the order of rainbow colors. But the bell-bottomed shape made it difficult to arrange them evenly – I always got a gap towards the bottom edge. A neutral tape with polka dots was the perfect solution as a fill-in between the colored tape strips.


After a while I had worked out how to get an even result.


Having covered the whole lampshade, I carefully lifted the first strip to tape it over the last strip. A first test with light: Yaaay!

To prevent the tape from peeling off again, I covered it with a thick coat of Mod Podge, carefully smoothing it with my fingers.

I trimmed the edges of the tape …


… and glued them around the lampshade’s edge with Mod Podge.


To give it a neat finish, I covered the inside of the edge with a simple cotton ribbon.


So this is the illuminated lamp <3 ...



… and again in daylight before a neutral background. Yippeeh!
Here’s the direct comparison:

How do you like it?

I’d like to submit this entry to:

My main job in the offline world: I’m a teacher for early music and art education and for recorder. 
Here’s a tutorial I originally posted on my other homepage, but I wanted to include the English version, too. So here you go:

The children’s favorite rhythm instruments are the jingle bell bracelets. Mine are made of plastic, and they are almost broken from wearing them so often, so I decided to craft some new bracelets with the kids.

All you need are thick terry cloth hairbands, thin hairbands, and large jingle bells. I found mine at Ebay.

For one bracelet, pull one thin hairband halfway through a bell’s ring. Pull one of the loops through the other one. Now, while holding the bell on top of the thick hairband, pull the loop through the hairband and over the bell – that’s it. You’ll have to attach at least three bells to each hairband for a good sounding bracelet.

The tutorial in pictures:

Even the kids’ toy pets love to play with the jingle bells! :D