Lamp Shade Project #3

Image: Under The Sycamore Tree

Lets look at the rule of 3.

Good things come in 3's - as do the bad. Films, books and plays have a 3 act structure. You could be 3 sheets to the wind or as phony as a 3 dollar bill. It is always: Ready, Steady, Go and after 3 strikes, you're out. Art and photography use the rule of 3rds and any novice interior designer will gabble profusely on the benefits of grouping in 3's. Goldilocks offended and annoyed 3 bears and there were 3 blind mice, 3 wise men and 3 little pigs.

In short, 3 is the magic number. 



So when it comes to my search for the perfect lampshade, it seems to me that the 3rd time's the charm.

This wonderful idea comes from Marie Darby who wrote a guest post for Under The Sycamore Tree
It's a great way to display some of your digital photos that you keep meaning to print out but forget and they end up being stored in a computer file somewhere with a random note such as Sept '08-May '12


Here is what you'll need.

1.A plain white lampshade –  The simpler the shape of the lamp, the easier this project will be.

2.Glue – Marie used a hot glue gun but you could experiment with spray adhesive or other, more permanent scrap booking glues/tapes.

3.Vellum – It's best to  use clear vellum – but you could also buy tinted vellum for a different look.

4.Photos – Select a bunch of photos that you like. Marie used a free program called Picasa (which can be found here) to make her photo collage but I've found that there are plenty of other free programs, such as Photovisi which is very user friendly if you have little to no experience and also PhotoMix a digital scrap booking website with some great tutorials.

5.A printer – Marie used a colour inkjet printer but you can also print on vellum with a laser printer.

6.A craft knife or scissors. A pencil and ruler.

Jump over to Under The Sycamore Tree for Marie's full tutorial and handy tips.

Image: Under The Sycamore Tree

There are so many options, you could print out large photos, black and white or coloured photos and even play around with some words and text. The choice is yours and if you try your hand at making one for a child's room, why not pop on their favourite cartoon character.

Image: Under The Sycamore Tree

And so now, it's time to go and trawl through our stack of Cd's, which are packed to their gills with 100's of photos, randomly labeled Xmas '09 - Italy '12 and try to pick a handful of  memorable moments for my first ever photo montage lamp shade (not including the photo slide lamp shade I made last year, that is!)

Image: Patent Pending Projects

I knew a photo lamp shade was a good idea. I really should listen to myself more often.

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