craftgrrl | Fancifying the Bed (Reply)

I've never had a headboard on my bed, and I hate that look... I feel like the bed looks unfinished, like you're staying there temporarily, or like you're in a college dorm. Well, yesterday, since I have a quilt that has to be finished in four weeks and I'm nowhere near close, I decided to ignore that project altogether and finally make something that, although not a headboard, would give the illusion of being a part of the bed, and kind of finishing the look.

I saw a cool project done with old magazines on the internet a while back... I think it might have been in this community? I remember it was a member's mother's work. Unfortunately I didn't save the page, so I can't remember the artist who inspired me, but if you know her, please let me know! UPDATE! rocketdreams has saved the day by telling me it is Patricia Zapata who came up with this awesome idea. See here for her deets.

I went to Michaels, got some awesome $8 frames (although if you get a really nice cashier, she'll let you buy one at a time and use the 50%-off-one-item coupon three times). I also got three large sheets of textured white paper for a couple of bucks each. I mixed in an Exacto knife, some hand-drawn stencils, a handful of old Vanity Fair magazines, so for about $20 and eight hours of The Golden Girls, I got these!

I made them by tearing out sheets from the magazines that were mostly purple, brown, and green. I sliced them into strips and glued them onto a flat sheet of bristol board, alternating them with strips of plain text. Then I cut the floral design into the textured paper. The prints are not matted, but I cut the edges of the flowers flat so that they would look like they were matted. Then I just taped the board with the strips on it to the underside of the stenciled paper and popped them into the frame.

I believe this brown one is very similar to the original design I saw online, although if I remember correctly, the strips were multi-coloured in that one, and the flower a bit different:

I'm least excited about this green one... I feel like it doesn't quite fit in because it's not full enough, but was too tired of Exacto-ing to go back and re-do it. I wonder if I tried putting in a couple of leaves? Or would it just look crowded...

Purple hibiscus:

Here is a close-up. I just noticed that there are at least two instances of the word "sex" in this one, which I hope brings good luck to my bed. One of them has a question mark on the end, though... that might not bode well.

I'm so excited that I actually managed to finish these, and even hang them! (I am most productive when I have a task that needs doing, but unfortunately what's produced is never related to the task that needs doing.) Now I need to go pick up eight thousand tiny bits of Vanity Fair in my living room.