Toile Owl

I 've been racking my brain for today's project. After a super social weekend (aka slacking) I came to work today feeling so very Monday. Have you ever been so exhausted that even walking home pisses you off? Someone is walking too close to you and it's just so infuriating? Yea, that was me today. Then I took a brief catnap and voila! - the genius set in.

I've had this lamp from Ikea for awhile. I bought it because it was so cheap. The base was $5 and the lampshade $4. I never used it because the lightbulb size was annoying. And since my room is tiny, I don't have anymore open surfaces to put another lamp. But, I'm moving to a larger place in Astoria soon! (who actually moves to New York into a bigger place?) I get to decorate and start anew- I'm just thinking about the things I've been making and how even more mistmatched my new room will be. At least I could use the excuse of "clutter" in my current closet sized room. At least there is a bit of reason to my chaos in that most of my stuff really screams ZIZZZZZLER! I had an acquaintance that has the WORST decorating style ever. I named it "The Noah's Ark Syndrome," in that everything she has is completely and utterly mismatched, so her twisted logic was that getting two of the same thing made it all "go together." Two ugly Ikea wood lampbases with ugly lampshades, two empty WINE BOTTLES with ROSES in them (!), two black short floating shelves with two matching tea light holders on them. At least my stuff clashes so bad its good. So naturally, I needed to make another thing with toile, since toile doesn't really go with any other fabric or print... keep the chaos alive!
Before I ramble even more, here's what you'll need:

• Fabric remnant- about one square foot or so
• ModgePodge or other decoupage glue
• Hot glue gun
• Paintbrush, scissors, paper, an image you like and marker for tracing
• Ribbon, length depending on lampshade size
• A lamp and shade!

This idea came to me out of nowhere. I googled "owl drawings" and found one to copy. I can draw, but not well from memory and I haven't seen an owl in a tree for at least a week in Philadelphia (I am not funny). I sketched one on paper then traced it on a "busy" part of the toile and cut it out. FYI, I got like 3 yards of the toile from this discount store called Jo-Mar for $2/yard. They sell everything there from Precious Moments to maternity clothes. It's weird.
Then using the very last of my jar of ModgePodge, I carefully painted the back of the cut out with a big paint brush and smoothed it onto the lampshade. Modgepodge works best because it provides an even coat. A lampshade will have light shining through it (duh), which would show any glue spots or errors from other glues, so decoupage glue like ModgePodge work best. Being the weirdo I am, I had saved the ribbon (with pre-tied bow) from a Victoria's Secret gift box from like 2 years ago. I KNEW I'd need it some day! I hot glued the bow first, then the rest around the top and bottom of the lampshade. Then I stole a little lightbulb from a lamp in the living room...oops.
I made this in about an hour while watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on the Family Channel. It probably would've taken me a lot less time, but I kept having to stop to wipe my eyes because the stupid movie was making me bawl like a baby.