When changing up the decor in my home, there is nothing better on my wallet then making it myself.
But for me there is a hard line between crafty and cheap. I am always afraid I am going to make something and after it's done it will look cheesy or worse.
Cheap!
So when I spied a ton of moss decor in a trendy home decor store, I knew moss was going to be it this year. It was also a sign when I started searching for some decor inspiration for my Niece's baby shower, moss covered items were hot.
and in high demand.
Color me intrigued! I was also curious how many books I could do with one package of moss that comes in a long sheet.
So with my craft store app on my cell phone, off to the craft store I went.
60% off and I scored big.
I bought one roll of moss ribbon and two packages of moss for thirty bucks. I forgot to check the measurements for the moss sheets but it was about 18" wide by 4 feet long. Before the coupons it was 15.99 for one sheet. I got 5 books fully covered with one sheet.
I was able to completely cover 10 books because the sheets of moss were wide enough, to hot glue the books flap to flap, running width wise of the moss sheets. Not lengthwise. I laid each book wide open, positioned the flaps between the two sides and glued the spine first.
I had 10 books done in two hours. It would have gone much much quicker, but after dropping a lot of curse words at my ten dollar glue gun, I quit and literally hit Home Depot for a higher wattage model that would actually melt glue.
Little warning, do not do this if your vacuum cleaner is broken and you don't own a broom. It makes a huge mess as you can see visible on my floor in the shot above.
The moss ribbon called my name and I used it on 4 books as stripes.
I also intentionally pulled and stretched the moss ribbon so it wasn't a perfect line or edge.
I'm going for woodsy, rustic.
I am loving how they turned out. I actually was only going to do one book and see if it would be a good item in a woodland centerpiece for my Niece's baby shower.
But after doing all 14 books I am calling them mine and if she likes them, then Auntie will loan them to her for her Shower. I have several ideas where they can go, so I will be playing with decor this week for sure.
The books I bought 2 years from a thrift store for a buck a piece. Even if I paid full price for the moss the cost to do one book is about $3.00. Not bad considering the store I saw them in, wanted twenty bucks per book.