So, you know how I’ve put myself on an indefinite leave of absence from Pinterest, right? I was pinning more than I was doing, despite my overwhelming desire to make my home look like any of the pinboards that have “dream home”, “my house”, “house crush”, and “home decor” as a title. I still have a tab live in my browser, but I hold firm and just let the parenthetical tracker of pins tick right on along.
I did, however, get off my duff long enough to snap some photos of my shadowbox and key hook combo that I rigged up. Inspiration came from a post on Young House Love and the hooks came from A.Dodsons before we left Norfolk. There were a few false starts, namely how to MacGvyer a nice background onto the shadowbox, without compromising the effect of the keys. I wanted something to complement the butternut squash color we’ve got on the walls in the kitchen. Finding a crisp, granny smith apple green shade of cardstock wasn’t hard to do. It was the measuring and cutting that had me feeling like I was in some kind of architectural design class. I needed a drafting board, box cutter and a compass to get it to the right dimensions.
Another fun part? Getting the keys to adhere. I tried push pins, glue dots, Liquid Nails, Gorilla Glue, and a scrapbooking tape runner. The pins were too obvious. Glue dots just didn’t have the strength to bear the weight of the keys. Liquid Nails was too messy and bled through the paper. Gorilla Glue? Well, let’s say the bottle had crusted shut and when I pried the top off, the glue was adhered to the sides of the bottle. Seriously, like someone straight out of a John Hughes movie, I peered into the viscous opening and then (dummy) gave the bottle a hefty squeeze. Jets of glue shot up into the air and landed on the counter, the walls, the floor. Thankfully, my eyes and other facial orifices were spared, but the laundry room has had a decidedly sticky quality going on the last few day. In any event, would you believe it’s the tape runner that’s worked the best? There have been a few times since it’s been completed that we’ve heard a little “plink” as a key catapults itself off the backing and into the bottom of the box, so I’m going to give it one more coat. Or just put a piece of duct tape over it. Whatever works.
My handwriting is passable, but when faced with unlined paper, my words tend to drift up towards the sky. I had been tempted to print out the addresses on label, cut them out, and adhere them with glue dots to the backing, but I realized, my less than perfect penmanship adds a subtle charm to this whole project. Plus, the girls were biting at my ankles demanding snack, so clearly I had come to the end of my allotted crafting time.
Despite the constant tacky tread on the laundry room floor, despite the remnants of glue dot backing peppering my work area, and despite my first grade printing (or maybe because of it), when I see what I’ve created, I never fail to smile.