Friday, January 20, 2012

Day 324 of 365

Today's picture should be titled, Stay Away From Mod Podge Part Two.

Yesterday's waste of time, fabric, and Mod Podge on the Crystal Light and beef jerky containers should have been a big enough of a deterrent, but they weren't. Today I got myself in even deeper and wasted much more time, fabric, Mod Podge, and even some scrapbook paper.

I have all these fabric squares that I got on Day 131 and Day 185. They've been sitting in stacks inside an old box. I always forget I have them and when I do remember, it takes me forever to sort through all the stacks to find what I want. So I decided to organize the stacks.

I also have more hanging file folders than I'll ever need in a lifetime leftover from when I was teaching. I got this clever idea to cut the file folders down to fit the box that held the stacks of fabric squares. If the file folders fit, I could "file" the squares and be able to see what I was looking for quickly and easily.

But an ugly old box wasn't going to do. Mod Podge and scrapbook paper to the rescue! (Or so I thought.) I've never Mod Podged anything but fabric and now I know why. For when I used that Mod Podge and scrapbook paper on all sides of the box, the paper buckled. After it dried it was even worse.

After much peeling and scraping, the paper came back off. Next up was covering it with fabric. I went through all my usual steps when working with Mod Podge and fabric. When it was dry there was one small problem. The fabric I used was light-colored and the box had some dark printing and colors on it. Obviously Mod Podge doesn't hide what is under the fabric. A pretty, fabric-covered box with lettering and markings showing through wasn't too attractive.

Off came the fabric. But I wasn't going to give up - I had already spent hours and I wasn't about to let the project get the best of me. I tried again with a darker fabric with better results. Not great results, just better.

It's time to leave it alone. Maybe the best solution of all is to start using all those squares. It has been a month since I've worked on a kids' quilt for charity. I think it's time to start back. And time to give up the Mod Podge for good.