I Love to Create: La Tour Eiffel Decoupage Lampshade

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In the blink of an eye, little girls become young women. They’re more grown up and they want a more sophisticated bedroom. Total room rehab isn’t always an option but it’s not so hard to make quick and significant changes if you’re crafty. I bought this Eiffel tower lamp at Target about eight years ago, and it’s still available online! I wasn’t terribly fond of the shade that came with it, so I purchased a plain craft paper shade that I’d always intended to embellish. Flash forward eight years...

It’s perfect for my daughter’s newly revamped room! We used white tissue paper stamped with archival ink (you need to be sure your ink is waterproof or it will bleed when it gets wet.) I got a great decoupage trick from crafty diva Pattie Wack at CHA and used Aleene’s Tacky Glue® glue stick to adhere the torn pages on the shade instead of decoupage medium which can get very messy very quickly! Here are the instructions! Bon chance!

La Tour Eiffel Lampshade
Teen Craft
Margot Potter for I Love to Create

Materials
Kraft Paper lampshade
Eiffel Tower lamp base from Target
White tissue paper
Vintage or new off white buttons in various sizes
1 yard black chiffon ruffle trim (JoAnn Fabrics)
Ranger Jet Black archival ink
Hero Arts Old French Writing stamp H2365
Inkadinkado Flourish stamp 96253-P
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage™ in Glossy
Aleene’s Tacky Glue® glue stick
Aleene’s Fast Grab™ Tacky Glue®
Aleene’s Jewel-It®

Tools
Foam brush

1. Wipe shade off with a dry cloth to remove any dust or dirt.

2. Stamp a large sheet of white tissue paper with archival ink and the writing stamp. Add stamped flourish accents. Allow to dry.
3. Tear each stamped section leaving frayed edges.
4. Adhere paper segments to lamp using glue stick. Make sure to cover back of each sheet completely. Work from the center using your fingers to gently adhere paper to lamp and work out any wrinkles or bubbles.
5. Overlap sheets and don’t worry about any small gaps, you can go back and fill those in later with smaller paper segments.6. Spread a thin layer of decoupage medium over lamp using a foam brush. Use brush to work out wrinkles or bubbles. Don’t stress too much, texture is good! Allow to dry for several hours or overnight.7. Adhere ribbon trim to bottom and top edge of lamp using Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. Allow to dry. 8. Adhere buttons of various sizes to shade using Jewel-It Glue. Allow to dry. C'est tres chic, n'est pas?