Guest blog tutorial provided by Bonnie from Bonnbonn on Etsy.

This is an easy, affordable and beautiful lighting solution that was inspired by Shannon South’s gorgeous upcycled Doily Lamp.

You will need:

1. Flat frame (no ornate carvings or or anything like that, those I usually paint instead). The one I fave here was bought from a dollar store, so it's very simple.
2. Old unwanted magazine, or anything else that has similar size and quality pages.
3. Brush
4. Mod Podge (glossy) or any other similar product.

Steps:

1. Fold and cut paper into strips. Size of strips will depend on the frame, I needed ¾ inch strips for mine (1/16 of a page)


2. Roll strips into tight rolls and make a ton of them. I usually cut strips and roll them while watching TV because it takes a a lot of time.

3. Apply thick layer of Mod Podge to the frame. I usually do it one side at a time to leave less time for the glue to dry.

4. Place rolls of paper on the frame next to one another.

5. After the glue is dry, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the all exposed sides of rolls and frame.

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I have been collecting crocheted squares for over three years. Basically, anytime I have scrap yarn left over from a project I would whip up one of these nifty little squares. The problem is I never got around to deciding what I wanted to do with them and how to put them together.


I belong to a wonderful group on Etsy called the Create Crochet Team. This is a team for crochet lovers. We share our work, ask questions and have monthly challenges. The monthly challenges are for fun and allow us to learn new techniques and express our creativity.

In April, one of the challenges was to learn a new technique. So I decided to learn a new technique on how to join crochet squares. Normally I would just sew them together or so single crochet stitches all the way around. After a search on google I found a tutorial on how to do a flat braid crochet joining method.



I love the way the stitches came out and I think this will be the way I go from now on. I am still slowly joining squares and hopefully I will have this blanket done soon. So stay tuned for pictures!


If you want to take a look at some other new techniques my teammates learned, go to our team blog: http://createcrochet.blogspot.com/ or our facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/CreateCrochetEtsyTeam