Monday Made It

Good Morning!  It's Monday Made It time, ya'll!

I'm excited to share what I've been up to this past week.  I've been spending a lot of time getting some of my larger crafty to-dos done and last week was no different.  I've been working in my classroom here and there for the past few weeks.  I usually spend about two 8 hour days a week.  I've moved classrooms so I had to do A TON of unpacking.  I felt like that was going to take forever!  I finally got my unpacking done.  If you are interested in the progress I made, you can check out my latest post here.

So, I got some crazy idea that I *needed* to paint all my furniture white... really?  What was I thinking??  It has taken a ton of paint and a ton of time.  But, it's done.

Ok, on to my Made It.  This is not my original idea.  Jill from Controlling My Chaos shared her 2012 classroom with us in this post here.  I love that she teaches middle school but still decorates her room for her kiddos!

I fell in love with her bookcase {among other things like her pencil caddy}....

Isn't it lovely how she has a beautiful design in the back?? 

I knew I wanted this for my teacher bookcase because I wasn't sure it would hold up to the kiddos if I tried it on the ones they would use.  So....

I searched high and low for some stylish and modern scrapbook paper that would fit in with my decor... nothing... couldn't find it... not even at Hobby Lobby.  I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen.  I could always use fabric, but gosh... fabric is just outrageous!  $7.99/yd... no thanks!  Then, I got the grand idea to use wrapping paper.  Hobby Lobby didn't even have a pattern there that I liked either, but my wonderful Target did, of course!

So, I painted my bookcase, left the backing brown, and used Mod Podge and wrapping paper to back it.  This was not an easy task.  The wrapping paper was huge and difficult to work with.  Not to mention it was thin and wanted to rip every time I painted over it.

However, I did get it done and I am so happy with the outcome!!  I just love how modern and simple it looks :)

Here are the before/after photos.

before...  ugly plain jane... nothing cutesy about it.. just not me..

 after.....  {ahhemmm... please excuse the mis-matched baskets on the top shelf.. I was just making sure they would fit..}

I just loved what I did with it!  So me!!!

Lastly, I wanted to update an older Monday Made It I did a few weeks ago.  Remember my "READ" letters?  Remember my "D" was sold out?

Well, I went back and purchased it.  Then, when I went to paint, I noticed that I wasn't too crazy about some of the other letters I had painted because they didn't really go with my classroom.  So, here are my new letters.... I just love them!

My favorite has got to be the "D".  I just love it!