Remember when we House Crashed Katie over at Bower Power? Well we brought her a set of botanicals from our shop as a token of our appreciation, and she ended up ripping a few pages out of her Hooker Book (an old book of fruit and botanical drawings that she found at Goodwill) and sending them home with us in return. Isn’t she sweet? And now that we’ve finally gotten around to a little project with our lovely courtesy-of-Katie botanicals, we’re here to share the goods.
We decided we had framed art aplenty around here, and immediately started to brainstorm other ways to use the prints. Thinking outside the frame if you will. My love of white ceramics came into play when I was peering into our Decor Store at a few white ceramic cups and thought: wouldn’t they look cute with a bit of fruit on the front? I grabbed the two ceramic containers from the cabinet and found the third one full of ivy in our bedroom windowsill. Here they are before “Project Produce.”
And here are our torn out Hooker Book pages courtesy of Katie before the ol’ snip fest. We just cut out some of the smaller fruit drawings…
… and found some old Mod Podge from Michael’s in my craft drawer. Then I grabbed a small paint brush and coated each fruity cutout with a bit of Mod Podge and stuck them to each ceramic cup for a cheerful and fresh little finished product (note: when using Mod Podge you can coat the back of the thing-to-be-stuck and then coat the front of it once it’s in place for a more durable “seal” that’s long-lasting and invisible).
We also love how versatile the little cups really are. They can hold flowers, office supplies, plants, and more. Don’t they look cute all lined up by the window?
We loved them en masse, so they actually ended up on my desk where the pencils and eye glasses come in handy all the time. And the ivy provides fresh clean air for me as I blog the day away. Total project cost: $0.00. Sweet.
And since there were also larger botanicals that remained, we decided to decoupage two larger drawings onto small dessert plates that can be hung on the wall or even leaned on the floating shelves in the dining room for a bit of sweet food-related fun. Here they are before Mod Podge. Isn’t it amazing what an old Goodwill book can become?
How about you guys. Have you whipped up any botanical masterpieces of your own as of late? Scored anything amazing at Goodwill? Repurposed something you had around the house in a new way? Do tell.
LauraC says
They look fabulous! But could you give us ignorant people a simple step-by-step as to how to actually do it (type of glue, brush, ect)? We’d be so grateful, pretty please!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Laura C,
I just added a bit more step by step detail to the post (which you can also check out right here):
We just cut out some of the smaller fruit drawings and found some old Modge Podge from Michael’s in my craft drawer. Then I grabbed a small paint brush and coated each fruity cutout with a bit of Modge Podge and stuck them to each ceramic cup for a cheerful and fresh little finished product (note: when using Modge Podge you can coat the back of the thing-to-be-stuck and then coat the front of it once it’s in place for a more durable “seal” that’s long-lasting and invisible).
It’s such an easy project. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Katie says
schaaaaaa-WING :)
rachel says
oh my gosh – you kids are too cute!!!
i love love love logging on to your site daily to see what new project(s) you have cooked up.
these are adorable. and i am constantly searching thrift stores for cool finds like that book. one day i will send you guys some pics of my “purely thrift store finds” casa :)
keep up the inspiration – i love you guys!
JG2Be says
Hi Sherry & John,
These are adorable! Where did you get those lovely cups?
Thanks!
J
YoungHouseLove says
Hey JG2Be,
They’re actually small planters from West Elm that we grabbed a few months ago (they have drainage holes and everything). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Audrey says
I used to be a modge podge queen, but I’ve never thought of it this way. Great idea!
Megan S says
Ooh! The little cups remind me of something I just picked up this weekend (on sale!) at West Elm. Maybe I need to go get 2 more because I have a jar of Modge Podge just waiting for some attention. Fun idea and thanks for sharing!
Laura says
Cute idea! The closest thing I would come to doing something like this is cutting some out and mounting them in frames. But I love the look of the illustrated fruit.
Tracey says
Adorable!!! What a great project.
heather s. says
You can modge podge anything. :) I used to make custom picture frames by sticking words cut out of magazines onto wooden frames. (my ex boyfriend’s had all lovey dovey words and my best friend’s had all friendship/funny words). I’m actually in the middle of writing up a post on modge podge that I’ll have posted by the end of the week!
Jen Z. says
Love what you did. Very cute!
For our Family Room I plan on taking pictures I have taken on our Honeymoon (Hawaii), pictures I have taken on beaches on Long Island & pictures of flowers & trees I have taken in our own backyard and put them into white frames. Some I might make Sepia or B&W even and make some in color for a pop of color in the room.
I bought mirrors last year at Bed Bath & Behind on sale and with 20% off coupons of course and painted them chocolate brown to go in our DR. They were white framed with gold in the middle. I painted them cholocate brown. So now four of them hang in my DR.
I also want to repurpose an old piece of furniture that was handed down to me from my Grandma. It’s a dark brown right now, but I want to make it white one day. ;-)
layersofmeaning says
Love it!
Averill says
Those are so cute! I’m always a bit scared by the idea of decoupage (will it look too crafty/homemade?, can I screw this up? etc.) but you guys definitely made it look easy and the results look fantastic!
Diva Style says
Friggin’ awesome!! Love you guys creativity!
Consultant Calamities says
Good old modge podge! You can do so much with that! :-)
Amy@Designing A Life I Love says
I actually did a plate not too long ago, and I’m soooo in love with it! It’s not decoupage, but I used one of those “sign my plate” pens, and baked it. Check it out here:
http://designingalifeilove-amy.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-i-fell-in-love-with-one-dollar.html
Hope you like it! This summer, I seem to find a sense of satisfaction when I repurpose. Oh, how FUN this is!!!!
Kim says
So adorable! Love what you did with what you had. Talk about the greatest 0 bucks I’ve ever seen spent.
Joyce says
So creative and fun, you’ve inspired me!
Now onto the questions: :)
1) The fruit drawings on the cups seem to be stuck on so seamlessly. Are there any tricks to that?
2) Is modge podge waterproof?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Joyce,
So glad you’re digging our fruity little creations. Just slapping Modge Podge onto the backs of the fruit made them stay in place, and painting a coat of it over the fruit illustrations once they were in place on the cups sealed them and made them look seamless. It’s an error-proof application, you really can’t go wrong with Modge Podge!
As for if it’s waterproof, it’s definitely durable and can handle a bit of moisture or a few drops of water (like when you water a plant for example) but you wouldn’t want to run anything that you’ve Modge Podged through the dishwasher or fill it with soup or anything. It’s really meant for decorative use only. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Amanda says
I love them and really love the idea of dressing up plain white plates (super cheap at World Market) and hanging them on the wall as decor!
Allison says
I love re-purposing! Or attempting to. Project right now: took apart a white mini fan (to install a light fixture instead), and used the part that looks like an upside down metal lampshade to be a ceiling lampshade for a bare ceiling bulb in a walk in closet. Looks so much better with the light being projected down instead of the bare “bulb glare”.
JM says
Love the cups – but i have a non-Modge Podge related question. Does Ikea swap out their items on their site often? I’m heading down to one this weekend (the closest one is two hours away) and was looking at their site before I go to make my shopping list, and realized that they didn’t have half of what I was looking for! For example, I was looking for the Vivan curtains, which I thought were one of their standard items, and they’re nowhere to be found. Do you have any idea? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey JM,
Eeks, bad news. Right after our post all about curtains last week (where we sung the Vivan curtain’s praises) a few readers started emailing and commenting to say that Vivan panels were no longer available on ikea.com. We believe that they’ve temporarily sold out online but hope that they’re still available in stores. The funny thing about Ikea is that they rarely change their merch (things are available for years and never sell out) so this is definitely a rare example of something going missing. We would suggest looking for them in the store while you’re there and even asking an employee about them if you’re having a hard time snagging some. And while we love them to death for the price, they’re very similar to regular white curtain panels from Target and Bed Bath & Beyond so if you can’t track them down at Ikea you’ll definitely be able to find something extremely similar at a few other places. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
JM says
Seriously, I thought that they never changed out their merch! :) Thanks for your help. There are other things that I was searching for too – like all of their prints and pictures – on the site, but none are to be found. Maybe I will have better luck in the store. Thanks again!
Jen Z. says
JM, I just went to Ikea recently on Long Island and they did not have Vivan curtains. I did not ask anyone that worked there though. But I did just pick up white sheers at Target last night for $9.99 for a pair. Great price. ;-)
JM says
Thanks Jen! I think I have those exact same sheers for my living room :)
LauraC says
Thanks Sherry! I’ve never heard of Modge Podge, so I didn’t know what it was. Thanks for the clarification!
Natalie says
Great idea! I love how innovative you guys are – kudos :)
Christy says
I love the Goodwill & shop there at least once a week, it’s a weakness. This past weekend there I scored a simple white cake stand from Crate & Barrel, tags still attached. I think I paid around $5 for it & a sweet cross stitched linen tablecloth for my mom for $2.50. A few mos back I bought a PB kilim pillow, with insert for $1.99
Erin says
ModPodge is great fun. I just finished up a Goodwill project this afternoon. Hopefully the other will get done tomorrow.
FullertonRegan says
I love the Goodwill! I found an awesome book of works by female photographers from the 70’s. So much personality, and they’re all black and white so I used some in our bedroom. My favs were of families, so we hung a trio of them pasted on to decorative scrapbook paper. We hadve the King & Queen of a senior citizen’s dance, a couple of old nudists (complete with a nude painting hanging in the living room!), and a Bronx family on their way to church. Oh the hair in that one!
Laurie says
Love the little planters. Super cute!
…but you have me wondering about this “craft drawer”. Where do you keep all of those goodies stashed? Are they part of your wrapping station?
YoungHouseLove says
Good question Laurie! We actually keep our craft supplies right under our Decor Store (an upper cabinet in our kitchen devoted to decorative accessories that we rotate around to keep things feeling fresh). There are a series of drawers under the cabinet that actually house our tools and the deep bottom drawer is where we keep all of our glue, craft supplies, strange project leftovers (like skewers, feathers, glitter, etc). Here’s an old post with a shot of the tool drawers open (unfortunately we didn’t snap one of the craft stuff but you get the idea).
xo,
s
April says
I’m not a horrible pack rat, but I do keep a lot of things that I love or hope to use one day. I love how you guys thought out of the box for this. I’m getting a home in October that was built sometime in the 1800’s (we’re still looking up details lol), and to keep with the nature of the house I will definitely need to think out of the box.
-April
Sarah says
First I want to say that I LOVE your blog! You guys are an inspiration.
Second, what a great idea!! I am working on a new craft room and I might need to do something like this for storage. I will share pictures when it is finished.
richard says
Love the look of EVERYTHING—
HOWEVER!!!
Why oh why did you not make really high quality color copies before you did youcutting so you’d have your originals as a resource for more awesome projects to come?! These pages seem pretty hard to come by….
Oh woe. I DO love the projects though…
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Richard,
That’s not a bad idea! Hindsight is 20/20, right? Although we love our little fruity cups & plates so much that I doubt we’d want anything else with exactly the same pattern around- it might be a bit too matchy-matchy for us. We’re know we’re a lot more minimalistic than most people but it would feel a little strange to file those colored copies (or the originals away). We’re use-the-good-china sort of people (not that we have expensive china, but we use the special scalloped bowls every day, we like to enjoy the things we have. So tucking extras or the originals out of sight for a rainy day just feels alien to us. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Melissa Cook says
As I’m merging my stuff with my finace’s I’ve been trying to repurpose as much of our existing stuff as possible. One of my favorite games to play is: how can this old cigar box be kept and used so I don’t hurt Patrick’s feelings by throwing it away? My favorite use so far is a man’s valet. He’s using a square-ish box for his wallet and keys and the lid for watches. Hopefully this will keep our new and old furniture scratch free!
I love the simple craft ideas…I think this is even one I could handle!
YoungHouseLove says
Melissa,
That’s so funny because John actually has an old cigar box (handed down from his grandfather) and we prominently display it in the bathroom on one of our open shelves (we removed the linen closet door to create a more open system and put everything in cute baskets and boxes). He uses it to hold his morning and evening routine stuff (deodorant, contact stuff, hair pommade, etc) and it’s so nice that it’s meaningful and functional!
xo,
s
Lynn says
So pretty! You always give me much needed inspiration! Thanks! Can’t wait to move to our new home in Maryland and put something like this in my kitchen window!
Peanut Petunia says
Love this! Love your blog! :) (Long time reader. First time commenter. :) I think…)
Jamie says
modge podge may just be one of my most favorite things in the whole world.
Jess says
I seriously heart modege podge. It’s amazing goop.
Heather says
I am having the best time going through all of your old entries (I’m a new reader/fan) and getting inspired to attempt some of your crafty projects. This is one I can’t wait to try!
Lisa says
This is such a cute idea for keeping an image you love not in a frame! I have a semi-related question though, how is your faux tile tray (on the table next to your plates) holding up? Perhaps it’s just the lighting, but has it yellowed a little bit? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, sadly it yellowed a smidge (probably just the bar coat we chose, we assume) but we still have it and use it frequently. Trays are always handy to have around!
xo,
s
Niani says
Excellent idea
Regi Rae says
I LOVE your page so much! I’m a first-time home buyer with a funky flare and your page popped up when I searched for, “repainting a deck.” I adore your projects and saw that you asked (several years ago,) if anyone found anything at Goodwill, I enjoy finding old suitcases and turning them into dog beds: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2622977496375&set=a.2623001776982.141246.1313345591&type=3&theater
YoungHouseLove says
So cute! And what a sweet puppy curled up in there.
xo,
s
she says
is it safe to wash?
and could you let me know how to apply modpodge without leaving brush stroke texture after? thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I don’t think you can get it super wet afterwards since it’s water based. Maybe check out the craft store to see if there’s clear acrylic you can use, which might be washable!
xo
s
Katie says
Hi there!
Love this idea! Was just wondering – the pages/paper with the fruit you used to cut out – is it a specific type of paper? or could you just modgepodge with any paper? I was thinking paper as thin as magazine wouldn’t work because the back image would bleed through wouldn’t it?
Just wondering! Would love to work this into my never-ending list of craft projects! :)
KatieBFunk
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, I have Mod Podged newspaper and even tissue paper, so I think magazine paper can be Mod Podged (just be careful and slow and it will hopefully work without bleeding). You can use a test image from a magazine to see if it bleeds first!
xo
s
kat says
hello, love your site!
im thinking of making my brother in law a cup for Christmas. are they washable?
any suggestions on making a washable one if not?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, I don’t believe they’re washable since Mod Podge is water based, so they’re best used on things not for food or that you wash (ex: a planter on a windowsill, a pencil cup, etc).
xo
s
Anna says
Love this idea. Mod Podge is so awesome! I’ll have to get over to the Goodwill ASAP!
I’ve Mod Podged a serving tray, picture album (although opening and closing it caused the images to crack a bit…), and am now working on mod podging ornaments (cutting out images from cards/wrapping paper/magazines for some and hand-written letters from family members for others and pasting them onto clear ornaments from Michaels)- never to early to start holiday crafting, right?!
Susan Hines says
Hi! My niece hooked me up with you guys! She’s in Charleston, SC and I’m in Raleigh, NC. I love knowing you guys are in Richmond, VA since I know so many people from that area, it just seems like home. Most of the folks I knew came from the Hopewell area and Norfolk area. Love your ideas, and since I saw a post the other day on Pinterest, I’ve decided to paint my laundry room! And I saw the clothes pin light fixture, I might just have to go all out! Thanks!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Susan!
xo
s
Jackie says
Wow, these look amazing! What a fantastic idea. Keep up the great work. I’m a big fan;).
Jackie
jaclyncolville.com