I stumbled upon these cute little house shaped knick knack shelves during a recent trip to Salvation Army. I love tiny things, and anything that shows off tiny things, so these little shelves were definitely coming home with me.
I took a quick trip to Michaels and picked up some white craft paint and a stack of Amy Butler Scrapbook Card Stock then rushed home to get started on a makeover for my little house shelves. If I had been thorough, which you probably should be if you decide to make a similar project, I would have sanded these shelves down. I skipped that step and found that even three coats of white craft acrylic would not make my shelves pretty. It just couldn't overcome the nappy old brown varnish on the shelves. Eventually, I whipped out some artist's white acrylic, which was thick enough to do the job. It worked, but a quick sanding would have saved me time and some expensive paint.
After painting both shelves completely, I picked out some paper from by Amy Butler stack and got to the fun part. Using newsprint to create templates for the shelf cavities, I carefully traced the shape of each shelf onto my decorative paper. I cut each piece out and trimmed it as needed so that it would lay perfectly flat inside the shelf. Then, I used a foam brush to apply a VERY thin coat of Elmer's Glue (you can also use Mod Podge) to the back of each piece of paper. After gluing, I placed the paper on the wall of the shelf, and smoothed it out with a dry foam brush.
I chose to leave my paper matte, but if you want to add a little shine, sparkle, or just some matte protection, I would suggest adding a thin layer of Mod Podge to the paper after you've glued it in place. These dried lickety split, so I got to hang them on the wall right away to enjoy them.
Now what will I put inside?