LUMOS!

I am pulling out my nerd card today.  Sometimes I cant help it, being a nerd makes me happy and lets be honest its just more fun to be a nerd!  Im totally geeking out about the Avengers movie...but I am of course going to wait until its been out a little longer so I dont have to sit in a packed theater.  But Im sure the title LUMOS makes you think of something other than Marvel, and good!  Because today is a Harry Potter post!

I have seen posts all over etsy of lightswtich plates for Harry Potter but I didnt love any of them enough to buy them.  You know what that means...I better make my own!  That also meant using Mod Podge.  Truth be told I have never used it before and was very nervous about it.  I looked online for some good tutorials but didnt really find anything that matched what I was doing so I just read the back of the bottle and went with it.

First things first you have to create your art!  Of course you could draw on the light plate itself, but I cant draw so I googled some clipart.  I wanted day and night and for them to merge seamlessly so that took some time for me to find the perfect images, but I eventually found it and it looks awesome!!

Above is the art I made.  I forgot to take a picture of the first step because I was so excited to get this going.  First step is to print out the art, cut it out and then mod podge it to the front of the plate.  To do this cover the back of the art with mod podge using a foam sponge and line it up with the edges and press down.  Make sure you roll over the edges to make a seamless look.  For me I put a little tiny bit of mod podge around the edges and pressed down, going one side at a time to make sure it stuck.  A note here, make sure you use a thin layer that way it doesnt ooze out the sides.

Once you get the art down, cut out the holes for the switches.  For this leave one side attached so you can have a seamless look here too.

This is the back of the plate and you can see I pulled the art back through the hole, applied more mod podge and adhered it to the back of the plate.  For the holes for the screws, I didnt pull that back through all I did here was make a hole (which you can barely see) so that I can push the screw into the plate and make it looks great!

Let that dry for about 5 minutes and then apply a thin coat of mod podge over the top of the art.  Something I learned the hard was to be careful of the ink spreading.  I think if you let the plate dry for about 5 minutes this should help, but what i ended up doing to make the color stop bleeding was to do the top 1/2 first then go to the bottom 1/2 that way the colors stayed in their respective areas.  You can kinda see the blue from where I tried to get the blue off the sponge to have a fresh start.  On the plate itself you can see the white lines of the mod podge.  You will be able to see the lines when it dries so remember that.

Let this sit for 15 minutes and repeat 2 more times to make it good and solid.  Remember that you are going to be touching this a lot with oily hands so you can a good layer to protect your art.

After the last coat let that dry overnight and then screw it into place.  Looks pretty good right?!  Although I have to admit I am a lover of glitter and am pretty confident I am going to add a layer of glitter to this to make it pop even more.  Thats what I learned about mod podge is you can layer stuff and thats awesome!  Now I can just go back and add it without having to make a new one!!

Check out my nerdness in all its glory.  I made that poster for the wands I got at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter...its Hermione and Dumbeldore.  Dont judge :)  So what do you think?  Have a great spot you could put a cool decorative light switch?

Project Housewife Out!

Im Linking Up!  Come check me out at Romance on a Dime, A Bowl Full of Lemons, DIY By Design, My Girlish Whims, Newlyweds on a Budget, Tip Junkie, Ginger Snap Crafts, Southern Lovely, Lil Pink Pocket, Michelle's Tasty Creations, House of Hepworths, Beyond the Picket Fence,