Fixin' Leaks and Leeks

When a tree-shaped chunk of wood meets the old pages of a book, romance sparks and develops into one fire of a holiday craft. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to go, according to the Instagram video I watched, which inspired a craft I’ve just now attempted. I figured that the resulting craft would call for a five-alarm ringing of the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks craft alert, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about. This member of the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks team put that fire out before it started—drowning it in glue.

Alas, I cannot find the video I watched after scrolling through Instagram a few days ago, but it involved a super cute Christmas tree wooden cut-out + old pages of a book + some green paint + some glue + a little trimming. The crafter in the video lightly painted the pages of the book green, so that words still showed through. Then, the pages were cut into random strips and placed over the edges of the tree-shaped piece of wood. Next, the crafter cut along the edges, thus producing a neat and tidy project with random words, all painted in green—so festive and fun.

Here’s what I did:

In the crafts aisle, which was torn to shreds by massive tornadoes of turkey and wine-induced out-of-towners escaping their relatives, the tree-shaped blocks of wood were gone, so I settled upon a wooden “plaque” with scalloped edges.

The pages from the book I used came from a mangled paperback I found on a rack at a ferry station in Canada. The book promised to be a murder-mystery ghost story, but it was more like a shocking after-school special with undertones of Locked Up Abroad. In any case, I wouldn’t recommend the book to anyone—unless you want to use the pages in a craft.

For paints, I used Alex’s watercolor pens, which are really cool. The paint comes in swatches, and the brushes have compartments you fill with water. So, you dip the brush in the desired paint color and press on the water compartment part, and the paint comes out onto the paper, and you can paint effortlessly.

It would have been great if I had the patience to cut strips apart from the book pages and glue them randomly to the plaque, but I did not, so I used whole pages from the book, which means that the sentimental photo part is surrounded by passages that read, “He just got out of prison” and “Would he catch her smoking pot?” and “What a rack!”

Once the pages were all painted, I smothered the plaque in glue and then stuck the pages onto the glued surface—ensuring that the pages would hang over the edges. Then, I turned the plaque over and trimmed the edges with very tiny scissors.

I definitely didn’t want a picture of my family next to all the words about early parole, so I chose a lovely scene from Nova Scotia and called it day.

Here’s the resulting craft. The lesson I’ve learned is choosing words carefully. Literally. Don’t choose questionable dialogue/pages from a book and hang it in your living room/work cubicle for all to see—especially if you place a picture of your pet or family in the middle. No amount of festive green paint or scenic pictures can make up for the fact that everyone else is zooming in on the words “model prisoner” in the background.

Your Turn: Where do you find inspiration for your hobbies and crafts?