Elmer's Spring Creation Contest (& Giveaway!)

Elmer's Spring Creation Guide features step-by-step instructions to make five different DIY home decor projects: a wine rack, wall hanging, decoupaged table, burlap bowl, and a shoe rack. The tutorials are available in printed form or as a video, so you can choose which way works best for you. All of the projects use the same main tool: the newly-reformulated and stronger than ever Elmer's Glue-All. It dries quickly and is safe and non-toxic, plus it works on everything from paper to fabric and ceramics, so it's great for a variety of household projects.

I was asked to make one of the items from Elmer's Spring Creation Guide or to come up with my own springtime DIY project. Since we finally put away all the potty seats in the house (thank goodness!), I thought I'd get a toilet paper storage cabinet for the kids' bathroom and gussy it up using the decoupaged table from the guide as inspiration. I bought a cheap white melamine cabinet that stores four rolls of toilet paper plus a box of tissues. Straight out of the box, it looked like this:

Yikes! I was glad that Elmer's Glue-All was an integral part of my mission because here is the packet of glue that came with the cabinet:

Yep, totally dried up and useless. I used Elmer's Glue-All to reinforce all the dowels and seams. I don't remember when white melamine shelving became ubiquitous in American households but it always reminds me of college housing. Bland and cheap. I definitely need to liven this thing up a bit. Maybe some color or pattern in the door inset would be nice?

I have a lot of decorative paper around, so I culled some contenders from my collection. The kids' bathroom is primarily white with a really obnoxious and colorful shower curtain emblazoned with fifties retro food packaging. My first thought was some Japanese stationery with bright colors and cute critters:

Possibly too cute. 

Possibly too beige.

This yellow Eames print ended up being my favorite. Bright, retro, but still fairly subdued. I laid out my arsenal and got to work. I cut the paper into strips using my trusty Xacto knife and tacked them to the inset using Craft Bond Acid-Free Multipurpose Spray Adhesive. What I love the most about that product is that if you spray your paper and let it dry without adhering it, it becomes repositionably sticky so you can try different approaches without committing to them.

Once I had my main paper in place, I mixed three parts of Elmer's Glue-All with one part water to create a decoupage medium and applied it to the paper with a sponge, making sure to seal the edges. I tried covering the whole door in torn yellow and white tissue paper but it looked unbelievably awful. Another bonus with Elmer's Glue-All is that it's washable. I scraped off the tissue goo and mixed up some more decoupage medium, this time adding a small amount of pale blue colorwash I had laying around. I sponged it over the entire cabinet to give it a slightly aged look.

If you look closely, you can see some of the leftover tissue scraps that I left in for "character." I'm not the world's slickest faux finisher but I was happy that it didn't look as starkly shiny and white.

Et voilà! Here it is in its new home:

And a shot with its pal, the toilet:

In accordance to the FTC Guidelines and WOMMA Code of Ethics, I am disclosing that I received product samples to facilitate this review. As usual, though, all thoughts are my own.

To enter and win your Elmer's Spring DIY Kit featuring some of the items shown, please comment on this post with your favorite project from the Elmer's Spring Creation Guide or a project you'd like to tackle with Elmer's Glue-All.


Entries will be accepted through June 1st and I'll pick three winners using Random.org. US readers are eligible.


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Leave an extra comment letting me know what you did for each additional entry.



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