Craftastic Treasures: Personlalized Wood Block Lamp

I was thinking about lamps one day when I woke up. I wanted to come up with a fun creative lamp. Then BAM! it hit me. I could use wooden blocks as the base! I went to this cute shop called The Wood Connection and bought 4 3x3 unfinished wooden blocks for $3 each. Yeah, kinda expensive especially since I found some at the DI for 50 cents each, but oh well.

I made this before I thought about this blog, so I don't have step by step pics, but this is what I did.

1. Drilled a whole in the middle of each of the blocks and cut out a groove in the bottom block for the cord to rest in and so the lamp would sit nicely on the table.
2. When to Home Depot and bought a lamp kit and pipe kit-12" threaded rod (1/8). The lamp kit was $10 and the pipe kit was was $6.

3. Put the rod in the blocks and assembled the lamp kit. It was super easy. I just followed the instructions on the back of the box. I did have to saw off some of the rod to make it all fit together and so the socket would sit flush to the block.

I turned this into a Christmas present for my mom. I decided to personalize the lamp by putting family pictures on the blocks. I printed off some of my favorite family pics and cut out some cute paper that matched her house.

First, I painted the edges of the blocks black. When that was done I played around with the pictures and paper until I had them how I wanted. Then, I spread mod podge over the blocks and put the pics/paper on. I was going to mod podge over those, but I always get at least some kind of bubbling, so I just sprayed them will a clear gloss. I was so glad I did....a lot less of a hassle. Last, I cut out a piece of felt and hot glued it to the bottom block.

Finally, I went to Target and bought a lamp shade for $8. I went to IKEA first and would recommend going there for the more thrifty approach. The lamp shades are just as cute. The reason I didn't get one there is because I had bought a lamp shade harp thinking that I needed one. I hadn't noticed that lamp shades don't really need those anymore. I was cursing IKEA lamp shades for being Swedish, but after I went to Target I realized that most lamp shades don't even need a harp anymore! Ya learn something new every day. Total cost of lamp: $36. Ok enough chit chat heres the lamp! Drum roll please.......

Super cute, right! I was so happy with how it turned out. It was even better than how I envisioned it would look. Here are some pics of the different sides.

Here is the felt on the bottom. I'm going to go back and drill a groove in all 4 sides. I only did one side and so when my mom rotates the lamp the cord comes out all funny like in the picture above.