You Turn Me On...To Crafting?

Let's face it.  I'm a sucker for a good mix CD.  There's a thrill in personally selecting songs I think a friend or loved one might enjoy, pieces that remind me of them, determining the precise order the tracks should be in, which song will hook the listener from the beginning, what mood do I want to convey and how do I order things to get that across.  I cherish mix CD's from friends and family, listening to each one carefully knowing that there was some aspect of the song that reminds them of me or they think I'd enjoy.  More often then not I can't remember the artist of the song I'm listening to but with almost 100% accuracy I can tell you who gave it to me, when, what I then named that album in iTunes, and what picture I chose of the two of us to represent the album art.  Music is something I associate with people, places, and times in my life.

Therefore it seemed only natural that at some point The Husband would be given a mix CD while we were dating and further engraving the importance of mix CD's in my life a song from that mix became the song we used for our first dance.  I found this tutorial and immediately decided that I wanted to use the lyrics to our first dance.  And while yes, this was a Christmas present, Christmas did fall two days after our six month anniversary and I wanted to do just a little something in honor of it.  Oh, and for those of you who are curious, the song is "You Turn Me On To The Idea of Growing Old" by The Features.  Now on to the pictures!

Knowing I have terrible handwriting and being terrified of free-handing the spacing wrong I opted to type up and print out the lyrics.  I ended up having space to do the entire song twice.

I added a slight highlight to the repetitive chorus line to remind myself to write in a different color.

I started at the top and worked my way around in a circle using masking tape as it would be easy to peel off when i was finished.

Because the lampshade was not straight or flat I cut my strips every couple of words so they would follow the shape of the shade.

You can see the slits a little better here.  You can also see some of the blue highlighting so i would know where to switch colors.

The back

The front

Completed!

 Some tips if you're planning on making one yourself:

• Cut one line of your paper and tape it on before you cut the next so that your words stay in the correct order.
• Don't worry if the paper falls away from the shade a bit.  When you hold it up to a light to trace it you can hold the design right up against the fabric when needed
• Pay attention to how easy or difficult a font will be to trace.  I used Book Antiqua and italicized it which made it very similar to the calligraphy I am used to.

Happy Crafting!