Just a quick and easy D.I.Y post; I've been lampshade-less since moving into a new house for second year and have evidently been too lazy or forgetful to buy one for the best part of four months. So my Nan gave me one she had lying around at Christmas which she snapped up for £1.49 at Boyes (definitely student friendly if you're thinking of recreating this D.I.Y). Instead of having a boring plain-Jane white lampshade I decided to spruce it up by painting it with watercolour. Initially I wanted to paint pansies but because the paper on the lampshade is so absorbant this would have resulted in a sloppy mess, so I decided on poppies as the effects of the paper didn't matter so much. Here's the simple how to, you will need;
1x Paper Lampshade
1x Paintbrush1x Watercolours
(Water and Newspaper if you're messy like me)
First, pop up the lampshade as instructed then you can either paint freely or draw general outlines in pencil first if you're not feeling confident but be careful not to press too hard. For this design I don't think you need to draw out the flowers as the messy, impressionistic style I find kind of works (although this wasn't my initial aim I got frustrated and then rushed the majority of the painting). Here's the finished lampshade which I think looks quite cute for so little money and effort!
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