"Oliver Twist" Is A Depressing Book.

This is not a book review, really.  But in order to show you this project, in the hopes that you'll try to make it too, I have to tell you that "Oliver Twist" is depressing.

I saw over at The Precious Little Things In Life that she redid her bookcase.  I have an upcoming project that involves a complete overhaul of my bookcase, so I was extremely interested in her redo. 
She did a great felt wreath that I love and I'm waiting for that tutorial because it looks so pretty on her bookcase.  She also did a scroll monogram that looked amazing, so I thought I could try that out.

I got a letter at Hobby Lobby, for under $1.  Those letters are so cheap, I might buy a dozen of them for some massive letter project.  Or maybe not.  At any rate, I got my spray paint out and went to work, making the whole thing white.

I suppose it didn't need to be white, but I will use any excuse to break out the spray paint.

Then, I found a book... since I'm cutting the pages out of the book, I didn't want it to be one that we loved, but I wanted it to be one with beautiful language.  My favorite book is "The Great Gatsby" (have you read it? It's amazing... go read it, now.) but I was certainly not going to cut up my favorite book.  My grandmother gave me a copy of Oliver Twist and I read it years ago... so when I saw it on the shelf, I grabbed it for the sacrifice.  I apparently did not remember how depressing it is.

Can you read that page? Do you see the words 'filthy', 'bad-smelling', 'broken-down', 'dirty', and 'ugly grin'?  Good grief.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I wanted nice words on my monogram, so I cut pages that had happy imagery and left the depressing stuff on the cutting room floor.

I cut the pages in half and wrapped them around a bamboo skewer.  The blogger I got the idea from wrapped them up with only her hands, but my hands kept making them into squares... so I used the skewer.

I made sure that the words I wanted were on the opposite side of the seam and hot glued to keep the scroll together.  Next, I started gluing the scrolls to the monogram, with the pretty words facing me.  I didn't cut them before gluing, although that might have been a better way to go.

Once I had filled my letter and trimmed the sides, up onto the bookcase it went.  This project was so easy and it really looks great up there!

I completely recommend you try this project... easy and cute, but it did require a bit of patience.  And the book depressed me.  Pick a happy book... if you don't have one, get to Goodwill and they'll have one.  Enjoy your happy monogram!