Confirming once again that I was born in the wrong decade, my latest acquisition: a Record Player. While going to thrift stores to try and not break the bank while furnishing and decorating my craft room, I found a few second hand vinyl records and the nostalgia got the best of me. I wanted to know what it was like to play an acetate record and hear for myself the difference in sound that comes with a turntable needle. A trip to New Orleans and discovering the sounds of old Jazz might also have something to do with this new old obsession of mine, but I digress…

Since this record player is going in the Craft Room, I’m being extra disciplined with the color scheme as promised. I found this not-too-expensive record player on Amazon, and I bought it in pink but I planned on re-painting it because it’s not the right shade. I have a tendency to be overridden by a million ideas and then things don’t turn out as I expected because it might not have been a great idea OR I do something clumsy… And this was one of those times.

Unlike with the typewriter, I decided to paint the record player regularly. First mistake. Not really sure what would’ve happened if I had spray painted it but the point is, the whole painting thing did not work out. The material just wasn’t absorbent enough and it kept leaving tracks no matter what tool I used (brush, sponge, etc.) or how many coats I did. See Exhibit A:

Total fiasco. At this point, I felt like I had already messed up the whole thing and I couldn’t go back in time and ahhhhh why did I have to do this?! But, I had done it and I had to fix it. But how could I… LIGHT BULB – Yes I can! Decoupage! Duhhh! I could cover up the damage AND hopefully make it look cooler. Could I really make it better? I sure would try. In keeping with my weirdness and obsessions, I decided to look up newspaper images from big past events, like the fall of the Wall of Berlin, Pearl Harbor attack, iconic historical figures/artists’ deaths (Marilyn, Michael, Hitler, etc), print them out and cover the record player in them, taking the color scheme out of the equation and making it more about the nostalgia and vintage aspect.

Surprisingly and fortunately, this worked out better than I expected. It was hard to work around the edges and metal embellishments that came with the record player, but with a lot of patience and a trusty exacto knife, I not only fixed the mess I made, but I was actually happier with the alternate ending!

Give a crafter some mod podge and some paper and in the blink of an eye you won’t recognize anything around you…

 

And for the final result… Drum roll!

I LOVE it. I really do. It’s something completely unexpected, but I couldn’t be happier with the turnout. It’s funky, it’s different, it’s perfect for the vintage vibe I’m into, and most importantly, it’s unique 🙂 It even looks cool wide open –

 

People don’t tend to see me when I mess up because I craft alone 99% of the time, but actually this happens to me A LOT. At this point I try not to panic and just find a different way to make it happen and for the most part it tends to works out. Have you messed up a project and found a way to fix it? Leave a comment below!

Disclaimer: after buying the record player, I spoke to a friend who told me that unfortunately these Crosley record players have a bad rep for scratching records and messing them up, so I cannot recommend this buy. I stopped playing my records on it just in case until further notice.