Light Switch Cover

My daughter is obsessed with Frozen.  We saw it the first week it was out, and she fell in love with Elsa right away.  We were about to move her to a new room, and she decided she wanted a frozen room.  Due to time constraints and other factors I wasn't able to do a large mural, so I tried to find other ways to make her a frozen room.

My daughter's favorite part of Frozen is Elsa.  She loves her look, dress, powers, and most importantly, her ice palace.  So I tried to focus on snowflakes in our decorating.  I am still not done, but we've managed to give her a great room.  I've made her some snowflake curtains and her Daddy found a great curtain rod that looks like Elsa's wind gusts.  I'm working on a small border of snowflakes on the wall above her bed, and this past weekend, I made her an Elsa light switch cover.

I'll start off saying that I was feeling torn on this project.  I decided to try mod podging a printed image instead of painting it.  I'm not always that great at painting people, and I wanted a good looking product.  I felt like I was cheating, but I am glad I did.  The project came out great, and of course, she loves it.

For this project you will need your decorative paper or image, Mod Podge, Scissors, an exacto knife, a light switch cover, and sandpaper. A hole punch and high gloss acrylic sealer are optional, but recommended.

You can do this with any printed image or decorative paper.  I found the image I liked and cropped it down to a rectangle that was a quarter inch larger than my light switch cover.  I printed it and cut it out leaving about 1/8 of an inch of white around the image to wrap around the back.


Next I took a plastic light switch cover and sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper.  You are just trying to rough up the surface so that the adhesive sticks.  I sanded it once horizontally and again vertically.  Don't forget the very edge of the back since you will be wrapping the paper back there.




I positioned my image over the light switch cover, getting it centered. You should not be able to see any of the white border.  Once I positioned it exactly as I wanted it, I flipped it over and marked where the cover and holes were located on the paper. I created an X in the center hole.  I also mark the corners from where the plate starts to curve up to the corner of the cover.  The image on the right shows how the back of your image should look when the cover is removed.  Using an exacto knife, cut along the X lines.  Do not cut along the rectangle. Cut out the holes as well, or use a hole punch. Also cut along the corner lines from the outside edge of the paper to where the mark starts. 

 Next comes the gluing.  I apply Mod Podge to the back of my image as well as the front of the light switch cover.  I laid the paper image side down, and position my light switch cover onto it by lining up the center holes that were marked earlier.  Turn the cover over and make sure there are no bubbles.  If there are any, gently smooth them out.  Turn your cover over and apply Modge Podge to the edges of the light switch cover and around the center hole.  Carefully wrap around your paper to the back.  The cuts I made to the corners allow me to wrap the image around easily without any bubbles or wrinkles. I then carefully push the triangles in the center hole through to the back and wrap them around.  Apply more Mod Podge over your edges to hold them down.  When I am done, the back of my plate looks like this.

 

Finally I seal my light switch cover.  I apply at least 3 coats of Mod Podge to the front of my cover.  I usually alternate between apply coats horizontally and vertically.  I do not know how to make this less streaky.  No matter what I have tried, it always gets that way. So to try and combat the streaks, I have been spraying a layer of high gloss acrylic sealer over the top.  I apply a few coats until the streaks are less noticeable. And with that, your cover is completed.  Let it cure for 24 hours before installing.  Be careful not to over tighten the screws or you will start to rip up the layer of sealer. 

Here are a few other covers that I have done.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful.  Have fun creating!