Pretty's Girly Room

One of the fun things about buying a home was getting to create a boy room and a girl room. While there is still decorating to do in both, the two kid rooms were a priority for me to paint before we moved in. And they are still the only rooms I've painted so far.

Hero was old enough to pick his own wall color, but since Pretty was only 19 months when we moved, I decided the colors for her. My favorite colors are blue and yellow. They don't scream "girl", but it turned out just the way I wanted. I decided that when Pretty is about 12 years old, I'll let her pick her own colors if she wants...

Here's my sister, Audrey, helping me make stripes (she also helped me with Hero's green stripes).

Pretty's room has a funny angled corner, so instead of only doing one wall, we did more that half the room with these light and dark yellow stripes.

Here's the finished product, taken just this morning. You can see the blue reflecting in the mirror. So pretty!

Since I picked two not-so-very-girly colors for the walls, I knew I wanted to add flowers and pink into the decor. I carried around the paint chip cards with me everywhere and one day, while randomly deciding to walk through the fabric section at WalMart, I found this beautiful pink roses with a blue background fabric! I was ecstatic that it matched well with the paint! I found a yellow to match, because I knew the design I wanted to create. It's girly, while still staying with the colors of the room.

The problem I created for myself was not having measured the window when I found the perfect fabric. I then guessed at the amount I would need. Never a very good idea... While I had enough to make it work, I was hoping to have the curtains hang past the bottom edge of the window by about 6 inches. Instead, it brushes the window sill... and that's with adding the yellow  piece at the top I wasn't planning on. Oh well, they are still beautiful!

 I have a lot more ideas for making Pretty's room girly (check out my Pinterest board on it). My vision includes a lot more of the dark pink, butterflies and flowers.

It may be blue and yellow, but it is definitely a girly room!

Check this one off the list! I hope to check off more soon!

Hero's New Room

When we moved to our new home, I asked Hero what color he wanted his room and he didn't even hesitate to say, "Green. Dark green." After some persuading I got him to get excited to about these stripes. We both won with him getting dark green, and me getting to do stripes!

The other 3 walls are a light grey.

I also just finished these curtains for the room. I decided that I wanted to introduce more colors into the room, and this orange is great!

I like the way they look with the sun shinning through.

I did three rows of stitching on the top and bottom of the orange cuff.

 I love the way the room is coming together. I've got more coming with getting ready for the new baby. I can't wait to show you!

More to come!

Book Pages Tray Tutorial

I'm sure I'm not the first person to Mod Podge old book pages to stuff, but this was a really fun and small way to bring even more themed decor to the Library baby shower. Today I'll share how I made the tray.

The supplies are pretty simple. You will need a tray to cover. I found this plastic "Merry Christmas" one at a thrift store for $0.50! You also need an old book. Try to find one that has yellowed edges from age if you can, it just adds more dimension. You need Mod Podge, a foam brush, and (not pictured) black craft paint, little paint brush, and sealer.

Rip pages out of the book at the spine, then rip the pages at random places.

Use a sponge brush to apply Mod Podge to one side of the page.

(if you follow me on FB, this is why my daughter got the stuff in her hair)

Then stick the page glue side down on the tray at random. I did try to make sure the pages were going at different angles and the text at different directions from the ones immediate to it. Also, don't go from one side the tray to the other, because then all the pages will be on top of each other on the same sides. (does that even make sense?)

I covered over the handle openings completely, then waited for it to mostly dry. Cut a line in the paper covering the hole.

Then use more Mod Podge to wrap the cut pages around the opening.

This is how it will look when you've covered the whole top side. I stopped here, but I think it would be a good idea to cover the sides as well.

The next step is to add an image. This draws attention away from what could be awkward page placement, and just adds a bit of fun.

I used this bird image from picnik.com, printed it out in a 4x6 size, and cut out the bird.

I traced around the bird on to the paper tray with a pencil.

Fill in the outline with black craft paint (or any color you wish).

The last two steps are to finish it off. First, after letting the bird image dry, use your sponge brush to apply Mod Podge over the entire surface of the book pages. This is harden it and add a great finish. Don't do it too thick that the pages wrinkle. Allow it to dry.

 The final step is to apply a sealer. Even after it has dried, Mod Podge can be tacky and if you leave things resting on the surface for very long, they can stick. Sealer will prevent that from happening. And since it is a serving tray, you most likely will have things resting on it!

 And there you have it, an awesome Book Pages Tray.

Then you can add stuff, like these party favors:

And that's just awesome!

Progress

Suddenly, after having the thing for a month, I decided to dive into the doll house project. I first took it outside where I decided it would be better to replace the roof than sand it down and repaint it. There was a great sense of satisfaction in ripping it off! Then I discovered I could rip the whole second floor out! This made is so much easier to work on. I don't know about you guys, but breaking stuff seems just as much fun as making stuff!

Any-who, here's a picture of the house after spending 3 hours in a hunched position scraping off all the "wallpaper" and sticker pictures and carpet residue with a razor blade.

After sanding it, painting the whole inside white with acrylic paint and a foam brush. And spray painting the entire outside white out in the cold weather (my poor frozen fingers!), I painted each of the rooms. I tried to pick colors I would like in a real house. But before I get comments about it, I would not make my real house this busy. Or paint a room pink like that. But it is a doll house. There had to be a pink room. (And yes, Audrey, I picked the gray because of how awesome it looks in your real house!)

Here's close ups of the top floor. Hero picked the red for "his room".

 The bottom floor (living room and kitchen). I love the pinstripes in the kitchen!!

There is still a lot to do with this project. All the flooring, one of the stairs is missing, the "yard" in the front, the shutters around the windows, the roof. . . and once that's all done there's the curtains (yes, I'm nuts and plan to make curtains for the little windows), and we'll see how crazy I get making vs. buying the furniture and dolls themselves. I have a feeling those will mainly be bought.

Sad news is I think I have to pause on the project at this point for a while. I have a bunch of sewing I've been ignoring for the Taiwan trip that I leave for in 2 weeks (btw, thanks for the suggestions)! But luckily, I'm happy with where it is at the moment.

Little Turkey Hands tutorial

Remember when we were in elementary school and would trace our hands, color in the fingers and turn it into a turkey? I decided to make this classic into a more permanent decoration piece.

I love that it's a keepsake of my kids this year.

Here's how it's done.

Supplies:

• Wooden plaque
• Paint
• Rag
• Scraps of brown fabric and fall colors fabrics
• Mod Podge
• Sharpie
• Wood sealer

Instead of painting with a brush, I globbed paint on to the plaque, and rubbed it in with the rag.

This way, the grain is still visible.

I put the blue sky on first, the added green over top, using a new rag.

I traced my kids' hands onto paper and then cut them out.

you can see where I practiced the turkey on Pretty's hand :-)

Fold over the fingers and cut the palm and thumb out of the brown fabric.

To cut out the fingers, I cut the fingers off the pattern one at a time (so I didn't mix them up!). Leave about 1/4" on the bottom when you cut it out.

Place the pieces on the plaque with the fingers under the palm.

Carefully pull the palm off, leaving the fingers in place.

Use a pencil to mark the place of the fingers.

Paint Mod Podge onto the back of the fingers and place them back one at a time. Then Mod Podge the palm and put it in place over the fingers.

Here's what you should have at this point.

Cut tiny triangles and use Mod Podge to secure them as the beak.

Use a Sharpie to draw in the feet.

  If I had an awesome vinyl machine, I would probably have used it to make the saying. But instead, I used my pretty handwriting; writing it with a pencil first, then going over it with a Sharpie.

Lastly, I went over the whole plaque with a thin layer of Mod Podge (it makes it a bit shiny), then wood sealer.

Gobble! Gobble!