animal nursery art prints...

I've been drawing some cute little animal artworks to add to my print shop--The Printable Pearl.

I think they would look darling in a baby's room!

Although this bunny would be perfect for spring/Easter decorating, too.

And foxes are supposed to de-throne the owl as the trendy nursery decor animal this year...

 But don't worry, I drew some owls, too.

(Just in case you hadn't had your fill of them yet.)

I've done each print in 2 colorways to list in the shop...but they are easily customized to match whatever color scheme one might be decorating with.

What other animals should I add to the collection?

aqua, orange, & lime green baby boy's room...

Now that my kiddo is a year old, I guess I'll go ahead and post some pics of his nursery.

FINALLY.  Sheesh.

There wasn't the best light for picture-taking today...but the toys and books and laundry were all cleaned up, so I had to strike while the fire was hot!  His room is also really small and kind of hard to photograph, but whatev.  You'll get the idea.

I love the color palette and the dinosaur theme is there, but not over the top.  My goal was to make things easy to swap out if/when his interests change as he gets older.

I edited out my little one's name in this shot. 

Trying to protect his future privacy.  (You're welcome, son.)

Just imagine SUPER cute orange wood letters spelling the most adorable little boy's name you can think of. :)

I'm really glad I made this little gallery wall in the corner here.  Since it's right behind the glider where we often sit, he looks at all of the fun decorations back there all of the time.

I really need to put some stuff on his little cork boards, though.  Another one of those things I've been meaning to do...

And how cute is this stuffed triceratops?  I was searching for a good dinosaur with no luck, but grandma came through!  It even matches the nursery's color scheme.  Can't beat that.

The decor is pretty simple on this side of the room.
The gallery wall on in the other corner is plenty busy.

Putting a mirror above the changing table has proven to be great choice.  It's helpful when the kid is grumpy after a diaper change or whatever.  (Heaven forbid he hold still for 30 seconds!)  His own cutie face cheers him right up.

And I love seeing his newborn portraits all the time.  He has grown up so fast!  It's sweet to reminisce on his itty bitty baby days.  Well, as itty bitty as a 10 pound newborn can be... :)

Anyway, it's a happy little room that came together much like I had imagined.  I like being in there, and I like to think my son does, too!

Here are some links to other posts involving the decor in this room:

Dino Quilt

Graphic Alphabet Canvas

Mod Podge Dino Wall Decor

Song Lyric Canvases

3-D Wood Dino Puzzle

Changing Pad Cover

Adjustable Fabric Bunting

adjustable fabric bunting...

Ummm...I accidentally took a 3-month-long blogging hiatus.

Whoops.

I guess I figured I wouldn't look back 20 years from now and wish I had blogged more often.  And I spent years praying for a baby, so I'm going to enjoy him!

With that said, I have really missed documenting my creative endeavors.  I {obviously} don't spend as much time making things, but you didn't think I'd given it up entirely, did you??

Anyway...

Now that my son is 10 months old, I'd better finish sharing the little DIYs I did for his nursery. (And then I'll show you the finished product!)

Fabric buntings aren't anything new.  However, I wanted one that was easy to rearrange or change-up.  A lot of tutorials out there have fabric flags sewn onto a ribbon or bias tape or something... I made mine adjustable!

I began with 6 fabrics that I had leftover from my kiddo's quilt.

I cut twenty-five 5x12 inch rectangles.

I'd like to share some brilliant mathematical equation I used to come up with this number...but I pretty much just looked at the wall where I wanted to hang it and guessed how many flags I would need.  I estimated perfectly...a.k.a. got lucky. :)  But if you over- or under-estimate it's no big deal.  It's adjustable, remember?  You can easily add or remove flags.

Next, I pressed the both of the short ends 1/4" toward the wrong side of the fabric.

(Don't mind my hideous, water-stained ironing board cover!)

Then I folded each rectangle in half, right-sides together, with the pressed ends at the top and sewed 1/4" down each side, leaving the top open for turning.

Then I clipped the corners, turned right-side out, and pressed flat.  The top is still open, but the raw edges are inside.

Next, I pressed the top edge down 1/2" and stitched as close to that open edge as I could to create a little pocket.

I threaded some twine through the top of each flag, hung it up, and slid the flags around until they were spaced to my liking.

The bunting looks bright and festive hanging over my little one's closet.

And if he decides he hates dinosaurs when he gets older, I can easily swap out the offending fabrics.  Or if we move into a new house, I can add or remove flags to fit it to a different length of wall without having to re-do the whole thing! 

dinosaur strip quilt...

After several months of working on this quilt on-and-off...it's finally done!

This is actually the first quilt I've ever completed.  (This bad boy is still sitting in my craft room closet.  Waiting to be quilted.  2.5 years later.  Yikes!)  I pieced, basted, quilted, and bound it all on my own.  I definitely made a lot of mistakes and may have committed a few quilting atrocities along the way, but it's still cute. :)

I got the idea for the strip design from Film in the Fridge, if you're interested in making one.  

I also did a self-binding...that's how my mom likes to finish her quilts.  (And I was feeling way too lazy to cut binding strips anyway.)  Make it & Love it has a good post about self-binding, although I did mine a bit different.

I got it washed up last night, so it's all crinkly and soft...just waiting for my little guy to make his grand entrance into the world.

Speaking of baby--I've lined up several guest posts for November/December while I take a little blog break for maternity leave.  I'm sure I'll pop in every now and then, but I hope you'll show my guest bloggers some love.  (8 days until my due date!!!)

graphic alphabet canvas...

Eek!  I'm so thrilled about this project.

It might be my favorite thing I've made for the nursery.  The funny thing is, I bought the canvas for 70% off with NO idea what I was going to use it for.  I eventually settled on some kind of alphabet design and this is what I came up with...

Here's the scoop on how I made it...

I started by creating a new photoshop file the same size as my canvas--12 x 24.  (Obviously, if you are making your own you can use any size you want.)  Then I went to town with all of my different fonts, mixing styles and sizes as I did each letter of the alphabet.  After I got all of the letters arranged how I liked, I played around with colors that match the scheme I've got going in the baby's room until I had a nice balance.  This is what it looked like...

Then I saved my file as a pdf, opened it in Adobe Acrobat, and tile printed it.  This created an actual size paper version of my design that I could use as a template.  I used transfer paper and traced each letter onto my canvas.

I carefully painted in each letter, one color at a time.

(So...I did all the browns, then the charcoals, then the blues, etc.)

You can see that I also opted to do the background white rather than gray as I originally planned.  The nice thing about printing an actual size template was I could take it in the room to make sure the colors worked.  When I did so, I realized a white background would look better on the wall... and it was less labor intensive.  Bonus! :)

Once all the paint was dry, I sealed it with a coat of matte Mod Podge and called it good.

The design turned out even better than I had imagined.  I'm lovin' it!

It adds a colorful, graphic punch to the nursery's decor.  I think it's going to look great with the other parts of the gallery wall I'm working on.

Hopefully Baby will love it as much as I do!

song lyric nursery canvases...

Last night I finished painting these canvases for the baby's room.

The words are lyrics to three children's songs from my church...

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

I Am a Child of God

I Love to See the Temple

I just whipped up the simple designs on my computer, printed them out, transferred the images with some random pattern transfer paper I happened to have on hand (normally used for sewing), and painted.  The lines aren't perfect--but, hey, Mommy made them with love.  :)

Can't wait to get them up on the wall!

3-D wood puzzle as decor...

If you're looking for an inexpensive way to add some modern decor to your home or kids' rooms, look no farther than an inexpensive 3-D puzzle.

I picked up this balsa wood dinosaur puzzle for a buck or two at Michaels.

They generally have lots of different animals to choose from.  I just used wood glue to adhere all the pieces together and gave it a bright coat of paint.

Viola!  Instant sculpture.

Perfect for a display shelf or dresser.

And if it eventually gets broken or we change out the dino theme in my son's room, it was only a $2 project...so no big deal.

mod podged dinosaur wall decor...

I'm excited to finally have a post to share...

Baby will be here in 6 weeks, so I've got to get this nursery done!

I mentioned previously that I have a ton of half-finished projects in the works.  That is still true.  But I've had a lovely baby shower, a not-so-lovely stomach virus that landed me in the hospital for IV fluids, and a weekend trip away for a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert to keep me busy.  So I'm happy to finally have this cute dinosaur wall decor project completed and on display.

I was originally contemplating making a mobile, but this image on Pinterest caught my eye.

I think those little elephants are just cut out of paper, but I already had some balsa wood brontosaurus shapes on hand.   I thought they would be perfect for a more permanent wall hanging.

For this project, you'll need:

balsa wood shapes of your choice

craft paint & brushes

scrapbook papers

xacto knife

mod podge

nail file or sandpaper

yarn, twine, or ribbon

tape or glue

Start by sanding the edges of your little wood shapes, if necessary.  I like to use a nail file...it's easier to hold and maneuver in tight spots.

Next, place one of your shapes on a piece of scrapbook paper...

...and cut around your shape.

Repeat until you have all your papers cut out and ready to go.

I wanted the edges of my wood shapes to be painted a contrasting color, so I went ahead and painted the whole shape.  It's easier than just trying to do the edge.  

(If you'd like to leave your wood natural, that works, too.)

Next, apply a coat of mod podge to the surface of your wood shape AND to the back of your paper cutouts.  Position the paper on top of each shape, smooth in place, and allow to dry.

Once dry, you can burnish any roughly cut edges of the paper with your nail file.  Then top with a coat of mod podge and allow to dry.

Now all you have to do is adhere the shapes to your yarn or ribbon and hang them up!

They add a fun pop of color and pattern to the room.

Mine are going to be a part of a little gallery wall/picture grouping that I'm looking forward to showing you later!