Personalized Wall Art

This afternoon I finally got around to making Ally's name art for her bedroom. I've been meaning to do this for awhile. Projects like this are fun and easy, not to mention inexpensive. The overall project is so much cheaper than buying pre-decorated letters, and it's also more rewarding. Everytime I see little things like this around the house that I took the time to make I appreciate them way more than had I just bought them from a store. Anywho...

Here's a tutorial on Ally's personalized wall art:

I bought these letters from Hobby Lobby for a couple bucks each.

First I painted the edges with some craft paint I had lying around.



Then I picked the paper that I was going to use.

Next, I used Mod Podge and a foam brush to apply the paper.

Make sure you put the paper on the right side the first time... (unlike me! I always mess up at least once when I do projects like this).

Took a break to feed the baby.

Used an exacto knife to cut around the letters, and then sanded down the edges.

And last but not least, embellished!

I wanted to keep them pretty simple so I only used a few embellishments.

More Craft Space Makeovers

Here are some other little makeovers I did the day I cleaned the gameroom, as well as a few repurposed items I use to store craft supplies.

Ugly mirror we got from Chad's grandma:

I spray painted it with some paint the previous homeowner left in the garage (it's actually more purple IRL. Oh, and sweet reflection, I know..):

Used scrapbook paper to make these lame plastic bins nice to look at:

They coordinate with the wall art I also made-over:

I previously decorated this plain, supply holder I got from some scrapbook store, but I was over this paper:

So again I used paper that coordinates with the wall art. All I did was mod podge over the old paper:

Turned a frame into a memo board:

The container of flowers was actually the container for some really cute ice cream bowls my mom got us for Christmas from Pier 1. The shoeboxes hold photos and miscellaneous cards from birthdays, anniversarys, etc. The little basket with my glue gun is something I found from Goodwill for $1 or less, and I just spray painted it Antique White.

This basket was originally a fruit basket sent to us when Ally was born from Chad's grandparents. Here it's holding some albums:

The two cans here are actually soup cans I decorated with ribbon and twine, and the "Happiness" frame has a letter Chad wrote to me in the beginning of our relationship on some scrap paper as a background.

Cheap & Easy Wall Art

If you Google "DIY Wall Art" you can find a ton of cute and often cheap ideas. This is just one of them. I first came across this idea at our previous home and knew it was something I could do in a very short amount of time. I bought some foam board from my local craft store, had Chad cut 6 squares, each 12 X 12, found some cute scrapbook paper, picture hangers and spray adhesive. This is what I originally came up with and had hanging at the other house:

I didn't have any place to put these particular colors in our new home and while I was cleaning the gameroom I decided to give them a makeover. Luckily for this project I had used the spray adhesive so I was able to remove the old paper easily. (Had I used something like Mod Podge I most likely would have just started from scratch.)

All I did was find some new paper I liked and adhered it to the foam board by using the spray adhesive once again.

Here's how I hung them:

My finished product:

Very cute and very girly! And in the event that I ever get a real craft room and these colors don't coordinate, I can easily give them another makeover or hang them in Ally's room.

Playing Catch-Up

The next few posts are most likely going to be things I did back in January that I just haven't gotten around to putting on here. I'm afraid it's nothing too exciting but I took these pictures with the intention of blogging about them so that's what I'm doing!

Our new house has an add-on from the previous owners. At the moment, it is referred to as the "gameroom", although it is actually more of an office, craft space, storage, and gaming room. Whatever it is, it's sole purpose shortly after we moved in was a sort of catch-all for the junk we just didn't have a place for yet. Well, if anyone is unsure about whether or not "nesting" is for real, the following pictures should be proof that it is. Two days before I went to the hospital to have Drew, I cleaned the gameroom from top to bottom. It was literally an all day project, and you better believe my whole body was sore the next day!

This is what I was working with:

It may not look that bad, but trust me, it was. As you can see, the closet was mine. I kept all my stuff for scrapbooking in there but really couldn't be productive in this sad spot, so while cleaning I decided to move my things elsewhere, whether the hubs liked it or not.

After several, grueling hours bending over to pick up all this junk with a 9 month, pregnant belly constantly in the way, I have to say I was pretty satisfied with the results.

my new scrap space:



Seeing as how it's been about a month and a half since these pictures were taken, it's not exactly this tidy anymore. Being more organized with my scrapping supplies always gives me the urge to actually get some layouts done, and lets be honest, when I'm productively scrapbooking things can get more than a little messy. I've also been moving things around the house (I'm still trying to figure out where I want decorations, etc., to end up) so it's also going strong as a storage space once again; however, it's nowhere near what it was in the top pictures and that's good enough for me.. for now. 

Little Girl's Room

     Ally transitioned surprisingly well when we moved into our new house. Prior to moving she was still sleeping in a crib (she had just turned two), but we thought it would be the perfect time to upgrade her to a big girl bed. For the first couple of weeks she actually slept on a mattress on the floor in the baby's room while we got her room set up. Chad and I picked out the color of her room together, which is a very soft pinkish-purple. (He was sick of pink everywhere he turned so we tried to tone it down a bit.) I'm sure sometime in the future I might play around with new decorations and maybe even try to do something different with the furniture, but we worked with what he had and this is how it is for the time being:



BEFORE

AFTER

     I'd like to find or make some art to put on the wall around her bed, figure out something to hide the clutter in her closet, and maybe someday in the distant future I'll paint her furniture and replace the knobs just to update the look a little more. I can't complain too much because we got all the furniture for free. I gave the bookcase a couple fresh coats of the same white we used on the trim. The curtains were in our living room at our old house and they were meant to be temporary, but I think I like them.