Nursery Revealed!

Today is the day I am revealing the nursery. Be prepared for lots of pictures. If you have any questions about anything, please ask! I wanted to do a color scheme of yellow and gray. There are some hints of pink and green for contrast.

The walls were painted with Kilz in Castle. The stripe around the walls is Valspar, but I'm not sure the exact name of the color as it got painted over on the can. I cut the design out of stencil material with a cricut and stenciled over the yellow with leftover Castle.

Closeup of the wall detail:

Here's the view from the doorway. I recovered the rocker with new fabric, but otherwise left it as is (It still needs trim around the edges of the upholstery fabric, I haven't found anything that matches yet!) The rug is not part of the room scheme. I just threw something I had down to protect the floor until I find one (or make one) that I like.
Closeup of the rocker:

Here's the corner with the crib. The window art I made is hanging in this corner. The quilt I made from various yellow, gray and black fabrics I collected. I made the crib sheet as well. The skirt underneath the crib is a thrift store find. I bought two sets of large curains, valances and a bedspread made of yellow eyelet lace all for $2.50! One of the curtains fit perfectly just draped on the springs under the mattress. Easiest no sew project ever! The one thing I did not make was the bumper. That my Mom purchased for us.

This banner hangs on the wall above the crib. My mom made the pennants from scrapbook paper. Maddy's name is made from vinyl letters cut on the cricut. Mom used it for a decoration at the shower. I just glued each pennant on a yellow grossgrain ribbon and stretched it between two nails in the wall. I thought it added a nice pop of accent colors to the room.

This is the side of the room opposite the crib. My mom refinished the dresser and added bird and branch vinyl cutouts to each drawer. I purchased a changing pad for the top and sewed a cover using some leftover quilt fabric and some super soft fuzzy pink material I had in my stash. Next to the dresser is a cheap bookcase for storage. I'm using another thrift store find (a really big square scarf/shawl) to cover the ugliness for now. On top, sits the lamp I redid.


Above the changing station area, I used these cute drawer knobs I found in Michaels for a $1 each as a way to hang up more artwork. Each knob is slightly different. So far, I only have something on the middle knob. I've had this Creative Memories frame since we got married. I am planning on making a cute layout with some pics of all three of us, but haven't gotten that far yet.

My mom found this super cute owl night light at an auction. The outside was originally brown, but I just spraypainted it black. The moon lights up. How cute is that!

There are still a few more things I want to do in here yet. I have a large shelf I want to paint to put up in the corner above the rocker to put picture frames and knickknacks on. I want to find some kind of large toy chest for when she actually starts to play with toys that I can put in the bottom of the closet. And I think the closet needs another shelf.

Other than that, this has been a great project and I'm so happy with how everything turned out! It's a great room for Maddy to grow up in. Hopefully, I won't have to paint it again for quite awhile! I hope you enjoyed the tour! I will be bringing you some more crafting projects this week. I am planning on giving tours of more rooms in the new house as they get "finished." Next up will probably be the living room.

Happy Crafting!

Nursery Project #2: I love lamp

Today, I'm gonna show you a lamp I made over. I found this lamp at the thrift store for $2. It had a wicker base that matched my wicker rocker (another project I'll show you). The only problem was it was painted 80's mauve and had a hideous floral fabric colored shade. I've been bad about remembering to take before pictures lately. I finally remembered on this project when I had already started spray painting.

The before (or in this case, in the middle):

You can still see some of the mauve color. In the background is the earlier mentioned shade. I started by spray painting the base with a white primer/paint (whatever I had laying around- not sure the exact brand).

Next, I ripped off the yucky floral fabric (and some of the shade). The shade is old, so it cracked a little, but I recovered it anyway.
Then I used the highly scientific pattern drafting method of rolling the shade over some paper while tracing with a pencil. This gave me an approximate shape to cut the fabric out of. I tested the pattern size by rolling the paper around the shade to make sure it would fit. I cut it a little bigger at the top and bottom.

I used some fabric left over from making Maddy's quilt and cut my pattern out from that.
All cut out and ready to glue:

(The fabric is mustard martini from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern line in case you were wondering).

I didn't manage to take a pic of the gluing process, but I just used a hot glue gun and rolled the fabric around the shade, gluing as I went.

Then I glued some yellow ruffle trim I had in my stash around the bottom to finish that edge.


Tada! A brand new lamp that matches the nursery decor perfectly. (In the background, you can see a sneak peak of the walls in the nursery.)

Happy Crafting!

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Nursery Project # 1 Window to your soul

This week, I'm going to show you a series of projects I did in the nursery. The grand finale of the series will be on Friday, when I reveal the entire finished nursery. The color scheme of the nursery is yellow and gray. First, I'm going to show you a wall hanging my I made from an old window. I found this window in my former neighbor's dumpster. I think he was a contractor.

I've been bad about remembering to take before pictures lately, but here's one of finish on the back. The whole window looked like this until it was painted.

I painted the window frame yellow. Then I used Mom's cricut and some vinyl to make words and die cuts for each of the three panes. I didn't take any photos of that process, but here's the finished product:I thought the green and pink made for some nice contrasting colors. More projects to come this week!

Happy Crafting!

I posting this at this week's CSI project challenge:

Sneaky Peak Friday

Today I thought I'd show you some sneak peaks of posts I have planned for the next week or so. First, I started sewing clothes for the baby! Here's a sneak peak of some of that action:


I'm almost finished decorating the nursery. I plan on doing a serious of posts on various projects in the room, including these two:

I also plan on doing some posts about the new house, decorating, and gardening. Stay tuned for details next week!

Happy Crafting!

Great Baby (Stuff) Making Tutorials

I didn't mean that title exactly as it sounds. Long before I had our little pumpkin, I started looking for tutorials on making crafts for babies. I ended up using quite a few and have quite a few more stored up and ready to make (as soon as I find and unpack my crafting supplies). I thought I would share some of my favorite ones.

Crib sheets seem like such a racket. They run anywhere from $7-$10 in the store (and that's for the cheap ones!) It's much less expensive to purchase 2 yards of fabric and sew them yourself. This tutorial from Made makes it so simple, even a novice sewer can make them! I made three different sheets from soft cotton flannel.


This next one is definately on my to do list: tights for the baby. I found a tutorial over on Made by Rae that I would love to try!


If you've been around the craft blog world at all, you've seen dozens of tutorials on how to make baby legs. This one from Everything your Momma Made & More seems fairly simple. This one is still on my to-do list.

Here's a great idea: using fabric to make "wallpaper" to decorate the baby's room. This is a good alternative to expensive vinyl graphics. Infarrantly Creative shows you how to do this here.

The best part? When you get tired of it, You just spray the wall lightly with water and it peels right off!

There are many different tutorials for customizing onesies out there. One of my favorites is this one from Not So Idle Hands. The reason I like this one so much is it uses a "cheat" to do screen printing. I've wanted to screen print for a really long time, but getting started is so expensive. This method uses inexpensive materials that every one can find.

There's also a tutorial for baby legs there.

One last tutorial: a rag quilt. I made one of these in my boy color scheme. Now of course, I didn't have a boy, but I will use as a gift for the next time I have to give a boy baby gift. Here's a good, easy to follow tutorial for one on Oopsey Daisy.There are of course, many more tutorials out there for making baby stuff. These are just a few that I've found and liked. Have any great baby (stuff) making tutorials? ;) Please share in the comments.

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Summer

Summer for me has begun! I thought I would share some funky finds that say summer to me.

A great picnic basket from Target:*Source

Doesn't this necklace from Gaialai on Etsy just scream ocean?*Source

Wouldn't this wind-chime from World Market be great on a breezy porch?

*Source

This double chaise lounge from Pottery Barn makes me want to relax in the sun:
*Source

Check out the birdhouses The Peculiar Palette posted on Craftster.org:
*Source

What makes you think of summer?

Happy Crafting!