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!

My Latest Project

So...in case you haven't noticed, I've been absent for awhile (you know, like a month!) The reason for this is that I've been extremely busy with my latest project. Here she is:

That's my little pumpkin shortly after arriving.

Here's a slightly more recent pic of our family:
Here's the stats for those that are interested. She was born on April 5th at 4:00 a.m. She weighted 8 lbs 0.8 oz and was 20 inches long. We are so excited to have her finally here! I've been off for the last month on maternity leave. I've been enjoying her so much I've barely put in any time on the internet. I apologize for the lack of posting, but some things are just more important to me, and spending as much time with my pumpkin is one of them. I am hoping to get back on track with a schedule now once again. Thanks for hanging in there! I will be posting with some more good news hopefully later today.

Happy Crafting!

Baby Blanket #1 Finally Finished!

Okay, so I've been promising to show you this for awhile now and I'm just getting to it. Sorry! I can only hope that showing you now makes up for it. I mentioned awhile ago that I was working on a blanket in my boy color scheme (black, red and white). I struggled a bit with the last seam on it, but I finally finished it today. It's a rag quilt. I loosely (very) followed a tutorial like this. (I can't find the exact one I used anymore.) Here's the final result:



(I just realized how narrow it looks in this pic. It is not that narrow, just my ugly camera skill rearing its head again!) I love how this turned out! I didn't follow the tutorial exactly in that I just used one large piece of batting in the middle and one piece of red minky for the back. I tacked the batting to the front piece before sewing on the back. Here's what the back looks like:



Here's a close-up of the front so you can see the "rag" seams and the fabric:



All the squares are cotton flannel. I used natural cotton batting for the middle and minky (blend) for the back. Once I was done sewing everything together, I washed and dried it to get the rag look on the seams. I kinda wish I would've sewn it together with individual squares on the back as well, but live and learn I guess.

This turned out so cute! I can't wait to get started on my next project! (Again, going overboard and getting ahead of myself here!) I bought this Michael Miller panel:



It's from the "At First Sight" line. I'm not sure if I'm going to do another blanket, or something else entirely with it. If I do make a blanket, it's just going to be a lightweight one without any lining/batting in the middle. What do you think I should use it for?

Happy Crafting!

More Baby Projects

I thought I would show you some of the stuff from my 50 project list. First I sewed a baby blanket for my friend.

The front is made with four squares of blue chenille (recycled from an old bedspread) and a chocolate brown velvet. I used satin binding around the whole thing. (babies love the texture of this!)

Back with just chenille:

I also made a boatload of onesies for my little one. Whether I have a boy or girl, I have onesies I can keep and some I can give away as gifts.

Remember this one:

Well, Hubby fixed my sewing machine (Hurray!!) so I was able to add the ruffles to the butt:

How cute is that?

I added a bow to this one:

I appliqued a few with felt. Tow truck:

Cowboy boot:


This next one, I'll probably add something else to, but I thought the iron on was too cute to pass up:

Whew! Now that I've shared these projects with you, I don't feel like such a slacker. Technically, this counts as 2 of my 50 projects so far. I'd better get cracking if I want to get all 50 acomplished by the end of the year! I should have another one of those projects done tonight. I'm making a rag quilt for the baby and I only have to sew on the back and I'm done with that one.

Here's the dilema on that: We are not finding out what we are having. I have two very distinct color choices as far as the nursery goes: boy = red, black and white and girl = gray and yellow. So, I'm getting ahead of myself by doing anything for the baby's room this far in advance. I decided to make a few things to tide myself over and whatever I don't end up needing will either get given away as gifts or sold. (The current WIP is in the boy color scheme of red, black and white.) Hopefully, I'll have pics of that to share with you tomorrow along with a link to a tutorial and additional tips on how I made mine.

Happy Crafting!

Quickie Project of the Week: Baby Stuff!

So this week's quickie project of the week is actually several small projects all to do with baby stuff! I finally got the nesting bug and I want to start making stuff for the baby. Part of the reason I haven't already is we are not finding out if it's a boy or girl until the big day. I finally decided I'm just going to make cute stuff anyway and if it's not for the right gender, I'll either give it away or keep it for future little ones. On to the projects!

First, I wanted to do some decorated onesies. I had bought the most adorable iron-on transfers made by Plaid on clearance for $1 per set of 2 transfers. I couldn't pass that up! I made two last night:

I just ironed the images on following the instructions that came with the transfers. (Set iron to highest cotton setting, no steam press firmly on hard surface for 60-80 seconds, let transfer paper cool, peel off paper)

Didn't they turn out super cute? I love the squirrel one! I was planning on sewing ruffles on the butt of that one using pink and white gingham, but my sewing machine broke last night. *sigh* Hubby is supposed to "fix it" tonight. I think it's beyond repair this time, but we'll see.



Another quick easy project I did last night was a picture for the baby's room. If it's a girl, I'm now leaning toward a grey, white and yellow color scheme for the room. Here's what I came up with:




I took a blank canvas from walmart (I think this one is 8 x 8 inches, but I'm not sure). I painted it a dark grey with acrylic paint (black and white mixed together). After it dried, I took some cutouts I made on my Mom's cricut last weekend. I used ModPodge and spread it over the back of each cutout with a paintbrush. I laid the cutouts where I wanted them and pressed them down fairly hard. I let them dry for a bit (around 10 minutes or so) before coating the whole canvas with another layer of ModPodge. TaDa! In less than 45 minutes or so, I had a super cute picture that will either hang in the baby's room, or get given to someone else!

Next time I make one of these, I'll try to remember to take in progress pics! I have to make at least one more now, in my "boy" color scheme of red, black, and white! ;) If I keep this up, I'm going to have double of everything!

Happy Crafting!

Inspiration Tuesday: Rooms for the Baby

Last night I had a moment of panic when I realized that the baby is due the first week of April. That means we have less that four months to buy a house and decorate a nursery. (I don't know if the house will actually get bought before we have the baby, but a girl can dream!) I have some ideas of what I want to do for decorations. We aren't finding out if we are having a girl or a boy, so the decorating will have to wait until after the baby is born anyway. Anywho, enough rambling. Because of all of this, I thought I would showcase some inspiration for nursery (or even older kid's) rooms for today's Inspiration Tuesday.

I have thought about doing a red, black, and white room if we have a boy. Like this one:

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I don't know if I'll be bold enough to paint those stripes on the walls, but I love the look of red, black and white all together.

But then again, a nautical themed room would also be super cute.

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I love the ship graphic! Super cute.

I've been thinking for a girl, I would do turquoise and red. Here's one that incorporated yellow and a few other bright colors that's nice:

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I had thought I would try to stay away from being too girly...but then I saw this:

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Adorable!

Then there's this one:

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I love it!

I also saw a recent episode of Designed to Sell on HGTV, where they took a cute toile fabric that was turquoise blue and really bright pink and designed the whole room on that color scheme. They painted the walls blue (similar to the color on the wall in the third pic above) and the furniture the bright pink. It was super cute. I cannot for the life of me right now find either a picture of the room, or the fabric. I'm currently scouring fabric sites to locate it. If I find it, I'll let you know!

Tip: Today most of the ideas I found on Design Dazzle and then tracked down to the original posts. It's a great place to start looking at ideas for nursery and kids rooms!

Got a nursery that you decorated? Want to share? Leave a comment here or contact me through my profile!

Happy Crafting!