Bicycle Art

It seems like ages ago I told you that I would have a fun little art project for S.R.'s room. Well, I finally got around to making one.

I just needed the right inspiration!

I wanted to do something with a bike, but just wasn't sure what. I came across this really cute vinyl cruiser on Etsy , and knew it was exactly what I needed.

Source

And this is what I came up with.

FrogTape makes a chevron painter's tape. Crazy! I know!

 It's super easy to use! 

I found some at Lowes the other day, but you can also purchase it from Amazon. 

Click the link below and it will take you directly to Amazon.

                               

The tape isn't recommended for use on textured surfaces...says so right on the box. As you can see below, my canvas is a textured surface. I went with it anyway because sometimes you can bend the rules a bit in the crafting world. 

I used a scrap piece of tape to keep my lines even.

Once all of the tape was down on my canvas board, I smoothed out all of the edges, painted, and promptly removed the tape.

After letting the paint dry for about 30 minutes, I placed the vinyl bike on top of the painting.

You have to be patient with vinyl. It can tear easily, and can stick together if you don't follow the instructions.

Once in place, I smoothed it out to make sure there weren't any bubbles.

I had the large frame on hand. I was actually using the frame as a Christmas card holder. However, last year, the cards never made it to the frame. 

So I figured I would make good use out of it, paint it purple, and hang it in S.R.'s room.

I don't normally do anything with colors this bright or go with things that are this contemporary because it's not my style. I'm more of a classic style kind of girl.

However, it is S.R.'s style...so I'm goin' with it;o)

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Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on said links, you help me make money. It wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit if you decided to click and buy;o)

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Craftionary

The Jenny Evolution

Window Valance and New Look for the Couch

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. I got to spend some good old fashioned quality time with my little family, so it was definitely a good weekend for me.

In the midst of that, I was able to finish the window valance and pillows for S.R.'s couch.

If you were with me during Crafting with the Stars, you know that the hubs built this couch for S.R. It was made to fit a crib mattress so that it could be used as a bed for her guests, or for E when they are having "sleepovers".

This little couch has gotten a LOT of use! 

 The large pillow in the back is something I made with some of the remnants of the quilt fabric. Super easy to whip up. The other three pillows were purchased from Target. The square pillows had been marked down to $5.99 and the bolster pillow was around $13. The crib sheet was another Target purchase, and it may have been around $9.99.

 The window valance took some planning and searching online for inspiration. After about an hour, I finally decided to take a few different ideas and put them together.

I really like the end result and I like it much better than the panels that were there before. 

This room has been a lot of fun to put together. Just one more post on S.R.'s "bigger girl room." I'll share with you the art project that is going on the wall beside her bed. 

To see the finished quilt, you can go HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Riley Blake Dress Up Days Scalloped Quilt

Back at the beginning of this year, I decided to make S.R. her own quilt, and to turn her room into a bigger girl room. When I was pregnant with her, I made one for E, which you can see here at the end of his bed. I felt it was time she had her own "made by Mommy" quilt. 

Her favorite color is purple, so I searched for several weeks to find the perfect combinations of fabrics. Riley Blake had a line called Dress Up Days, and S.R. and I both fell in love with the prints!

After seeing the Girl Inspired's Scallop Quilt, I knew that would be the perfect design for S.R.

I will have to say, this was a rather expensive quilt to put together. S.R. has a full size bed, so I had to purchase extra fabric. After all the blood, sweat and tears (yes, all three occurred), it was definitely worth the fuss.

I attempted to machine quilt it myself. However my machine messed up and the bobbin stitches were all loopy, so a very dear friend and I had to pick stitches for over 3 hours. Bless her! I decided to throw in the towel and send it off to be quilted. I'm so glad that I did. I love the end result. The flower stitching is a perfect match to this whimsical fabric.

I had a lucky find at Target the other day as well. They had this bed skirt marked 50% off. Just an FYI, purple really isn't "in" right now, so it was fairly difficult to find coordinates for this bedding. There is a lot of purple and pink, but not a whole lot of purple and orange.

The matching throw pillows were made with the ruching technique, and the puppy pillow was my first attempt at hand embroidery.  Pillows are one of the easiest ways to really dress up an area!

The sheets were purchased at Walmart, and I was really excited that the polka dots matched the colors in her quilt!

I have two or three more things to finish up in the room...a valance, an art project and an accessory or two to add, and her bigger girl room will be complete!

Stay tuned to see some of the other areas of her room! 

To see the before, you can go here!

Sneak Peak of Quilt and a Pillow

We are saying a prayer of thanks today. S.R. seems to have made it through this dreaded flu business. So far, no one else is showing signs of catching it. Keeping our fingers crossed;o)

Since we haven't been able to leave the house, I have been working diligently on her new bedding. I finished the scallops on her quilt yesterday. Now I am waiting on the rest of the fabric to arrive so that I can complete the quilt. I am a tad bit nervous about the actual quilting bit. It may take me a few days before I can muster up the nerve to tackle that:o)

I have a ton of fabric scraps leftover, so I decided to make good use of them and turn them into pillows. I have never spent this much time on one pillow, and I will have to say that I am pretty proud of the results.

 I hate any form of hand stitching, but after seeing this mermaid pillow, I knew that there might be some hand stitchery in my future:o)

(source)

While I was piecing the scallops together, I kept thinking that the little puppy on the fabric would be adorable hand embroidered on a pillow. I have NEVER hand embroidered anything, so obviously I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Thankfully I had the materials I needed tucked away in my craft closet. I bought the thread years ago thinking I had the patience to cross-stitch...HA! I also had a couple of hoops from a craft project gone awry.

It took a couple of hours to finish the embroidery part, but I really didn't mind it at all.

I love this little pup! 

I can't wait to get started on the rest of the pillows and to finish the quilt.

But first, I must go make S.R. an outfit for her Easter program...which is tomorrow. She's so excited that she gets to participate in it. It's our last preschool program..sniff, sniff. My babies are growing up WAY too fast!!


Participating Here:

18" Doll Bed, Quilt, Pillow and a Mattress Tutorial

Are you guys ready for Christmas yet? Do you have all of your gifts bought, wrapped and tucked neatly under the tree? We are done for the most part. I think I am going to make one more thing for E and then we will be done. 

Today's post is about what we(the hubs and I) made for S.R.

She has asked for an American Girl Doll for Christmas this year. She is 4 years old...she ain't gettin' an American Girl Doll. However, she is getting a "Famerican" Girl Doll...(Faux-American). Ole Santy Claus is bringing her the doll from Target that looks just like the real deal, and it's 1/3 the cost.

So, I came across a really cool building plan for a doll bed on Ana White's Blog. It is perfect!

I knew the hubs could make it, and so he did:o) 

I decided that I needed to make some really cute bedding to go along with it. 

This Famerican Girl will be resting in style:o)

(I got a little impatient, and decided to take pictures before the hubs could get it stained..pics of the final product will come after X-mas)

This is my very first quilt to actually quilt myself. I found an easy tutorial at Mommy by day, Crafter by night. I was able to make this little quilt in about an hour and a half. The fabrics were from a fat quarter bundle purchased from the Hob.

 The pillow was an absolute must as well:o)

 Here is the under-side of the quilt.

When I laid the quilt and pillow across the bed, the quilt wouldn't lay right. The spindles were in the way, and it just looked like it needed an extra something, so that's when I realized this bed needed a mattress.

This is sort of a tutorial, but not really a step-by-step because I was in a rush to get this done before S.R. got home from school yesterday:o)

I started with two fabrics, you could use the same fabric, but this was leftovers from the fat quarter pack, so I used what I had.

I stitched them together to form what looked like a pillow. I realized I didn't have enough to cover the base of the bed, so I had to add a strip across the top to lengthen it. Once it was re-stitched, I laid it across the bottom of the bed to make sure it fit.

I then stuffed it with poly-fil, and closed the end up by hand-stitching. I usually avoid any hand-stitching at all cost because I am too impatient. However, I really wanted this to look nice, so I bit the bullet, and used my little needle and thread. 

To prevent the mattress from looking like a big pillow shoved into the bed, I tufted it. I had a fabric button covering kit(is that what they're called??), and I used the purple polka dot fabric to cover the buttons. This task was a little more labor intensive. I used a long needle, and lots of patience. At one point, I really thought I was going to need a Band-Aid as well...OUCH! 

This is the back-side of the mattress. Yes, I realize that there are two sets of buttons...why, you ask? Because this was a last minute project, and I didn't have time to go buy matching buttons:o) And, yes, it's staying that way.

So it's complete, and I am thrilled with the results. 

 Perfect for her Famerican Girl Doll!!

Participating in these parties:
Classy Clutter

Round 3 Entry, S.R.'s New Room

Well, we didn't make it to Round 4..and I am slightly okay with that. This has been a tough competition, and my babies haven't been feeling well for a few days. A big thank you to Beckie from Infarrantly Creative who was my coach/mentor/friend throughout this competition. She made this experience so fun. I definitely would not have made as far as I did without her assistance....THANK YOU BECKIE!!!!

Congratulations to the winners of this round. I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves for round 4;o)

 This was my entry for Round 3 of Crafting with the Stars. I just want you all to know how much I LOVE THIS ROOM! It turned out exactly how I envisioned it. S.R. is so happy with her new room and has decided that she would much rather sleep on her new "couch" than her actual bed:o) (Makes for a proud daddy)

We are definitely past the "Baby" stage, so when I found out that the challenge for round 3 was "baby," my immediate thought was toddler daybed. S.R. has been in her big girl bed for about a year and a half, but I thought that a day bed could very well serve as a couch for her room. Plus, if we have guests to stay the night, there would be an extra spot for the kids to sleep.

I headed straight to Hobby Lobby for fabric. Shocker, huh? I was beyond ecstatic when I ran across my FAVE fabric that I had originally wanted to use in her room for $4 a yard(previously $13/$14? a yard).

Thus began the snowball effect:o) After purchasing the fabric, I ran to Lowes and found two coordinating paint colors and got home as fast as I could and started painting. This process can take one day, but I didn't start until Wednesday afternoon. There was church that night, and preschool the next morning, so I got finished with the painting by Thursday afternoon. 

 This is the mountain of tape that was removed from the walls once I was finished...all 2 and 1/2 rolls!

 I had a simple design in my head of how I wanted the daybed/couch to look, and the hubs came through for me. He started working on this Friday night and had it ready for me by Saturday afternoon. He refers to himself as the "hired-help" around here:o) He does such a good job and I really couldn't have finished the room the way I wanted it without his help!

 The carousel horse prints are pictures that I pulled from the internet and used a projector to transfer them onto the boards. If you remember the flower pictures that were hanging in her room before, I "up-cycled" them and spray painted them:o) It's always a good idea to have extra spray paint lying around...you never know what last minute project will pop up:o) And I am really pleased with how this table skirt turned out.

 I actually found the table and the bird cage from our local thrift store. They were $2 each.

 I wanted to do some sort of pennant window treatment, and this is what I came up with. 

 Here is a picture of her closet and bathroom doors. I painted some flowers above just to fru-fru it up a bit.

 A closer shot. I am by no means a muralist, but I do like to attempt things that are outside of my comfort zone every once in a while.

 This is directly across from her bed. The frame was a clearance section find at, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby. I am the sole reason why Hobby Lobby stays in business:o)

 And the day bed. The cover on the crib mattress is actually made to come off. I made it in the same way that a sheet is made. That way, if it needs to be cleaned, I can pull it off and throw it into the wash. I added some piping just to dress it up a bit, so that it didn't LOOK like a sheet.

 The front view. 

This room was completely exhausting, but I am so glad that we did it. Now both of my kids have really cool rooms:o)

To see E's room, click HERE
Thank you all who went to the polls over the past few weeks. Even though this competition has been grueling at times, I have learned a lot, and in return, ended up with some great finished projects. Make sure to stay tuned to see who the winner of the final round will be!!

More Rearranging

Here's a question for you....what do you guys think about an ottoman coffee table? I am thinking that the ottomans upstairs are going to have to be replaced soon b/c someone's hubby keeps sitting his behind on ours and has squished it to bits while playing XBOX....I need something soft b/c the kids are usually jumping on the couch up there.

Anyway, I told you guys yesterday that I went on a rearranging spree. I have had some issues with S.R.'s room. It was starting to feel a little lot cramped. I did some fanagling, and this is what happened.

Her room is so much more spacious now. I moved her dollhouse bookshelf into the closet. The closet door had to be removed b/c the kids kept leaning on it, and it came loose from the frame. I think I am going to leave it like this and maybe hang some curtains from the inside?? Sounds kinda fun to me;o)

Since S.R. doesn't have a dresser, we have to get creative with storage. Some of her clothes are in the baskets on the shelf, others are hanging on the right. Poor thing needs some winter clothes!! It's starting to get a little chilly here, at least in the mornings, and she doesn't have much.

This area hasn't changed much other than moving the roadside chair to this corner. 

Her room WILL have a new paint color soon....I just have to figure out which color. I am so tired of these creamy yellow walls....they are so BLAH!

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I didn't want to leave little man out. These are some things that have been added to his room over the past few weeks. I left the lay out of his room the way it was b/c his room is finished, except for 2 more pieces, (and they have to be made). 

A yard sale lamp for $3. Very masculine I think. Hubs wanted it for his office...HA!

And another addition...planets mobile. Thanks to Papa and Gia for this one. E. was so happy to have some planets hanging below the stars on his ceiling.

His room is a little dark, but this is a larger view with the planet mobile. I think it looks great!

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Have a fabulous Tuesday!!