Pottery Barn Kids Nursery Knock-off Part 1: Stenciling the Walls

ETA: The nursery is done!  Check out the finished room HERE.  You can also find details on my DIY crib bedding HERE and my DIY wall art HERE.

Thought I'd pop in to show you what my husband's been working on lately.  We're expecting a baby girl in May.  Hooray!  So my husband's been busy painting Baby Girl's nursery. 

We're doing a knock-off of this Scallop Pique Nursery from Pottery Barn Kids.

Look at what a great job Ben's doing with those walls!

The first order of business was painting the base color.  Pottery Barn Kids teamed up with Benjamin Moore to pick their paint colors, meaning that every paint color you see in PBK stores or catalogs is a Benjamin Moore paint color and can be purchased from a Benjamin Moore retailer.  Our local PBK store gave us a free pack of paint swatches.  We picked the swatch that matched the photo in the catalog (Iced Lavender), then took it to be color matched for a less expensive brand of paint at our local hardware store.

The next order of business was creating a stencil.  I bought a 10" x 18" stencil blank, a.k.a. stencil film, at JoAnn.  (Click here to purchase one from Amazon.com.)  Then Ben worked his magic to design this file on the computer.  You can click on the file, print, and enlarge it until it measures 10" x 18".  Note: You only need one dot between each of the parenthesis-looking things (that's an official term, right?).  Ben originally printed his design with two dots to help him align the images correctly, then changed his mind once he realized he'd need to use a level anyway.

Ben designed the stencil, then printed the design on computer paper.  It printed onto two pages, which Ben taped together.  Sorry that I don't have a picture of this, but Ben placed the stencil blank on top of the printed design, then used an X-acto knife to cut through the stencil film, creating his stencil.  If these instructions are as clear as mud, click HERE to see a video from PBK about making your own stencil, paying special attention around the 1:00 mark.

Now our walls look like this.  Okay, really they look much more lavender than in this photo.  (See the photo of Ben near the top of the post.)  And this was as much of the wall as I could squish into the photo.  One day I'll figure out the whole lighting/wide-angle lens thing.  Still, you can see that my husband did a stinkin' awesome job on the stenciling.

Stay tuned for my DIY crib bedding.

Kiss Me I'm AWESOME

It's the St. Patrick's Day shirt for the {super cute} non-Irish folk.

"Stand here, Lincoln. I want to take a picture of your shirt."

"Put your hands up so I can see the writing...oh wait, that looks awkward." 

"How about you jump up and down waving your arms?  Then you'll have fun."

"Whoa, wide eyes!  How about looking down?"

"Love it.  You're too cute.  Now I just wanna take your picture."

I saw the phrase "Kiss Me I'm Awesome" on a t-shirt at Crazy 8.  We're not Irish, but I sure think my kids are awesome, so it was perfect.  I used my Silhouette to make a stencil for the lettering out of freezer paper.  The shamrock and yellow strip of fabric are adhered with Wonder Under, then stitched around the edges. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Bunny Love

I never get tired of making gifts for baby girls.  This sweet bunny is for a little one whose mother loves all things vintage.

Look at those little floppy ears and arms - too cute!  The body is a combination of soft quilting cotton and snugly chenille.

With button eyes and a yarn ball tail, this bunny's not a crib toy.  It's more to play with while mom's around - or at least look welcoming sitting on a nursery shelf.



The pattern is FREE over at Sew4Home.com.  Gotta love free.  If you make one, I'd suggest machine sewing the feet and arms.  I'm not sure why the pattern says to hand stitch them.  No need.  Plus I feel safer being able to secure stitch as many pieces as possible on a child's toy.  (I know, after I added button eyes, right?)

Isn't that bushy tail adorable? Love it.

Hooray for new babies!  Wouldn't this make a great Easter gift, too?

YOU Made It: Taggie Blanket

This totally made my day! I love hearing that a blog reader used one of my tutorials, but usually I only find out when someone leaves a comment or posts their project on their own blog and happens to include a link back to my tutorial. Then if I'm following a link to my tutorial, I wonder if I'm being stalker-ish by going to visit that reader.  (IS that weird?  You'd let me know if it is, right?)

Needless to say I was thrilled when Hanna P. contacted me to let me know she made a taggie baby blanket using my tutorial...AND she sent pictures...AND her blanket's SUPER CUTE...AND she said I could share her project with the rest of you. Like I said, it totally made my day!

Isn't that fabric fantastic?  I love the subtle pops of pink.  The fresh green and yellow ribbons also add a fun touch.

The snuggly-soft flip-side in coordinating pink.

Thanks for sending pictures, Hannah!  The blanket's adorable and should make one special baby feel very loved.

Dinosaur Party Invitations

Lincoln's celebrating his fourth birthday with a dinosaur-themed birthday party.  Two years ago my older son, Brighton, also asked for a dinosaur birthday party.  That made planning this year's bash super easy.  Same games and activities.  Same invitations.  Same food.  Different kids.  Score!

Instead of a card-type invitation, each child received a box with instructions to "dig up the details inside."  (I even had the patterned paper left over from two years ago - it was just too easy.)

For instructions on how to fold an origami box, click here.

What's inside the box, you ask?  A mini dino dig!  I printed the party details on little tags, tied them to small dinosaur (dog) bones, and buried the bones in sand.  Yes, I warned the moms that these would be messy and that kids should open their invitations outside.  But seriously, how much more fun is this than a boring ol' card!?

Speaking of boring ol' cards...  Actually, I like this one.  This was my first shot at making invitations until I decided to do the mini dino dig.  I ended up using this card as a thank you note.

Wish me luck on the party!  Enjoy your day.

Patterned papers from the Archaic collection by Basic Grey.