Unique Border Solution

I knew I wanted to have 2 paint colors in Bear's Big Boy Room... what I couldn't figure out was how I was going to set off those two paint colors.

I didn't want to do chair rail. Not in the budget, not the look I wanted.

Didn't want a wall paper boarder.

Just having the 2 colors meet wasn't going to work either.

So after trying, and hating several different options - what I feel in love with was metallic tape.

Note: this is NOT duct tape, though with all the decorator duct tapes out there you likely could use it. But I wanted something VERY shiny, with almost no texture of it's own.

While exploring Lowes, I discovered this metallic tape in the HVAC section - It's day job is holding duct work together throughout a house. But it was exactly the look I wanted for a boarder.

Putting it up was a challenge. Definitely a 2 person job - thankfully, my mom and stepdad had come up for the day. I had to go to Ikea for a smaller train table and if I had gone without inviting my parents, I just might have been disowned.

A few tips if you decide this solution is something that you might want to try:

• 2 people is key, you need one person to remove the backing of the tape and press the adhesive to the wall while the other person holds the roll in front of you moving as you go along.
• Keep the roll at the level that you are applying the tape, if you go even a bit above or a bit below where you want the tape to be, you'll get kinks and creases in it.
• Have the wall below as perfect as you can get it - if you've got a tape line under the tape, it is going to show. I wish I'd sanded more before I applied the tape.
• You will have imperfect spots, but once you load in the room with furniture and accessories, no one is going to inspect your board for flaws and if they do - then there are more issues than the imperfections in your boarder. 
• And last, like with any project, the only person who knew what it was supposed to look like is you, so if it come out different than you expected, you'll be the only one to know.

Got an interesting boarder solution? I'd love to hear about it - I'm looking for something else to do in our kids bathroom. 

Paper Pennant Garland

One of the things I love most about my son's new room are the paper banners I created.

Here is how I made them...

Cut the the layers out on my cricut, red background layer (which if you look closely you'll see also has an oval cut out to help me thread them evenly), the white layer and then the blue letters.

Then I assembled the individual banners:

Then I flipped them over to reveal the guide on the red layer that was cut by the Cricut so that each pennant would have their slits cut in exactly the same spot - what I tried and discovered didn't work was to precut the slit in both layers.

Why didn't that work? First, lining the two slits up perfect was a challenge, and second, the cricut couldn't get the slit as narrow as I wanted it - too wide of a slit and the pennants slide around on the ribbon and gravity is not the friend of the garland. 

So I cut them by hand. 

And then I threaded them onto the ribbon, first trying and not liking them on white, then loving them on red. 

And that was it - 3 fabulous custom paper pennant garlands for his room.

Big Boy Room - The Before and After

Well I did it - I transitioned my son's nursery to a big boy room. There are still a few loose ends to tie up but in the span of the long weekend, while the husband and kids were visiting family in NY, I got the room cleaned out, walls washed, repaired, taped and painted. Created the artwork for the walls, sewed the window treatments, made what felt like 47 trips out to get things I didn't realize I needed until I needed them and got everything put back together before they got home.

I'll post some other details and how-to's later in the week, for now, here is the straight up before and after. Please, please, please don't judge too much by the before's. His room was a mess... embarrassing.

Before:

And after:

The best part of his new room - he loves it. Absolutely loves it.

After almost a year of not linking to any parties I think I'll link this up over at Be Different... Act Normal's Show and Tell Saturday. 

From Nursery to Big Boy Room

Well - my baby boy, isn't much of a baby boy anymore. In fact, he's growing up faster than I ever could have imagined. On Friday he received his "advanced white" belt in Tae Kwon Do.

And in just over a week, he'll be starting kindergarten - how is that possible?

What isn't working - is that his room, is still his nursery theme. Sure, we've added bunk beds (his sister, despite having her own room - sleeps on the top bunk in his... they are so stinkin' cute.)

I really want to his bedroom to be finished before he starts school. And as luck would have it, my husband is taking the kids camping labor day weekend and they'll be gone for 4 and a half days... leaving me to transform his room.

My inspiration is coming from this quilt:

It suits his personality perfectly - he loves sports. I didn't want to go with decor that was specific to a single sport or a single team... he's 4, let's face it, his tastes are going to change. So the mix of 4 sports, without team affiliation is perfect.

I've fabric in the dryer for new valances and a little surprise I've got planned for his bunk bed. The paint has been bought. I've got the artwork ready to fire up the Cricut to create some fun personal touches:

Hopefully - I'll keep up with the progress here. Fingers crossed.

Butterfly Project

The mini-renovation of Bug's room continues. About a month ago, she decided her bedroom was too baby for a 7 year old. I didn't want to completely redo her room, just punch up the colors and create some more mature accessories.

We pulled the color from her wall mural down onto the newly modified daybed:

With this next project I decided to run with the colors a bit more as well as the butterflies. I'd seen something I liked over at Restorative Living that I used as my inspiration. We went about it slightly differently, be sure to check out her tutorial as well.

Here is what I started with:

•  2 Scrapbook frames. I love square frames and scrapbook frames are a great way to get a square frame without having to spend a fortune.
• Scrapbook paper & Circut to cut the butterflies. You could also purchase precut butterfly die cuts or cut them yourself.
• Foam mounting tape
• Paint (for the frames)
• Foam board or other rigid material to mount the scrap book paper to.
• Spray adhesive

I was thrilled to be able to round up all the materials except the foam tape at home, so the total out of pocket cost for this project was less than $4.

Step 1: Paint the frames the color of your choice, I wanted white.

Step 2: Cut the butterflies to the size of your choice, I went with 1".

Step 3: Mount the background paper to the foam board and trim to the size of your frame.

Step 4: Take the butterflies and begin playing with arrangements that you think work best. It took me a bunch of playing to get the right layout, but once I had it, I loved it!!!

And finally - my finished layout.

Which I then had to replicate on the 2nd piece of paper mixing up the order of the colors.

Step 5: Scoring and folding the butterflies. One by one, remove the butterflies from your paper, score them so that their wings fold up, and then return it to its place. Repeat over and over and over 'till all the butterflies are folded as you see below.

Step 6: Cut a very thin strip of the foam adhesive and apply it to the back of your first butterfly along the body.

Step 7: Press the butterfly firmly into the spot you picked out just for him. Or her. And repeat over and over and over again. (Note: when I took this picture I hadn't folded all the other butterflies, a step which I realized was good to get out of the way all at once just about a row of butterflies later.)

Step 8: When you've got all the butterflies attached, slip the piece into your frame.

Step 9: (And you thought you were done.) Take a couple of the remaining butterflies and add them to the frame for an extra touch of whimsy.

That is it. This project was really easy, time consuming, but easy.

Here is the before and after, please excuse the mess around them, we're working on the other accessories and all...

A few closeups: