Ruffled Crib Skirt {BOYS}

I Finally finished sewing the crib bedding, and I'm in love!! I must say it was way more adorable before I put the crib rail on...now the rail kind of hides the cute ruffles, but I'm still in love!

Who says boys can't have ruffles on their bed?

 Still need to make one more rail cover for the front of the crib...but I'm pretty sure this little guy won't be born with teeth, so I have a while to get that one done!
 If you missed the rail cover tutorial it's here, or if your just wondering what in the world the rail covers are for...see pictures here as well.

...Oh yeah, and I should probably figure out a name for this little guy so I can add that to the wall too, then I think we will be ready for him!

  I used the crib skirt tutorial from Positively Splendid. Just a tip, the instructions are for a four sided crib skirt, so if you want to spend a little less money/time you probably could make it three sided(since the back usually doesn't get seen). And make sure you read through all the instructions before you get started...your working with LOTS of fabrics and the instructions can get a little confusing if you don't figure out exactly what your working with from the beginning.

Here is the finished product before I put it on the crib.

It was quite the project for a crib that actually won't be slept in for several months, since the baby will be in the craddle, but if I didn't finish it before the baby got her I probably wouldn't have done it at all. SO HAPPY IT'S DONE! This room is coming together and I'm loving it, can't wait to share pictures soon!

Dumpster Deal {Frame Makeover}

Don't you LOVE it when you go to take your trash out and you find a SWEET piece of potential in the dumpster! I mean come on who would even throw this GIANORMOUS piece of artwork in the trash. (Still had wrapping on it and a $200.00 price tag...WHAT??) I know, crazy right? I was kind of in heaven as I tried very discreetly to LUG this large beast behind our building and into my garage before anyone saw me.

Trust me people, pictures do not do this thing justice...It's LARGE beyond belief, like when I stand next to it it comes almost up to my chest. So I probably could have done something extra cool with it if I had a LARGE house...but I don't, so it would have looked real silly in my living room with a GIANT family picture in it (Although can you imagine how cool it would be to have a life size family picture?)

So an extra large chalkboard in my boys room was the next best thing. Turns out I LOVE IT...and so does my son.

 I wasn't to worried about painting the frame with heavy duty paint so I used a regular acrylic paint, A mixture of Martha Stewart "Green Curry", "Spring Pasture", & "Green Olive".

  

 Bought a piece of plywood from Lowes and had it cut to size, then painted it with Martha Stewart chalkboard paint. I Actually didn't prime it first, which might have been smarter, then I wouldn't have had to do as many coats, but...it worked out fine without the primer. I also glazed it when I was done to give it a little distressed look.

TOTAL COST = $25.00 (All supplies to make chalkboard & hanging tins)

The Tin buckets I found at Michael's on the sale rack, I just painted a little chalkboard paint on them to spice them up a bit and give them a label.

Now can we all give a BIG{THANK YOU} to the kind of people that throw away extra awesome things.

Oh yeah, P.S. Last week I got a grill out of the trash because someone didn't want to move it with them...and yes, we already had a delicious BBQ with it!

Don't worry I don't really dig in the trash for these things, people just leave them laying by the side!!!  

Crib Rail Covers

What's a girl to do when her first child chews away the railings on his beautiful crib?

Well not leave it like that for the next kid, that's for sure!
(Sorry for the extra blurry picture...not sure how that happened)

I have seen lots of rail covers sold that probably work great, but there just extra tacky. So I decided to come up with a cuter version of a railing cover, that does it's job while looking extra adorable!

 

I figured out what size I wanted my rail covers to be and quilted a piece big enough that I could cut it in half and have two rectangle strips for each side of the crib.

I finished off the edges by folded them under and sewing 1/4" all the way around the rectangle strip. I didn't really care what the underneath side looked like because know one will see it, but if you care you may want to give it a more finished look.

I made 4 fat ties and 4 skinny ties to sew to each rectangle that will help to secure the rail cover to the crib. The fat ties I cut 4"X 20" and the skinny ties 2"X 20", so after I sewed them into strips the finished sizes of the ties were about 1" and 2" wide.(I wanted mine to be secured with big bows, so I made my strips longer, but if you just want them tied on or secured with velcro you may want to shorten the length of your ties). 

 Sew your ties onto the underneath side of your  quilted rectangle, make sure you lay your rectangle on your crib rail to figure out exactly where you want your ties to be. 

All done, now be happy that you won't have chewed up railings on your beautiful crib.

DIY Wall Letters

I was going for simple, bold and modern looking, and that's exactly how they turned out...I LOVE IT!

 I cut the paper letters out on my Cricut using the font "Gill Sans Ultra Bold" and made all the letters 6" tall. After the letters were cut I traced them onto the foam board and used a scalpel to cut the board out. Then used spray glue to attach the paper(make sure you spray the foam board and not the paper...sometimes the glue soaks through the paper and leaves spots).

And of course I had to pull in the chevron stripe(but not to much). So I traced the stripe onto the "O" and painted away!

I cut the base of the letters out of white foam board from Wal-Mart(less than $2), and since I would be using gray paper to cover them I went ahead and painted the outer edges of the foam gray so you won't notice the cheap white foam look underneath(like last time

Now we just need to decided on a name for little man #2 so I can finish the next set of letters to match!

Painted Frame & Mat

 I had this picture my mom gave me a few years ago, but I now have nowhere to hang it. It is a pretty picture and I love the shape of the mat so I wasn't about to get rid of it, it just needed a new look so I could hang it in the new nursery/toddler room! 

I cut out a chevron stripe on my cricut and used it as a stencil to trace the lines onto the mat. Then I painted...and painted. (Painting each layer of the mats a different color, which you can see in the picture below)

I Replaced the picture with some scrapbook paper for now....at least until I have an adorable picture of the little boys together(whenever new little man arrives). 

Because the curtains are chevron stripe, I didn't want to go to overboard with more stripes...so I think the painted mat was the perfect touch to bring in more chevron stripes but in a very small amount.

Chevron Curtains {DIY}

So I’ve been obsessing over chevron stripes for a long while now, and as soon as I decided to start the nursery makeover I had to incorporate the stripes somewhere. I decided on curtains so there would be plenty of fabric to show off the chevron stripes, so I went with it.

I found the prefect material on fabric.com, exact color I wanted, and it was nice and thick 54” home decor fabric. I found a promo code and got free shipping so when it was all said and done I got my fabric for $6 a yard…SCORE! I was a little skeptical ordering fabric online for the first time, but when it got here it was PERFECT and everything I hoped for…you should have seen me, I was like a little kid on Christmas morning unfolding my fabric! Hours after it arrived I was already done with the curtains!

 

 I left each panel 54" wide and cut them the same length as some other curtain panels I had in my home. Once you get your two giant rectangle panels cut out your half way done!

I was being lazy and wanted this project to go faster then it should... so I didn't cut off my end salvage(bad me), mainly because it gave me the PERFECT guide for ironing a straight line, and man was it nice & fast!!! 

After I hemmed my two sides and bottom I made about a million(OK only 14) 3"wide strips to use at the top to of the curtain to hang the rod. (At this point I had my top ironed but not sewn, so I could still sew loops into the top as I went).

My strips were about 3"wide and 6" long

 

 Iron the two ends of the strip into the center.

 

Using the strips you just ironed, Pin one of the folded ends to the top of your panel and tuck the other end of the strip under the top hem that is still open.

 

 I pinned all of my loops exactly where the loops were on my other curtain panels. Then I finished off the top hem by sewing a 1/4"from the side(on each side) to hold my strips in place making my loops. (As you can see, my loops ended up being a little longer than I needed so I had a little hangover tab)

I'm super happy with the curtains, and since there one of the first things finished in the room makeover they get me excited to finish the rest of the room every time I look at them!!