Damask Stenciled Nursery Walls

You already know how I'm a huge fan of Cutting Edge Stencils and their incredible product, and I have a major love for damask print. So upon discovering that we would be converting my office into a nursery for a little lady, I immediately hopped on over to Cutting Edge's site to finalize my choice for a damask print for her walls.

(Here's a peek - the view from the crib! :)

I was surprised (and thrilled) to discover that several more damask options had just been added in the past few months!! Now I had even more choices in my quest for beautiful walls, and it didn't take me long to settle on this LOVELY Damask Kerry stencil. (I also found out that the new stencils are named after each of the girls who work at Cutting Edge, isn't that sweet? :)

I have lots of pretty and bright colored fabric that I want to use in the nursery, so I decided to go with a cool soothing gray as a more neutral background. I chose Gray Clouds from Sherwin Williams, and enlisted my lovely mother to help transform the room from Office Orange to Nursery Neutral.

Before, with paint samples.

After. Ahhhhhh.

Then came the fun paint. I used this line of Designer Series All-Purpose Home Decor Acrylic Paint from DecoArt, in White, Daffodil Yellow, and Spa Blue, along with their acrylic paint in Desert Turquoise. I just LOVED them!! Let me tell you, these went on perfectly!! The paint was thick enough that it only took 2 coats to get the coverage that I wanted - even when going to a lighter color!! It had practically no fumes so was perfect for an indoor painting project, particularly by a pregnant lady. It also dried really quickly, so I was able to work my way around the room pretty fast. What more could you want in a paint? Particularly when it comes in such beautiful colors as these!

I also got to use this fabulous clip on stencil level, which you can also purchase through Cutting Edge Stencil's site. You just clip it to the top of your stencil and it ensures that the pattern is level. This was such a huge time and headache saver!! I would constantly have been stepping back from the wall, arms crossed, trying to figure out if any of the damasks were crooked. I am too much of a perfectionist to not be driven crazy by an uneven design and I'm glad this kept me from having to endure that!! :)

Since the damask design has so many tiny and intricate details, I decided to use a tacky stencil adhesive to ensure that it laid flat on the wall and stayed in the exact same spot as I painted.

(A note about stencil adhesive: The fumes are kind of strong, so spray your stencil outside or in another room before sticking it to the wall. If you spray it indoors you'll want to do so over some sort of drop cloth, because if it gets on your carpet it feels so nasty!!)

I poured my paint into a "paint tray," had an extra paint tray with paper towels on it to roll of the excess paint, and got to work.

Then I did it again...

and again...

You get the idea.

I loved this project because I could do it a little at a time over a course of a few days. The damask pattern is relatively small, so I would paint one or two when I had the chance, and then store the stencil until the next time that an opportunity arose.

I didn't want a full pattern on the wall, just little pops of color and a pretty design here and there.

I tried to make it completely random, but in the end I could not fight my need for symmetry. I might have been able to pull it off if there wasn't a window in the center of the wall, but all that I could think was that I needed the sides to be mirror images of one another. I did mix up the colors a little bit though, which I thought was something.

I just love it!! Every time that I go upstairs for any reason, I stop in the room, glance around and smile. I'm sure that is partially to do with it being a nursery, but still, it is pretty sweet looking isn't it?!

I kept my stenciling on the feature wall until I get the rest of the decorations settled and put up. But it was so easy with such a sweet impact that I wouldn't be surprised if I sprinkled a few more around the room before it's finished. I can't wait to show you the rest of the details!

Would you like to try out one of Cutting Edge Stencil's new designs? Stop back by on Wednesday because we'll be giving one away for free!! Yay!!

Happy Monday!!

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White Thrifted Shelf

Thanks for all of your great comments on my Thrifty Re-Do Roundup a few weeks ago! (If you missed it, you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.) I enjoyed looking back through the old projects so much that I jumped onto another.

I saw this shelf at the thrift store and thought it was pretty great alone, but with a little love it could be perfect.

I debated keeping the yellow color and just aging it with a little stain, but at the last minute I decided to go white instead, and I'm so glad that I did.

A whitewash, to be more specific. I got a small bit of white paint, added some water, and dry brushed it onto the shelf allowing some of the yellow and brown to peek through.

I then dry brushed some plain white paint on top so that there were some bright white streaks in the paint. I wanted it to look only slightly aged, so I very lightly ran a lightweight sandpaper along the edges.

One of my favorite parts of the shelf was this fun, knotty, bead board that was nailed to the back of the shelf. I layered on my white paint here as well, being sure to let some of it settle into the cracks, and brush some of it out to help the lines pop a bit more.

It was really pretty and clean looking, but it needed something else. (And you know where I'm going with this.) So I pulled out my trusty Silhouette, found a good font and made up a little number stencil.

I taped my stencil in place and used a dark black coat of acrylic to paint on "No. 4." Why 4? No good reason, other than I thought the 4 was the coolest looking number, so I went with it. If the shelf lands in the baby's room I'll say it's because she's the 4th member of our family, but if it lands somewhere else who knows?

It's pretty though, right?

I typically go for a much more aged look with lots of sanding and aging with a glaze, etc., but I'm loving this clean look for now. And my weary 3rd trimester body appreciates a few less steps as well.

What do you prefer in terms of aging your paint jobs, more or less? I'd love to see any new re-dos so feel free to link them up in the comments section!

In other fun news for this week, I'm so excited to be participating in a new series of Knock Offs this week over at KoJo Designs called The Sincerest Form of Flattery.

Everyone loves a great knock off, right?! I'm excited to see a few weeks worth of projects in this category and am so flattered to be guest posting alongside a list of incredible bloggers (check out the all-star line up here)!! Really, I'm dying to see just what everyone has come up with!! Also, Jess at Craftiness is Not Optional is co-hosting and will has a slew of guest bloggers contributing projects on her site as well, so there will be lots of great knock offs to choose from. Check out KoJo Designs on Thursday to see my project. (I actually like it even better than the original and it was way cheaper, how lucky is that?!)

As always, I'll be sharing my project this week with some great hosts, to please stop by these parties to see what everyone has been working on!

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Book Page Eggs

One of my favorite spring decorations for my home are these fun book page eggs. It's easy enough to make a handful of them, so they are sprinkled around in a few different displays in my home.

I also made a bunch last year and made them into a wreath, which I shared in my Framed Book Page Egg Wreath post. I just love it!! It's my favorite way to say "spring" or "Easter" without screaming it. Isn't it fun? Want to make your own?

I started off with a bag of tiny Easter eggs from Hobby Lobby for $.67 each, and there were about 25 in a bag.

I picked out a few old books with varying degrees of page yellowness, tore out some pages, cut the length a little longer than my eggs, and the width just long enough to wrap all the way around the egg. I used Mod Podge to glue the paper around the eggs and then set them aside to dry for 5 minutes or so. (I learned the hard way, that if you try to glue the paper on the whole egg all at once, the egg slides around in the paper and you get air bubbles. Don’t do this, you will become annoyed very quickly.) I had a little assembly line going with my eggs, which was a good way to give the eggs a little time to dry in between the steps, and helped me not to waste any of those precious naptime minutes.

Once the middle section was dry and could be a sturdy base, I cut slits on each end of the paper, and pushed them down so that one side of the egg was exposed.

Make sure that when you are pushing down the slits, that you peel them down just a bit further, ripping the paper a little. This ensures that they will lie flat when you are smoothing them down against the egg, and there won’t be any air pockets.

Otherwise it will look like this in the end. Not so pretty.

Once the paper is pushed down, smear the top of the egg with a good bit of Mod Podge. I used the Matte finish, so it didn’t matter if it got all over the top of the paper. Use your thumb to push down a few of the pieces at a time, smoothing them so that they lay flat and overlap a little.

Top with more Mod Podge, and smooth down the next few strips, working your way around the egg.

You will end up with a nice little overlap, and if you’ve been smoothing it out with your thumb as you go it will look great!

And there you have it!! Make enough to sprinkle them around your home. They're neutral enough to go with any type of decor and add a bit of fun whimsy to your Easter decorations!

I'll be linking to these fun parties this week, so check them out!

Also, I'll be posting on Tatertots and Jello this Wednesday, so drop by to say hi to Jen and see what fun project I'm sharing there. And I'll see you back here on Monday!

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Sparkly Valentine Banner

When I showed you my Chalkboard Christmas Card Display last month you knew it would be appearing again, didn't you? If so, right you were! My new favorite item in my kitchen couldn't be neglected for long, especially when there is another sweet holiday around the corner. So I made this beautiful sparkly Valentine's day banner.

I started off with some creamy white burlap, a little flag template, and one of my favorite new tools, my Silhouette Cutting Machine, to make the stencil.

Before I had my Silhouette, I was a big fan of the pencil transfer method of getting letters and numbers onto my projects. But obviously that doesn't work for something like this, I am DREADFUL at doing such things free hand, and it is such a time (and sanity) saver to let the Silhouette cut out my stencils for me. I need all of the time and sanity that I can get, so purchasing this machine was a small price to pay! :)

I picked out a basic font in the Silhouette Software, adjusted the size of the letters to fit my flags perfectly, and a few minutes later I had these great stencils! But you could easily cut these stencils out by hand or use any store bought letters to get the same effect.

I made sure to use a piece of card stock for my stencils that had a glossy finish so that it didn't get soggy in the middle of my stenciling. I soaked my foam brush in Elmer's glue, and stenciled the glue onto the burlap.

Keeping the stencil in place, I covered the glue in a small pile of fine red glitter, shook of the excess and set each flag aside to dry.

A few times I put on too thin of a layer of glue, but if you do this, don't worry!

I used a toothpick to apply a little more glue to the gap on the letter, added some more glitter...

and it was perfect!

Once you have a fun pile of sparkly lettered flags, hang a string and clip them on! I'm using mine on my chalkboard, but they would look gorgeous across a mantle, window, or just along the wall!

I was originally thinking that I would glue my flags to the string, but since Valentines Day is still almost a month away, I know I'll switch it up and rearrange it a bit in the meantime. More than likely I will add a few photos of my valentines in between the x's and o's.

Look how perfectly the letters came out thanks to my Silhouette stencil!

Sharp lines and fun little detailed fonts, with swoops and tails. Just what I like!

I put one of these Valentine banners in my Etsy shop, so click here if you'd like one just like this.

I'll be linking my banner to these fun parties, so swing by for some more fun Valentine's Day ideas!

And I'll be back on Monday as usual. Have a great week!

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