Explosion of Cuteness!
We were so blessed to be able to be with my brother and his family for our niece’s first Christmas! We weren’t sure what exactly to get her though until one day we were walking around Michael’s and saw a tiny wooden rocking horse. We both stopped and gave each other a big smile, knowing what the other was thinking.
We purchased the horse and decided to paint it and cover it with scrapbook paper. This turned out to be a little harder than it sounded at the time. I didn’t really take any photos of the “during” process, but I’ll walk you through what we did. You could do this with just about anything – a wooden stool, doll house, rocking chair . . . the possibilities are endless!
I don’t have a photo, but when we purchased the rocking horse, it was unpainted and wooden. You’ll just have to trust me on that.
Next, my amazing husband filled in any dents and abnormalities he found with wood putty and then painted the horse green to match her nursery. And then created a template for the parts I planned to cover in scrapbook paper.
And then . . . the horse sat in our livingroom that way for about a month.
Have you ever seen The New Girl? Sometimes I think they based some of Nick and Jess’s personalities off of James and I. I don’t want to name names, but one of us might sing and dance about what they are doing on occasion, and the other one of us might have a tendency to yell what others would normally say in a calm manner.
For example, one day James came home from work and says “Hey, don’t you think it’s about time that you finish the horse?”
To which I replied “I know . . . I’m just afraid that I’m going to do it wrong and ruin it.”
Ok, now imagine how Nick would say this, because it’s exactly how James said it. “What are you talking about! Look at that horse! It’s exploding cuteness all over our living room. YOU CAN’T RUIN THAT!”
Oops. I guess I just gave away who is most similar to Nick. Well, to be fair, I might have have done a little song and dance the day we bought the horse. Moving on . . .
I chose scrapbook paper that matched our paint color and cut out the pieces using the templates James made. This took quite a bit of time, as I wanted to match the patterns up so the seams were less noticable. The plan was to Mod Podge it on, but the glue caused one of the papers to bleed its color a bit, so I just used Mod Podge to glue it only. I used a sponge brush to brush the glue on to the paper and then placed the paper on the horse, smoothing out wrinkles and bubbles. This was the really tricky part—smoothing it out quickly before the paper had a chance to dry, but not so fast that it created more wrinkles and bubbles.
Lastly, we had planned to cover the finished horse with clear sealant, since the Mod Podge made the color run, but the sealant caused the paper to wrinkle, so we ended up just leaving it unsealed.
It’s not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty cute. And Hannah seemed to like it, which is what matters most, right? 🙂
Is it just me, or is she the cutest baby in the whole world?
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Baby Owl Embroidery!
I actually made this a long time ago, but I kept forgetting to post it. 🙂
Not long after my brother told me that he and his wife were having a baby, I came across this adorable Baby Bird stitchery (she has a free printable pattern and tutorial if you want to make it also!). I wanted to make it for my niece who was on the way, however . . . even though I love being crafty, I wasn’t sure I would be able to pull this one off. I finally decided to give it a try. Knowing that they were decorating the nursery with owls, I switched out the baby bird in the pattern for an owl. After getting all the materials for the picture, I realized that I should have asked what colors they were decorating with to make sure it would match. My brother sent a few photos and thankfully it matched pretty well with what they had – whew! 🙂 But, there was also a mural on the wall that was almost exactly the same as the picture I was making. Ooops! I didn’t really mean for it to be so matchy-matchy, but by that time I didn’t have time to create a new design, so I went with it.
I think it turned out pretty cute:
Here are some photos of the nursery. Didn’t they do a great job decorating?
And here is my super-adorable niece. I just love her so much 🙂 I could seriously stare at her all day!
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