We are in the process of changing Ella’s room from a baby girl nursery to little girl’s room. The switch from crib to a twin bed took all of five minutes (she LOVED the idea of her big girl bed), so we are moving on to changing out some of the other furniture items and altering the décor. Luckily, I decorated her nursery in a bit of a non-traditional fashion for a nursery, so the bigger decorative items like drapes and pillows can be used for the next stage. Even so, the costs can add up quickly when redecorating a room, so I was looking for some DIY ideas for new wall décor. I turned once again to the bundle of scrap book paper I have left over from other projects. I purchased the packet for the “Lake Life” sign (link here) and used it again for Ella’s birthday banner (link here) and party décor (link here). I returned to that same stash to put together three very inexpensive art pieces using the larger scraps from the banner for the larger piece of artwork (with triangles) and bits and pieces for the two smaller pieces. Some simple instructions are included below, but the beauty of this project is the flexibility to do what you want. All you need is great looking paper and some inexpensive frames (these are from Ikea and Menards).
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My mom purchased this Animal ABC Book (circa 1935) almost 40 years ago, being drawn to Milo Winter’s artwork. The book was in really rough shape (see photo below of the back cover), having been well-loved, with almost every page having the scribbling handiwork of some child long ago. There was one page that was still pristine and it happened to have the letters J and K on it.  Her plan was to frame the picture for my room when I was a little girl (my maiden name is Jensen).  However, the colors never worked out so the book remained unused.  Recently, she decided to refurbish the front cover by painting it with acrylic paints – a twist on the paint by number approach, if you will – mixing colors to match what was depicted on the cover or in some cases, going a different direction by changing the color and pattern (note the mommy bunny’s dress in the first picture compared to the others). The effort created a super cute piece to frame, perfect for our playroom.

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On the to-do list for this weekend is getting the kids ready for Valentine’s Day at school next week. I remember being woefully unprepared for Taylor’s first Valentine’s Day in pre-school. I guess I assumed that trading cards was a thing of the past. In an effort to get ahead of the overflow of paper out of their backpacks and onto the island I’m working on some cute storage for each of them to use for their goodies. I’m loving this one for Ella, which consists of a craft box, a coat of paint and some cute buttons and paper bow trims from Target’s craft section. It will give her something in which to save her cards for a bit, but can continue on as a cute accessory in her new room. When I was growing up, my mom made a heart shaped one that housed all of my hair bows and ribbons. The cute keepsake box was still on my closet shelf when I went off to college.

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