nursery update

She's back...my guest poster, my sweet daughter, the mommy-to-be!

The Making of a Nursery: Vol. 2

Ok, I know in my last post I said that the next nursery project was going to be a bookcase. You know the old saying, Nothing is ever as easy as they say it is? Well, I don't know if that actually is an old saying, but if it were, I bet the first person that said it was talking about refinishing a bookcase. Let's just say, that work is still in progress. In the meantime, I had an in-between project: a painting!

I am not a creative person. I can copy someone else's idea, but I can't usually come up with something on my own, which is why this particular project was perfect for me! I got it from a friend of mine (I told you, I'm a copier) who now has a lovely painting in her dining room that was done the same way.

First, you need something you want to copy. For me, it was the pattern from my little lady's bedding. In the picture below of her blanket, it's the flowery part at the top.

Second, you need a piece of tissue paper and a pencil or ballpoint pen. Lay the tissue paper over the pattern you want to copy, and trace it. This is your pattern. Then you need to retrace your pattern onto your canvas. In order to avoid buying a frame, I decided to paint a yellow border around my canvas.

Place the tissue paper onto your canvas (make sure it's centered!) and trace it again using a fine point Sharpie marker. When you're done, it will look like this.

Then it's just a matter of painting and trying to stay in the lines! It works better if you are using darker-colored paints because the sharpie can show through a little with the lighter colors. If you look at mine really closely you can see some lines, but I am pretty sure no one else will study it as closely as I did. Here's my finished product!


This is hanging above her crib. I know I'm biased, but I happen to think it's beautiful!

Hopefully the bookcase will be done soon so I can post about it, but I have another project going on currently: a window! I guess we'll see which one gets finished first!