When I found out we were having a baby I struggled to keep up with the cooking however my creativity was boosted in other ways. I became obsessed with Pinterest and crafts and baby decorations. So I embarked on a project to make as much of the nursery decorations as I could by myself, to save money and to make it exactly how we would like it.
We didn’t want anything too obviously “baby boy” so we chose a theme we would enjoy and that could be transferred once he was older, super heroes! Also we can easily change to a new theme without feeling we wasted money or use these bits elsewhere in the house.
I started with these frames. I have had them for years, carrying them around from house to house knowing one day I would paint them or do something with them. I decided to use a technique called decoupage where you use paper to cover something, and of course for the theme I used comic book pages!!
I cut out different pictures from the comic book and glued them around the edges of the frame until all of the wood was covered. I then varnished them for a glossy finish and to make sure the paper didn’t peel off.
I have ordered photos taken of Darryl when he was one day old to go in them :) Just waiting for them to arrive.
I also used this technique on an old lamp I acquired years ago from an old couple my mom brought a house from. There was something about it I liked even though it was in bad condition and quite outdated. I used the comic book pages to cover the lamp shade and then we painted the base bright yellow :) I am so happy with how it turned out!!
The photo above shows the corner of the room with the lamp in it. As you can see I also bought some metal posters to bring some color to the walls, we are renting so didn’t want to paint them. These were second hand and actually purchased for Yusuf for christmas but they looked great for this room!
My changing station has been so perfect, I feel I got the organisation of it just right! I do all his nappy changes here and we also get him dressed for the day and for bed every day here. We often lie a towel down on the blow up changing mat as he would cry when his body touched the cold plastic, although I do have to wash a lot of towels haha! In my basket I keep nappies, nappy bags, hand sanitiser, wipes and creams. It means for the night changes when I am half asleep I have everything in one handy place :)
I actually decided to make this basket to keep all of the things I needed for the changing table in one place. I found a great tutorial on pinterest to turn an old pampers box into a rope basket, it looked easy enough so I gave it a go! I used red fabric to line it and then glued rope around the edge until it covered the whole box. This basket has been so handy and it only cost me £3.50 for the meter of fabric, the rope and the glue.
My next project was to make something for the front of these Ikea boxes that complete the kallax shelves. I decided to make superhero logos out of felt, a different logo for each box. From left to right we have Flash, Captain America, Spiderman, Hulk, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Batman, Avengers, Punisher, Dead pool, Thor, X Men, Superman and Wolverine.
It was so much fun making these, I felt so proud after the completion of each and every one. I used glue to stick the pieces together and to secure them to the boxes.
I loved being so creative for my little baby and he now has a room that we can all be proud of. What crafts do you do at home? Do you have a favorite superhero?
