The month of June was dedicated to 'family time'. With visits from my cousin, uncle, aunt, mom and grandpa (not all at once, that would get out of control), I could not take on a full-on DIY project for the house. But I couldn't help but talk myself into some DIY projects for some kiddos!
Kids these days are lucky to get their own lil bedroom and/or playroom and there are so many amazing decor options out there for all age-groups. There are girly themes and sporty themes and then there is stuff that they can grow older with and would still be practical. My projects were for some of my favorite boys:
1. My 3-year old nephew, Aaryan
2. My friend's son, Nachiket, who is 4
3. My puppy, Mojo, who just turned 1
Let me break it down for you...
1. My brother-in-law and his wife just bought a new house and Aaryan has his own playroom. It is an open space with lots of walls and windows. He is at an age where he is curious about EVERYTHING and loves dump-trucks :) I decided to add a personal touch to his space, with lots of colors and a lesson or two to learn.
The end product was quite a hit and Aaryan's gave me a BIG smile and said 'WOW'! when he saw it!
2. Nachiket is such a cute kid and like most boys, he has a deep love for cars! His room is full of car toys, posters and even a car bed!? His mom and I are good friends, but I needed to break the ice with him and bond with him one-on-one. I decided to put together a car-themed wall art for his room.
Kids these days are lucky to get their own lil bedroom and/or playroom and there are so many amazing decor options out there for all age-groups. There are girly themes and sporty themes and then there is stuff that they can grow older with and would still be practical. My projects were for some of my favorite boys:
1. My 3-year old nephew, Aaryan
2. My friend's son, Nachiket, who is 4
3. My puppy, Mojo, who just turned 1
Let me break it down for you...
1. My brother-in-law and his wife just bought a new house and Aaryan has his own playroom. It is an open space with lots of walls and windows. He is at an age where he is curious about EVERYTHING and loves dump-trucks :) I decided to add a personal touch to his space, with lots of colors and a lesson or two to learn.
- I started with a black white canvas, and added a border to it with a red masking tape.
- The letters are paper-cut but have a black felt backing. They are not stuck completely flat and the corners stick up, as I wanted to give it a 3-D/edgy feeling.
- I found a 'when i grow up' kit at the kids-section of Michaels that has cut-outs of fun things that lil boys always dream about. Some things I just drew myself to fill the space up!
- I just played around with colored stock paper, felt cut-outs and marker pens and placed/replaced things till I was ready to mod-podge the whole thing together.
The end product was quite a hit and Aaryan's gave me a BIG smile and said 'WOW'! when he saw it!
2. Nachiket is such a cute kid and like most boys, he has a deep love for cars! His room is full of car toys, posters and even a car bed!? His mom and I are good friends, but I needed to break the ice with him and bond with him one-on-one. I decided to put together a car-themed wall art for his room.
- I painted a canvas with a green gradient, to give it a bright background. I used green acrylic paint for that, left-over from a previous project.
- Similar to Aaryan's project, I used felt cut-outs from a 'Car' kit for kids.
- I placed things around and mod-podged everything once I felt good about how it looked.
- The final, personal touch was is name on the top-right; I used vinyl letters for that.
When I handed this off to Nachiket, he said a shy 'thank you' and ran away with it. He told his mom that he will decide where to put it and kept staring at it while the rest of us chatted :)
3. Last but not the least, I wanted to put together a scrapbook for Mojo, to create a memory of his first year. He was such a cute lil puppy when we got him and now he is 55 pounds of muscle and energy. We, as a family, have had such great moments with him that it deserved its own lil collection.
- I started with a bright/chevron covered scrapbook album. It was on sale and hence a no-brainer.
- I hand-picked sheets that went with the color-scheme and/or had doggy-themed prints on it. There was one with a paw-print and I knew I HAD to have them.
- From all the random pics that we clicked on our phones, we hand-picked all our favorite ones and got them printed (size = 4x6). We wanted to make sure that we not only hit all the milestone moments, but also capture his growth in shape and size.
- I cleared out my dining table and with my box of scrapbooking materials (glue, scissors, markers, vinyl letters, stickers/labels), I was ready to go!
- I first arranged all the pages and photos out, without glueing anything. Once it all fit in, I it glued everything down.
- Final touch were stickers and vinyl letters to bring everything together.
Here is a glimpse into a few pages (there are 24 sheets total, you let me know if you want to see the rest and I can add them).
That is all for this post. Having my mom as my assistant on these projects and seeing all the smiling faces at the end made this such a fun experience for me!
