Sunday, March 16, 2014

Bright & Fun Nursery-to-Toddler Bedroom

Yellow! It could work for a boy or girl, a nursery or a toddler room, it could work with blues or pinks. It makes me feel HAPPY. So I went for it and painted our baby's room yellow and came up with a bright and cheerful nursery-toddler space since our youngest moved into her own room right at 8 months.


This was the original set up for our 8 month old. We had the changing station on her dresser ($100 Ikea), an Ikea crib ($100), a toy chest from a consignment shop ($20), a very cute Octopus stuffed chair ($60 BabyStyle), a bright banner made from cardstock paper which I planned to use for her 1st birthday later that year, a cute valance from Ross ($4), Photo shelves from Ikea ($10-15ea), Tissue paper balls (Party store $6), The hanging net above the crib is also from Ikea, and I added artwork I created and framed them in Ikea plastic frames ($1-5ea).


I used white wood letters from the craft store ($2ea) and covered them in cardstock paper to create a fun pop of color on this wall.


This is a closeup of the banner I made out of cardstock paper. I layered 2 sizes on each flag to make very colorful.


I wrapped some frames in colorful wrapping paper, and I created quick art from tempura paint and framed in cheap Ikea frames. As Ashlyn gets older, these pieces will be replaced by her artwork framed on this shelf.


I have a thing for unique little toys and animals. I found this fun fabric bin from Target ($5).

The next few photos are from this week, a year after Ashyln first moved into her Nursery-Toddler bedroom. We added a fun bookshelf/doll house and now her room is full of toys, puzzles, and books. I also added some fun butterfly wall decals near her crib (a gift from a friend).




Ashlyn LOVES her room, and that's what matters most to me. PS, it usually looks like this (toys everywhere, her 5-10 blankets strewn about in her crib), which makes me feel like her room really IS hers, and not just a decorated space. It feels like a happy toddler space!

2014 Project Life {WEEK 10}

Here's a quick look at last week. I now subscribe to Studio Calico and Gossamer Blue's Project Life monthly kits and love both for different reasons. This month, both kits had alot of dark blues and greens. I love using the kits so that everything goes together because my style is usually just a little of everything, any color goes! But I do like these coordinating kits. The leftover items will mix right into my stash and work when I am ready to mash it all up again and do layouts in mixed colors and styles.

{WEEK 10}


I am a big foodie, and the March Gossamer Blue project life kit had an amazing foodie stamp set. I used one on this card!


I am starting to notice a pattern of what 4x6" cards I choose for the title card. I like colorful cards without words or pictures on them. This way I can add my own embellishments and customize it each week. This week I used one of the cards from my SC March PL kit, added some ombre washi and layered gold Thickers on top, stapled a cute card from a past SC kit that says "I just want to make nice things & get enough sleep," and used the navy blue thickers from this months SC kit as well. I had been wanting to use this quote card for a while, and felt like it really described my feelings about life at the moment. I just want to make nice things (be happy) and get sleep (be healthy).


The house was actually clean for a split second this week, so I decided to grab some snapshopts for my blog which I posted HERE. I also wanted to add them into my album this week. I rearrange/redecorate/reorganize WAY MORE OFTEN than I probably should so for me, taking pictures of my spaces often is important. I used a couple techniques on this card. First, I created a collage with PicMonkey (as I do most weeks), and left one tile black. I added a black and white label, used the navy Thickers from the SC kit, and then added gold enamel dots to guide your eye through the whole "home" collage. I like to use enamel to force your eye to follow them to connect photos and collages together. I then added a fun label from this months GB kit that says "our story starts here," which is true. We love our home and it starts all our adventures!

The tiny alpha, enamel hearts, and sequins all came from this months SC and GB PL kits. I really, really love the blues and greens (with pops of gold), and plan to use them for the rest of the month.

Monday, March 3, 2014

My Livingroom, Organized or Not?

This is our living room/family room/playroom. We store toys on the coffee table shelf and in the Ikea Expedit below the TV. What do you think, is this organized chaos or just chaos? PS this is a photo from the middle of the day after my toddler has made herself at home with her toys and while I am mid-project on my laptop. I wanted to capture my REAL life home in this picture, which I used in my Week 8 Project Life Album HERE.

Home sweet home :)

2014 Project Life {WEEKS 8-9}

I got behind these past two weeks. We have Girl Scout Cookie Sales going on right now, several birthdays, and of course, have been fitting in tons of family fun, leaving no time (or energy) for scrapping. But I want to stay up to date since I love doing Project Life so much so I set aside time yesterday to edit my photos and today to scrap. Here's what the last 2 weeks look like!


{WEEK 8}
This week I made my own polaroid style photos using PicMonkey and I added a snapshop of what my home looks like. I wanted to capture what a typical day at home with my toddler feels like. It feels like REAL LIFE. Toys everywhere, my laptop out working on projects, my favorite coffee drink, the Today Show playing in the background. These are the little, happy, calm yet REAL parts of my life as a stay at home mom. Everyday isn't the fantastic adventure that I always try to capture for my Life album. But these days are just as amazing.


I sliced the picture of my living room in 1/2 and used washi again to join the pages. The washi is outside the pockets and the wood veneer house is also outside the pockets adhered to the washi. I like scrapping outside of the pockets sometimes. I am LOVING OMBRE everything right now. You can find this fantastic ombre washi from Pink Fresh Sudio.


There are 2 things this card covers. 1. What to do with enamel dots, and 2. What to do when you dont know what to do with a pocket. When you dont know what to do with a pocket, you should do what we scrappers do best: CREATE! I took this pink card and stamped a cute pinwheel using an ombre colored stamp pad. I just wanted to have fun stamping! Then I used enamel dots to add pop to the pinwheels. EASY, FUN, DONE!


{WEEK 9}


We did so much this week that this Studio Calico pie chart card from the Feb. kit made the perfect title/journaling card.


These little banners came with the Studio Calico Feb. kit. At first I wasn't sure what to do with them, but they actually worked for this weeks layout. I carried the banner theme down the page to tie it together.

These two weeks were just fun to scrap! On to find another project until next week....