In today's society, time is something we have very little of,
and every moment we spend with our family and friends has become
so precious. I recently had an experience with decorating my
daughters room that made the best of my precious time and found
it to be a special bonding moment with my daughter that I will
never forget.
My daughter is almost three now and has always had a fascination
with flowers. She will pick any flower (even some weeds) and
give them to me as a special gift. I've always wanted to fill
her room with the bright flowers that she loved so much. I never
made it much further than to purchase some bedding with flowers
on it that was on sale at target. I've never thought of myself
as much of a designer or artist, but I found myself inspired to
finish my daughters room when I ran across some brightly colored
daisy wall stick ups from Presto Chango Decor.com.
(http://www.prestochangodecor.com/) My inspiration came from an
idea that was mentioned on there website stating that their
flower stickers could be placed on foam board/posterboard and
cut out to make a curtain valance or even placed on the
furniture. I purchase both a large and small set of their daisy
pop flowers and expanded a little on some of their idea's.
First I planned to make a curtain valance. I bought some poster
board that can be found at an art supply store, office supply,
or even target that cost about two dollars for a 4ft.x 4ft.
sheet. I first I measured the curtain rods in my daughters room
and made sort of a half box out of the posterboard. My window
just happened to be small enough to do this with the 4ft of
posterboard, but keep in mind that if your window is larger than
this it might be fine because the flower appliqués will overlap
the valance box itself to some degree. My next step was to
occupy my little one with a movie. Then I use a razor knife to
carefully cut out a top piece to anchor to the top of the
curtain rods and a piece to hang down the front. I first used a
glue gun to bond the two sides together but later reinforced
this with duck tape since the flower appliqués would cover the
tape from sight anyway. I punched two holes on the top piece of
posterboard on either side of the curtain rod using a screw and
a screwdriver (you could use a drill or a whole punch if you
have one handy). I then used regular trash bag ties to string
through these holes to secure the posterboard to the top of the
curtain rod. I peeled the flower stickers from the backing and
applied them to the remaining posterboard and carefully cut them
out with a razor knife. I then applied the new flower appliqués
to my posterboard valance, using a glue gun. I stuck the larger
ones (8in.)on first followed by overlapping the smaller ones
being careful to cover any view of the duck tape on the valance
behind it. After I was done, It looked amazing. I had seen this
concept for this valance somewhere in one of the major
department stores which for the life of me I can't remember
where. I do however remember the price $149.99. I took
tremendous pride in myself in creating the same valance using
one of the smaller sets of the daisy pop flower stickers and
some posterboard. All of which cost me about $30.00 total.
My second idea was to use the flower stickers as a template to
trace them onto a felt fabric, and them apply them to an
existing plain white curtain. I cut out various sizes of the
daisy wall stickers (backing and all) with scissors. You can use
any type of fabric you want like sheets or clothes that you no
longer wear. I didn't have any of the right colors so I
purchased some felt in 6 different bright colors to match the
flowers. You can purchase the felt sheets in 1sq. ft. pieces for
about .49 cents a piece at your local fabric store. I turned the
flower stickers face down on the felt, as not to damage them. I
traced a pattern on the felt with a fabric chalk then cut them
out. I use some small cups I had to trace the center dots for my
felt daisy's. I used some fabric glue to adhere the center
pieces on the daisies and then attack them to my white curtain.
My third idea was to use old Christmas lights that no longer
worked as a curtain tie back. I used some of the flower
sticker/posterboard combination again and drilled little holes
the back of the posterboard to place over the Christmas lights,
securing them using the glue gun. It worked beautifully. It
looked like flowers on a vine. I used the same concept as the
curtain valance to create a wonderful headboard. Another idea
that I would love to do if I knew how to sew, would be to take
two plain white sheets, cut them to size to fit my comforter and
then sew them together to make a cover. Then I would use velcro
at one end , slide an old comforter in and use the same felt
concept I used on the white curtain to make a matching
comforter. By this time the movie my daughter was somewhat
watching was over, and she made it clear that it was her time to
help.
The only thing left to do was to peel and stick the flower
stickers to the wall, and furniture and we were done. This was
the fun part, because my little girl could helped me. She went a
little wild with her choices to stick the stickers, but she and
I had so much fun. The whole project did take a little longer
than an hour, but the memories will last forever.
|
