The boy makes an appearance...

  Okay, finally a boy craft…well, only because it involves my boy, but at least I'm getting around to including him on here!  When Emma was 3, we decorated her room from baby room to big girl room and one thing I did was to cover letters to spell her name with silk flowers that I glued flat to the letters.  I wanted to put Oren’s name up in his room, too, but I didn’t think that same method would go over well with either him or Daddy.  His room has a Gators theme.  We are huge Florida Gator fans as Chris and I both went there, and it’s actually where we met.  Oren’s room is a dark blue from a chair-rail length down and then has a Gator border along the top of it.  His artwork is mostly sports related; including 2 clocks that Chris’ dad made for him as a teenager, but also has a few space-themed pieces since that was a recent phase…and I happened to find great artwork that was in mostly blues, oranges and greens!  YES!  And yes, we have been asked what we will do if he chooses to go somewhere else for college and Chris jokes that as long as he has a full ride, he can go wherever he wants! 

Well, I bought letters to hang his name a LONG time ago and just never got around to covering them with anything. Bad Momma, I know.  So, while looking for something else the other day, I came across these, pulled them out of the cabinet and decided “I’m not putting them away again—they can sit and stare at me until I get them made and hung up!!”

It only took me another week or so before I got around to them.  Does anyone else suffer from having so many ideas that you have a hard time picking one to get started on??  Okay, so directions for doing this are all over the internet, I basically just painted them to cover the white base and then mod-podged the paper down to cover the letters.  But I took a few pictures along the way, just in case you’re slower than me at catching on to trends!

I actually let the kiddos paint the letters for me and then just went around making sure they’d covered everywhere.

There's my sweet boy working with his sister in the sweat shop I set up for them!

When they were dry, I traced them face down onto the back of the paper I’d chosen.

Then I cut out the letters and mod-podged them down.  Because I can’t help myself when it comes to inking the edges of things for a “vintage” look I broke out my trusty Martha Stewart ink pads and inked the edges of the letters.  But that wasn’t enough either for this girl…no, I mixed a little tan paint with mod podge and water and painted a thin coat on each letter to seal them and then wiped some back off to keep the color light. 

   And, to hang them, I just stuck some of that sticky stuff that you use when you rent or are in college to stick stuff to the walls to the back of each letter and presto chango…the boy has his name on the walls! 

   And don't you just love his decorating.  That display on top of his toybox is totally his own doing.  I don't know why I didn't think of throwing a boot into one of my displays only to see where it landed.  I left that there in an effort at full disclosure here...  ;)  I think it's funny sometimes to let them arrange their room how they want it, and then walk around to see what's important to them or just wonder at what goes through their minds.  Like in this case...his favorite airplane toy, his teeball trophy, a boot thrown up on top of a book and one of his rocket pictures that is still waiting on a frame.  Okay--all his loves in one place, I guess!

   When Chris got home from school and saw them, he said “How did you attach them to the wall?”  He has such little faith in me when it comes to tools.  He’s the woodworker/handyman of our duo.  But this time I outsmarted him by not hurting myself or the surfaces of our house!  Ha—showed him, didn’t I?  Plus, this way when I change my mind or Oren throws something that hits them and knocks them down (like a boot!), we’ll be able to quickly move on with life…

   Okay, one more shot of my happy boy with his very messy toy box, I mean letters.  You can see a little bit of the border and paint color in this one.  And look, since it's Saturday, he's wearing his blue and orange plaid shorts and his Gator Kid shirt I embroidered for him.  Completely coincidental, but this kid does love his Gators!