I had been thinking about what to put up in the baby's room for awhile and couldn't really think of a "theme" I really liked. I'm not a huge fan of keeping things the same for long periods of time (I bore easily...) and I didn't want to make it very "boy" specific in case we miraculously have a girl one day. I found a really adorable alphabet animal print with some funky little animals that I loved. So I bought it because it's not overly cutesy and I liked the bold colors.
How cute is the urchin?!
I sent a picture of it hanging over the crib to my sister who immediately responded with "OMG WHAT IF THAT FALLS ON YOUR BABY?!!!" To which I responded with "You are crazy" and then I couldn't stop thinking about my kid under this giant picture frame, lol.
On to the next option for over the crib... a vinyl cut out. Safe enough.
Oooh, whimsical...
But sadly, because the room is oddly shaped and the ceiling is slanted, I had a really hard time finding a cut out that fit the dimensions I needed. I could have custom ordered one for $99 (not counting shipping!). Yeah... noooo. I'm cheap, remember?!
Then I remembered that I have a Cricut that cuts vinyl. And Sure Cuts A Lot that allows you to cut any image you want. So I found an image of a tree I loved:
And I sat at my computer on SCAL trying to figure out how the hell to cut this tree out so that it's 66 inches tall. And I sat here for a while. And even made a grid with measurements... And then I stomped away because I couldn't for the LIFE of me figure out how the hell to cut this damn tree out with my Cricut without completely botching it. I finally gave up, said f it, and decided to go the old fashioned way.
That's my work projector on it's side on top of books... I put the image of the tree horizontally on a Powerpoint slide and projected it onto gift wrapping paper that had grids on the back that I taped to the wall.
Then I traced.
Then I slowly cut it out and traced in pencil onto my Cricut vinyl.
And I slowly applied it onto the wall in pieces. Like a puzzle. The most annoying puzzle on the planet.
This is what my floor looked like as I cut the pieces out.
Because I went this route, I was able to use some of the vinyl "scraps" and leftovers to cut the thinner branches. I only ended up using three sheets of the 12X24 Cricut vinyl for the trunk & branches. I used another sheet for all of the leaves (which I cut out w/ the Cricut, I'm not that spatially inept, lol).
And here it is...
Don't worry, those pillows won't stay in there, I just haven't moved them yet!
Total cost of the project - $15 (2 packages of Cricut vinyl with 2 sheets in each at $9.99 purchased with a coupon)
Total time of manual labor - 3 hours. And lots of cursing.
I love the way it turned out... and hopefully so will this kid. Because he's going to have this tree in his room until he's 18. ;)
Labels: baby, Cricut, DIY, nursery, paper crafts
