Tuesday, April 17, 2007

How to … create cool art for your babes room


So I finally finished the art in Lilo’s room – it only took a year and a half.
I got the idea from a booth at the One of a Kind show. They had 26 white canvases and had items on them to represent the alphabet. It was very pretty and nursery like. I loved the idea but thought something more colourful would fit our family better – plus then it crosses over to toddler room easier.
So I got Steve (thanks Steve) to cut me 8x8 squares out of MDF and I started at it. I painted the squares using the colours from the stripes on her wall. I found items at the dollar store, items we had kicking around, photos and painted others to represent each letter. The letters I painted on, I printed them off the computer –I transferred them on by scribbling pencil on the back side then tracing the letter out on the board (it’s the cheap man’s transfer paper), then painted. In the end I’m very happy with it, and love how it fills the wall.
Here is what the letters stand for.

A – Apple (I think A always stands for apple)
B – Bailey (our cat – love that pic of him)
C – Canada (I was making it during the Olympics last year)
D – Daddy (Go Michigan Go)
E – Elmo (couldn’t think of anything for E – then I found this toy from Janet)
F – Flowers (it was going to be fish but my painting of a fish looked horrible so I covered it up with flowers I had)
G – Golf (no explanation needed)
H – Hockey (the puck is from when I donated money to save the Jets)
I – Ice cube (I’m from Winnipeg? – Not really just couldn’t think of anything else for I)
J – Jester (got this as a gift from my aunt, plus Rob has a jester hat tattoo)
K – Kokaneee (no not a typo, her name has 3 e)
L – Lilo & Lei (doesn’t she look cool in her shades)
M – Mommy (pic of us on the beach at the Roth family reunion)
N – Nike (her first pair of Nikes, thanks Tim & Lauren)
O – Orange (it went with the apple)
P – Pelican (that lives by the sea)
Q – Quilt (what else starts with Q – plus it matches the quilt my mom made for Lilo)
R – Raptors (woo hoo – they are in the playoffs this year)
S – Shells (the shells and sand dollar are from Panama, our last v-cay without kids)
T – Toes (Lilo’s nickname pre-birth – photo taken last month of both of our toes, the angle make her toe look even bigger)
U – U2 (we were at their concert a month before Lilo was born)
V – Vegetables (I couldn’t think of anything else)
W – Wand (something to make it girly)
X – Xylophone (it was that or an X-ray)
Y – Yarn (this is yarn from the sweater that Kelly knit her)
Z – Zipper (stole this idea from the original)


So some of them have meaning – others well – you can’t always find meaning for everything. I’m just glad it’s done.
For those of you interested here’s another alphabet that you could use – probably not suitable for kids though.


And I’m proud of my self – the art from the post below is hung and it only took 2 weeks.

2 comments:

Sera said...

Woo hoo... it's done way to go Vone!

Sara said...

I got the chance to see this project in person - and have to say, this pic does it NO justice! It looks sooo cute in her room - and yep Vone, I will take you up on the offer to help with the room design when my chance finally gets here!