Aren’t these just absolutely adorable?!? I love the color, the font, the patterns…and the margarita looks pretty tasty, too. And you can make your own Cinco de Mayo Party Circles from a FREE download from Kim at The TomKat Studio! Enjoy!
She also has some cute links and Cinco de Mayo party inspiration at the blog post – check it out!
As you probably know, I’m working on a project that involves a local daycare playroom. How fun, right? Right. It’s been a great learning experience for me, and I am thankful for such enthusiastic and trusting clients. So of course, we looked into a chalkboard wall for the kiddies. And if you didn’t already know, it’s simply paint. (You’re probably saying – duh! We already knew that! Well…the folks at the hardware store didn’t have a clue to what I was talking about so you never know!!) Anyway, you paint the chalkboard pigmented paint right on to the wall. The pigments dry harder than normal paint, allowing for a good surface to write on and not damage, and can also be wiped clean. You can find it in all sorts of colors, but I stuck with black for this project. And we didn’t do an entire wall in chalkboard paint, we did a chair rail at about 45″ (so not technically a chair rail, but it worked with the mantle above the wood stove visually!) and painted the lower half of the entire room with chalkboard paint. A dream come true for little ones, right? I know Harper already loves to take stray pencils to my kitchen cabinets…
I love how they painted the top of the table in the packaging, too! You’ll have to do some web searching to find different colors, but this black version is available at Ace Hardware.
And to step it up a notch, pair it with a magnetic primer under the chalkboard paint because what kids don’t love to play with magnets? We only have 3 letters from Harper’s alphabet magnet set left on our fridge…the rest are probably underneath it.
But this way you can paint the magnetic latex primer right on the wall to make any surface magnetic. Just a word of caution stemming from experience – if you’re going to prime, prime the entire wall or section. I.e. don’t just put this where you want a magnetic surface and leave other areas unprimed – you can see what parts have magnetic (or any) primer, and what areas don’t after you paint a top coating on!
Either way it still looks cool and works great! Very excited to wrap this project up – not because I want to be done with it, but because I love to see an end result! Hopefully I can share it with you within the next few weeks! If I ever get online to blog…
Last December, Glenn and I (ok, mostly Glenn) painted our kitchen cabinets white. It happened to be on the day that our daughter turned 4 months old, and so we decided to immortalize the day on our living room wall. We rolled a little of the low-VOC paint on her little foot and stamped it up on the wall by the front door. I love seeing it as I dash out of the door, and everyone likes to comment on it when they come to visit.
Strangely enough, later in the day my dad called to tell me that his mom had died that morning, so it’s also a nice way for me to think of my Grandma from time to time. Miss you, Grandma M.!
So what did we do on the 1-year anniversary of that day? Well paint another footprint, of course! Now we have 2 growin’ footprints on our wall from when Harper was 4 months and 16 months old…and I’m hoping that this giant new footprint means that she’ll be tall – just like her daddy’s family! But then again I’m only 5’3″ with a size 9 foot…I know…I’m a hobbit.
I am so excited to share an adorable little nursery project with you today, not because I designed it (because I didn’t – I wish I could take credit for it!), or not only because it is darling, or hand-crafted with special little details, but because it is the bedroom of a sweet little girl whose mama is an old friend of mine! And as you can see a very artistic and creative friend at that! But if you knew Janet in high school, you would know what an artist she is! A good example showing that whatever profession you choose, you can still be an artist (Janet is a nurse!).
A big thank you to Janet (and Reese! And Matt!) for sharing her little nursery project with us – I absolutely love it! My favorite part has to be the hand-painted details; two tones of yellow in two different finishes and don’t forget the hand-painted ‘R’ (yes, that is painted directly on the wall!) with glitter accents, a painted border and a wooden frame tacked to the wall. I’m sure it is something that little Reese will be so proud of when she starts to learn her ABC’s! Here is what Janet had to say about it:
“As for the “R” – I modeled it after a font I found at Pottery Barn, but I decided to draw/paint it free-hand since I wanted it so much larger. The brown and blue frame is painted as well, and Matt cut and nailed up the final white frame around it all. The R is painted with the same color as the stripes, and has a few glitter accents. It was very fun!!”
And here’s the break down to make up a sweet little nursery, just like Reese’s! Thanks for sharing, Janet!
“R” – Painted the same color as the stripes with glitter accents. Framed with blue and brown paint (color, brands unkown) used left-overs that a friend had. Matt finished it off with the white trim.
Furniture/Decor
Crib – hand-me-down from Reese’s four little cousins
Bedding – Baby Martex CoCaLo bedding – Australian Animals (I think this has been discontinued) – From the Baby Depot
Credenza – given to us from the Funeral Home where Matt works – Don’t worry – it was in the lobby – It fits in there perfectly and is decorated with all her favorite stuffed animals.
Pictures (above dresser)- White frames from Aaron Brothers -a little collage of pictures we had taken at the house when Reese was two weeks old!
If you have a room you’d like to share, please e-mail me at lindsay[@]lindsaychristensendesign.com!
And P.S. – sorry for the interruptions throughout the background of the post – I’m tweaking the blog template and those boxes should be on the right – thanks for your patience!!
First thing’s first – my Rosebud Card giveaway has ended and using random.org, we have chosen a winner!
The winner is comment #5 – Colleen – congratulations, Colleen! We’ll be in touch!
I can’t wait to hear how she loves her cards. Thank you Rosemary at Rosebud Cards for your generosity, I appreciate it and I’m sure that Colleen will as well!
Up next, if you haven’t noticed yet – there is a new little ‘tab’ at the top of the blog, pointing you to the new “Lillie + James” page. Lillie + James is my new venture in partnership with my sister-in-law, Erin. We have been crafting and coming up with decorating ideas like crazy, so please contact us if you’re interested in taking advantage of our services!
We had a ball setting up this Christmas table, and photographing it was interesting to say the least…can you say ‘timer?’ Thank goodness Erin’s son came home so he could capture this angled shot for us, ha!
Read more about Lillie + James here. Happy Monday! And happy birthday to our other sister (or sister-in-law, in my case), Kayte!
Okay, I just couldn’t help myself with the title. Only tacky because I’m talking about tape…get it? I’ve been thinking about Christmas a lot lately; buying gifts, packaging them, mailing them, making cards, and also making cute packaging and craft fair items for Lillie + James. How can I make my gifts or packaging stand out? I’m really bad at wrapping gifts and tying cute bows, so when a short-cut comes along that can help me in any way, I try to keep it in mind for future reference! Enter…decorative tapes. I know these have been all around the blogs before, but I think that it’s an appropriate time to bring them up, don’t you think? Especially with new holiday collections coming out!
After seeing a few photos and videos of these decorative tapes in action, I knew I just had to have some. I think the first company that I ran across is called TapeSwell, a unique line of decorative packing tapes. You can easily dress up a plain old brown paper bag gift-wrap job with these (it’s an easy way to recycle – yippee!), or make a conversation starter for when you’re standing in line at the post office to mail the gift! But they’re not just for wrapping packages…you can put the tape on anything you want to dress up; glass, candles, picture frames, lampshades, gift bags, and they even suggest making headbands and necklaces out of the stuff! Check out their “Tacky Ideas” section on their website here! There are tons of great products and patterns, so I’ll shut up and let the pictures do the talking (I especially love their new holiday tapes, though!!).
Okay, I’m piping in again…how great are the containers that they come in? You can buy the tape as a single roll, or in a combo pack as shown below. I love those little tins! Click on the pictures and you’ll be taken to that particular tape on their site.
These are their holiday patterns…
They even carry these adorable Holiday mailing labels on a roll.
And speaking of mailing labels, tape isn’t the only thing that they do. Check out these Envelope Wraparounds (perfect for sending Christmas cards!).
But don’t let the tape limit you, check out these Tacky Ideas (I like the cards, especially!):
Now check out this video I found, via Daily Grommet.
Cute, right? There is really no limit to how easy it would be to dress up your packages, gifts, envelopes or anything else that you could think of! Prices range from about $7 – $20 depending on the combo that you buy, and I know a lot of people that spend more than that on wrapping paper every year!
I also want to point you over to Happy Tape – a website that distributes Japanese masking tape (Japanese because it’s made out of Japanese washi paper, which is a little different than traditional masking tape that we know and love).
Look how cute the tape looks, dressing up a plain cardboard pastry box. And they also have ‘new’ holiday patterns in pretty metallics!
This is simply a package wrapped in tape, with a label attached at the seam. Adorable! I have to get some of this before the craft fairs come up…
And this is a garland, made with…what else? Tape! Look at the little fruits on the table with toothpicks and tape flags…perfect for a baby or wedding shower as a placecard!
Single rolls start at $5.50, or you can buy 10-packs for $34.00. I’d even scour eBay or Etsy to see if I could find some I haven’t heard of, and do a web search for more crafty ideas…you could make some crazy wall art with these for sure! No painting, only taping, and at $5.50 or less for a roll it would be an easy and cheap project. Just like I like it!
I'm an interior designer and a draftsperson, but I live in the country. I like it that way. I'm also a firefighter's wife, mom to a 2 year old, and a homeowner and I like that even better. But right after that is a pretty and affordable space...and I mean a REALLY affordable space. Because I believe good design can be for EVERYONE!
It’s been a great learning experience for me, and I am thankful for such enthusiastic and trusting clients. So of course, we looked into a chalkboard wall for the kiddies. And if you didn’t already know, it’s simply paint. (You’re probably saying – duh! We already knew that! Well…the folks at the hardware store didn’t have a clue to what I was talking about so you never know!!) Anyway, you paint the chalkboard pigmented paint right on to the wall. The pigments dry harder than normal paint, allowing for a good surface to write on and not damage, and can also be wiped clean. You can find it in all sorts of colors, but I stuck with black for this project. And we didn’t do an entire wall in chalkboard paint, we did a chair rail at about 45″ (so not technically a chair rail, but it worked with the mantle above the wood stove visually!) and painted the lower half of the entire room with chalkboard paint. A dream come true for little ones, right? I know Harper already loves to take stray pencils to my kitchen cabinets…
