DIY nursery art

If you looked really closely at my last post on the rug for the baby's room, you may have noticed the colourful artworks I created to brighten the room and decorate one section of the very high, bare walls.

Let's get a little closer, shall we?

Doesn't seem quite close enough so let's break them down.

I've been collecting ideas for artworks or prints I thought I could create for awhile on Pinterest (check out my board here). The larger piece on the left was inspired by two things - Rachel Castle's embroidery artworks like this one:

And a DIY nursery artwork from the blog Aux petits oiseaux from which I borrowed the words. 

I had my mum mix up the colours for me, incorporating all the colours I am using (or plan to use) in the baby's room.  My mum is an artist so has a far better knack and confidence for mixing colours than I do (there is a glimpse of the abstract she did for our living room in this post and a photo of the piece she for my bedroom a few years back in this post).

I used her colours to paint strips of each colour on white cardboard. After two coats and some drying time, I lightly pencilled on the letters required to write 'every day we love you' in lower case and the French translation 'tous les jours nous t'aimons' in capitals. I wasn't worried about creating perfect letters as the aim was to create something with a child-like sense of fun. After cutting out each letter, I used clear craft glue to stick them onto white card and popped this into a white frame from a local variety store for $15. I used the same cut-out method for the dot artwork too and a smaller version of the same frame (about $11 for this one). Rachel Castle's screen printed dot artworks inspired this design.

The final piece in this little cluster is a ampersand design found on Google images (unfortunately I don't have the exact source as I printed it many months ago). I simply cut out the printed ampersand, traced around it with pencil straight onto a thin canvas I had in the cupboard (probably from a $2 shop) and filled it in with some of the leftover aqua paint used in the other pieces.

Next up are some silhouettes I tackled with my mum. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours one afternoon at my dining table surrounded by paper and paints. I showed her these animal prints by Me and Amber....

Before I knew it, she had created these beauties: 

They are just hanging out under the red lamp for now until I get around to hanging them. So cute!

Meanwhile I was stencilling and cutting out deers to create this:

For now, this one sits atop a set of Expedit shelves in the room with a framed image from a Typo calendar (middle) and a painting by my little friend Sophie (on the right). 

I love the colours in the ferris wheel. Isn't it brilliant that you can create artworks from images that grab your eye in everyday items? Calendars are great for this.

The same calendar also has an image of balloons that I will frame in the same Ribba frame from Ikea (just not keen to tackle an Ikea trip at 40 weeks pregnant!).

So there you have some DIY affordable art to brighten up a nursery (or any room). I am hoping to add a huge zebra painting above the cot at some stage. Just gotta sweeten up a certain artist ;) Wish me luck. 

The impossible demand

Hunt for the card at Typo and roses in a garden or florist near you. These beauties are from our wild bushes.

Beware: Typo

Retailers are cottoning onto our love of stationery, making it a cinch for everyday items to inspire. Before Christmas I was excited to discover Typo within the Cotton On store in Melbourne's Bourke Street. When shopping for others, why do we always find so many things we want for ourselves? I had to tie my hands behind my back and remind myself about the spirit of giving.

I've since found a Typo concept store at DFO in Spencer Street and this time there was no holding me back. The flip clock has made a come back of late and as a lover of clocks, this clean and simple design quickly made it to my list of things to hunt for. Once I'm on the hunt, I either see the item I seek everywhere or nowhere. In the case of the flip clock, it's the former. It's in every home mag and you can even get one as an iPhone app (seen on design blog swissmiss). Here's my Typo version ($16.95) sitting on some Typo notebooks ($2 each).

Typo may not be as slick as star stationer kikki.K, but it sure rivals its competitors in attitude and price. Highly recommended, but beware of the Typo, there is no going back. It's a mistake I'm happy to make though. Much better than being Cotton On and writing about expanding into gifts and STATIONARY (yes, with an 'a') on their website. Could it be their way of promoting Typo by example?!