Household

So, last time I told you about handprints on the ceiling of my preschool and how hard it was for me to leave them. When I decorated our playroom here, I wanted my grandbabies' handprints included. I decided I was going to print them on a cloud. Then, my ever brilliant Tim, suggested we cut clouds out of plywood, so when we eventually move, we could take them with us! Smart guy, right?

To make the clouds, begin by drawing a lofty cloud on paper. My clouds are approximately 42" x 28". To make a pattern use butcher block paper or tape pieces of newspaper together. I have not included a pattern of a cloud, because to be quite honest, it is far easier to simply sketch one than to try to enlarge a pattern. If you need inspiration, look at one of my clouds in this post or in When the Cows Come Home.

After you have drawn a cloud, cut it out and trace around the outer edge on 3/4" plywood. Round the edges by sanding. (If you don't have tools to do this yourself, make a pattern, buy the plywood, and offer to make a pan of brownies for anyone that can help you cut it out! It really is a fast project.)

After it is cut out, begin by painting the front and edges a light to medium blue. After it is dry, using a large brush, paint the cloud white, using a swirling stroke. Begin at the outer edge, and work inward. It's okay to let a little of the blue show through here and there. It will give more dimension to the cloud. Use should only need one coat of white paint. I used a satin finished paint. After your clouds have dried, they are ready to put handprints on.

Here is what we do with our clouds. We have 1 cloud for each grandchild. Every year in January we add a new handprint. Since Michelle has 3 children, they have 3 clouds. Instead of putting all their handprints on individual clouds, we rotate through the clouds every 3 years, and each year all three of the children put their handprint on the same cloud. We figure we will have them do this until they are 14 years old. When they have all turned 14, we will have 3 clouds, each with 14 sets of handprints, with each sibling having their own cloud to keep. Besides taking their handprints, on the back of the clouds, we write their age at the time of the printing, and list their favorite activities, toys and color, and include their clothing size... just for fun!

Tim and I have 5 children. So far only 1 of them has given us grandbabies. We plan to continue this tradition as each child starts their own family. As you can well imagine, we will have very cloudy walls! Although clouds fit well into the theme of our playroom, you can use this same idea with any number of shapes. 

I think the grandbabies will love these when they are grown up and off on their own. What a special keepsake!

(BTW... I blobbed out the children's real names... looks a bit messy! Should have had Michelle Photoshop them I suppose but you get the idea!!!)
 

January, February and March are the months Michelle and I decorate. It is post holidays and before the gardens call us outdoors. Below is a post from One Generation to Another, first published June 8, 2008. We decided this would be a great time to share this because we will be doing our handprint project next week. Watch for the handprints below! 

I have a singing voice with about a 6 note range…7 if someone steps on my foot real hard. I would never dream of singing for a room of adults, but I have no problem at all playing my guitar and singing for children. I’m not sure if their hearing isn’t fully developed or if it’s because their hearts are bigger than their cochlea, but they think I have a beautiful voice. Go figure! With the exception of food, which turns the kindest child into the most ruthless critic, children have a tendency to see the best in things. Dad can be just this side of a 90 pound weakling and his children will think he’s the strongest man in the world. Mom can be toting around 20 superfluous pounds, donning a sweatshirt smeared with baby snot and a ponytail that is sliding down the side of her head, and her 5 year old son will look at her and say, “Mommy, you’re so beautiful.” Clouds fill them with awe, as do garbage truck. Children are a dream audience!

So, when it comes to decorating for children, you don’t have to have great talent, just a willingness to be bold and adventurous. When Tim and I joined households, I claimed the basement. Earlier Tim had finished a third of the basement with drywall and carpet. I had him finish another third, turning it into a library/guest room/play room…a regular multi-purpose room. I needed somewhere to house the contents of my preschool plus all my children’s toys that I had saved. So I turned the “front” part of the basement into a playroom.

My first job was to come up with a “theme”. I wanted to create a space that was cheerful and encouraged play. When my children were growing up, we had a timeshare at a resort called Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont. One of the many regional things we discovered, long before they went “public”, was Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Their ice cream is delicious, but we were just as enamored by their social consciousness and great imagery. To us Ben & Jerry’s was symbolic of close family times, beautiful scenery and awesome vacations. So, I decided to borrow Ben & Jerry’s motif to turn our basement into a pastoral paradise! (Visit their website and compare to our playroom!) Here are the steps I took to create our room.

1.Begin by taking a pencil and marking “rolling hills” on your wall. (This should be about one quarter to one third of the lower wall.)

2.Paint the sky using a light blue. Paint to the hill line.

3.I sponged painted over the blue with a darker blue…more turquoise.

4.Paint the hills using a light green.

5.When the green paint dries, take a pencil and mark smaller rolling hills on the green paint.

6.Using a darker green create the “foothills” by painting over the light green paint.

7.Using large pieces of paper, at least 36 inches wide, refer to my cloud pictures or ones at Ben & Jerry’s and draw large, puffy clouds. Make at least 6 using different sizes. (You’ll be able to use each cloud multiple times.) Tape the clouds on the wall in a pleasing pattern. Make sure to make the pattern random. Remember, clouds don’t “line up” in the sky.

8.Trace around each cloud and remove the paper.

9.Using white paint and a large brush fill in the cloud. Start by outlining the clouds creating swirling patterns. Keep working toward the middle with swirling brush strokes until the cloud is all filled in. It’s okay for some of the blue to show through. This gives a more authentic look to the clouds.

10.We then found an image of the cow we liked and blew up the image on our printer. My daughter was more than helpful, especially with this part! We taped the finished image to the wall, tracing the outline and spots with a pencil. Push hard and you will make a slight indentation in the wall that you can use for your outline or from the backside, color over the lines with pencil or crayons, and when you trace from the front side, the pencil marks or crayons will leave the outline on the wall.

11.Paint your cow black and white and ta-da, you’re done!

12.Add any extra embellishments to suit your fancy. We added a picket fence gate as a way of keeping the kids off the steps. And for extra fun, we turned the wall coming downstairs into a “barn”. (There’s also a cat chasing a mouse up the stairs!) Go crazy with your own touches.

There are many motifs out there that would translate well into a playroom. Although most of the images are copyrighted or trademarked, as long as you’re only using them for decorations in your house, you’re reasonably safe! For ideas look through children’s books and internet sites. Remember…it’s just paint…and children will love your efforts…even if the end results aren’t Louvre worthy! Oh, and have fun!

Here are the final directions for finishing your Winter Blues Buster Gift Box which include the Snowmen Napkins, Scarf Napkin Rings and Snowflake Wool Penny Coasters. All the crafts are easy, with the coasters being the most time consuming, but considering they are easy peasy to make, it's hard to complain!

Snowman Napkins:
To make these, find the perfect fabric. Thick, high quality calicoes work the best. Simply follow the directions for our Rip and Tear Napkins.

Scarf Napkin Rings:
If you found a fabric that has snowmen with scarves, use the scarf color for your napkin rings. If there are no snowmen or scarves in your print, simply pick a compatible felt color. For each napkin ring, cut felt 1 1/4" x 13 1/2". Using a running stitch and 6 strands of floss, sew around the edge of the felt piece, with the stitching stopping 1" away from the two short edges. You will be topping stitching a long rectangle on the scarf. Hide loose threads inside the felt. Fringe the edge by cutting strips into the short sides of the scarf up to the top stitching. Tie the scarf around the napkins using a square knot. (Right over left, left over right :)

Snowflake Wool Penny Coasters:
Pick out wools to match your napkins. Follow the directions for our Wool Penny Coasters except embroider a 6 pointed snowflake on the small circle instead of a 8 pointed star. Add a French Knot to the end of all 6 points. Stack 4 completed coasters and tie with 1/4" ribbon.

That's it! The Gift Box includes: Hot Chocolate Mix with a Calico covered Mason jar. 4 mugs... purchased at the Salvation Army. 4 Rip and Tear Napkins with 4 Scarf Napkin Rings. And 4 Snowflake Penny Coasters. The items are packed in a box, with recycled paper I put through my paper shredder! This would make a super gift to give to a friend or to save for your own family to enjoy come January!

Every year Michelle adds a picture ornament to the tree with Bug's, Fairy's and Pixie's pictures and year. This year I made the ornaments using our Christmas Tree Applique Block. The wonderful thing about this ornament, besides being adorable :) is the pocket on the back. The pocket makes it possible to give this as a gift and the recepient simply needs to add a trimmed down wallet sized photo. BTW... this is a pic of Bug two years ago... while going through his Beatles... particularly George Harrison... phase! I love the locks!

Anyway... this ornament lends itself to plenty of personalization. Add a date, a name, buttons or embroidered ornaments. If you'd like to make your own, the directions for our Christmas Tree Picture Ornament can be found HERE or with our FREE Patterns. Enjoy!