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Hope you all are well, I want to inform you all that this blog has moved to The Average Mom website. My own site, kindly subscibe to my new site so that we remain connected.
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Smita
This is baby A’s play room. When we moved to this new place and I had a spare room, I was super happy as I knew I could turn it into a play room exclusively for baby A. But since he is very young yet, we don’t need any proper furniture really for him,( table chairs, beds etc) as we co-sleep. So, I had to come up with some DIY ideas to decorate his room. So here is what all went in decorating his room:
⏺ on the walls : Danglers. I did danglers on baby A’s birthday with photos from each month of his first year. Photos from each month along with a little small write up about that month, are part of each dangler. And then i used ribbons to weave them together. Some glitter paper and number cutouts make them cuter and these are a permanent keepsake that now adorn the walls and make the memories easy to cherish
⏺ Decals on the walls : I found some really cute decals on @amazonindia . I bought some Animal decals and train decals as both are baby A’s fav. He loves pointing out to all the animals and to the train pictures. He can now correctly point out all the animals when asked, including butterflies 😊, thus these turned out to be a great way to teach him animals too 😊Here is a link to the decal I bought from Amazon : http://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/d/B00OPYNS88/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491332020&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&keywords=animal+decal&dpPl=1&dpID=51zlncRMofL&ref=plSrch
⏺ The shelf on the floor which has his toys, is made out of cardboard boxes, colourful wrapping paper and a hot glue gun. How I made these DIY Shelves are on my other blog post , you can chexk it out at this link;
Once done, I used wicker baskets to store his toys on the shelves. I spent less than 100 Rs in total and had a great handmade shelf ready which is the perfect place to store his toys. And i did not need to invest in another piece of furniture / shelf for it. Win win. Point to note, I had to use a separate round cardboard cylindrical pipe in the middle of each shelf to reinforce the shelves else they would collapse in the middle. You can see it if you look closely.
Tip: where to find such cylindrical cardboard pipes 😳? I used the hollow pipes that came with the decals I ordered and cut them according to my need. 💃. It was good they came packaged like that .
⏺ A floor bed makes the room complete for baby to sit on and play, ( he doesn’t sit though) as also a place for all his teddies to lounge on.
⏺I have also kept his play pen in the room, which he loves. He loves playing inside it and sometimes just takes his toys and sits inside the playpen. He also loves his rocker which I have kept in his room and sits on it with a book in hand when he feels like it.
Here are a few ideas to deck up a toddler’s play room.
1) Baby proof : the area, cover up sockets, corners, edges, remove unstable furniture, it should be safe for baby.
2) Decide on the type of decor you want, keep a lot of floor area free, just put a mattress / play mat for baby to play on. You can also put in a low bed or a baby cot.
3) Photos of baby: they are the best idea to deck up a baby’s room, frame them, hang them with a tape, hang them weaved on a string, whatever you want. These will brighten the room instantly and are a great way to cherish all those baby memories
4) Fancy yet low cost deco : some low cost things you can use to brighten up the room are fairy lights, shimmer / net cloth/ dupatta / stole pieces, make sure that they are away from baby though and do not pose a hazard for her, hang these high and fix them properly.
5) Wall Art : Get on the net and download some cute pics, depending on your theme, eg disney characters for a princess theme, animals for a safari theme, print these and paste on cardboard / foam, and paste these on the wall with a double sided tape. Cover them first with cling sheets, if you want longevity, else you can also easily get decals online.
6) Wicker baskets/ storage boxes : Get some baskets Or make a shelf like I did to store baby’s toys. You need to keep the toys organised and for that yoh will need boxes
7) Play Mat : get a play mat too, but it is not needed if you want to put in a mattress, with play mat the room will be easier to clean though. Be sure to leave as much of floor area as possible for baby to play around, no use cramming the place with too many furnitures.
8) Glitter Foam sheets : get it from a stationery shop. These are glittery sheets made of thin rubber foam. These are cheap and easily available in many colours and you can use these to cut out baby’s name, or to frame the pictures you want to hang, or just cut out few cute big hearts out of these and hang them around the room
9) Pom Poms / Banners : buy some Crepe paper sheets and make big poms poms out of them, tie together a bunch of these and hang from the ceiling. Make two such bunches and that is enough to liven up the room. Cut out some banners and hang them across the room, these two things are fairly easy to make and are so low cost, yet these are a favourite decoration essential. You can find a pompom and banner making tutorial online easily.
10) Colours : I preferred using as many colours as possible for a baby’s room, as I don’t believe in the blue and pink divide, but please do keep the colour scheme as one if you like doing that.
Decorating your home with DIY items is best of both worlds. You get to decorate as you please and it is at practically no cost. DIY also means that you are able to capture a lot of your personality and showcase it. Your craft is bound to show your personality through its expression and it is awesome to be able to decorate your home, a place which is your haven, with it. Recently when doing my baby’s room I went completely with DIY, as he is very young right now, thus there is no actual need to a study table or bed in here. It is more of a play room for him, thus I was able to decorate it like this. Maybe we will have to redo this and bring in furniture etc as he grows and needs those. Right now this play area seems perfect for him, and he actually spends hours in here.
Here below are few of the things I made for his room.
These photo danglers for his wall:
I made this dangler as this enables me to cherish and showcase the 1st year of baby’s life. Babies grow so fast in the 1st year that you can almost see them changing every week. Capturing these beautiful moments is so important. I really wanted to have a keepsake of these moments. Thus I made this, below is the how to:
I chose 2 photos for each month of his 1st year and printed these on glossy photo paper.
Next I printed month numbers, eg images with the numbers 1 month, 2 month written on it. You can make this easily on word doc too just use a big happy font. You can use images of cartoons or trains or cars etc.
Print this and cut it out and paste it on top of a cardboard sheet. Cut off the excess from the edges.
Next take some glitter paper and laminate sheets.
Paste the photo one by one on a cardboard sheet using a glue gun. Leave 1 inch border around each photo and cut the cardboard sheet accordingly. Now you should have 12 photos pasted separately on carboard sheets.
Next, put the laminate sheet on each photo sheet and cut as per size. The laminate should cover the sides too.
Now, cut thin strips out of glitter paper and paste them on the 4 sides of the photo covering up the carboard which you have used as background. It should look like this 👇🏻
Next cut 12 squares of the size of the photos out of white or any light coloured chart paper, you can use white glitter paper too, to make it look fancier.
Now write down the babies’s milestones of each month on one square each
Next take a punching machine and punch holes on the top border and bottom border of each photo, the milestone message square and the month image.
Take a broad satin ribbon and tie up the month number, the photos, and the squares on which you have written the milestone in a way that they hang below one another. Like this👇🏻
You can choose to add more squares if you want to add some more lines.
Now take another long ribbon, punch two holes on both sides of the top of the 1st square and weave the ribbon through as shown above. This way your danglers will remain steady.
Start with the 1st month and continue till 12 months. You can add stickers, stars etc wherever you want and decorate it.
Thats it, now hang this keepsake where you can see it when you want. And get to cherish the beautiful moments of your baby growing up.
For the shelf below 👇🏻, I used cardboard boxes/ packing boxes 📦. Cut out one side of each, and cover with colourful paper or plastic paper which will be more durable.
Stack these as shown below and hot glue the sides together.
I also used round cylinders ( also cardboard) to reinforce the boxes and to prevent them from sagging as cardboard will sag after some time.
This project will actually be a lot more durable if you are able to use wodden crates but as I did not have those I used cardboard.
Do not over stack them as the cardboard will not be able to bear the weight.
These make a perfect open storage for baby’s toys in his room.
I made two of these and also use one as a book shelf. These are vibrant, useful as a storage and quite cute.
And did not cost me anything as I had the packing boxes available at home. I only had to buy paper for this, and a cute storage was ready 😊.
If you like my idea, do make these easy crafts and for more such ideas please like and follow my blog at https://smitasangle.wordpress.com/
You can also follow me and our daily life of a mama and toddler, brimming with such crazy ideas, on instagram at @smitapalsinha
#diy #avgmom
I love doing DIY gifts and always make something handmade for my husband on his birthday apart from the usual shop bought gift ( watch/ phone / perfume / shirt ). The handmade gift just makes it more special because of the personal touch. Also I love the whole planning, hiding, finishing the work in secret, keeping the work in progress gift hidden inside a closet until d-day. And finally seeing the look of awe on his face when he opens it is pure magic. That is my gift 😊.
Here below is one #diy #handmade gift i made for him under 7$
Things you will need for this :
1. Hand made paper A4 size or the size you prefer
Look for a bright paper with a beautiful background which will contrast well with your photos. A plain paper will not attractive as the background. The right kind of paper will turn your frame from ordinary to beautiful without any effort.
Thus, I would recommend not using any chart paper ( it is too plain ) or any printed wrapping paper etc ( due to their patterned design it will look cluttered and take away the focus from your pics) Handmade papers are perfect for this as you will get very subtle , understated yet beautiful designs in those, choose something which is bright as you want it to show through.
2. Glitter paper :
You can use this to write in a beautiful message in your own hand. Generally anything hand written will add more warmth to the gift. But you can choose to type and print the message if you think your handwriting is truly horrible, but more often than not, going with your hand written message will be a good idea.
Choose either silver or gold glitter paper as any other colour will not pop out so much and the message will get hidden. Now here it is very imp to choose the right contrast. Choose the glitter paper as a contrast to the background paper that you have chosen. Definitely buy these two together so that you can see what goes best with what. E.g some good contrasts could be ; purple/ blue/ pink will go well with silver glitter paper. Red may go great with Gold.
If you choose Gold, you may have to write the actual message on a white paper and then stick it on the gold glitter paper, keeping that as a frame.
For writing on glitter paper I use OHP/ DVD permanent marker pens with fine felt tip. You generally can easily get few basic colours in a pack at a local stationery shop.
3. Adhesive beads crystals strips:
These will give a great finish to your photos if you add these around the pictures as a frame border. If you are able to get the stick on strips, these are very easy to fix too and no mess trying to paste single single beads or crystals. This will also add a certain bling to your work
4. Photo prints :
Print a couple of your favourite snaps and print them on your printer on glossy paper. If you have cute couple pictures then all the better. Try choosing a single theme for the few snaps that you choose; e.g. Candid, cute or funny. This will help keep a single tone in the frame.
5. Message :
The measage that you choose to write can be anything. Write it somewhere else first and edit before writing on the actual frame. Some ideas for the same are:
Reasons you love him / her
Things you love most about them
10 best moments you have spent together ( if you have the pictures of those moments then that will be all the more terrific)
Ways they make your everyday beautiful
Things you want to thank them for
If you feel that you are not very expressive with your words then choose 10 beautiful love quotes from google and write those down
You can also choose to note down a passage you love or any lines of poem you or they love
5. Foam paper / glitter paper hearts cutouts. Or heart shaped stickers ( just to decorate/ border the message. You can choose to stick them randomly also in a scattered fashion.
You need a hot glue gun to put all this together easily.
Finally, get it framed from any local studio as framing it will help cherish this beautiful gift of yours and will be a beautiful reminder to look at. Your handmade surprise is ready. 😊
Few of My Works ;
– Sung by Smita ; These songs have been sung by me and recorded at a studio as a surprise birthday gift for my hubby
via Zara Zara.
The Average Mom 