Ingrid Whitcher

The toddler room turned out fantastic. The children love all the details and extra play room.

Poufs

The fabric poufs were made as fun seating for the children to sit and read books or play. They are about 12 inches high with a 18 inch circular top. I picked graphic top fabric for the top and black with colored piping for the sides. They are stuffed with old towels and fabric bits. One piece of 3 inch foam cut into a circle was placed at the top to help the pouf keep it’s shape. This are easy to make and much cheaper than buying them – the kids love them.

Paper Chandelier

One of my favorite decorations in this room is the paper chandelier. I cut the circles out of yardstick using a Big Shot. They are sew together and tied to ribbon wrapped metal circles. The hardest part of this project was hanging it – we used fishing line to attach the three layers and make a hanging loop. It to Mark awhile to get them all level. We were able to hang it directly below the air conditioning vent which makes it twirl.

Paper Flowers

I found a tutorial by Avanti Morocha on You Tube and had to try them. They range in size from 12 inches across to about 30 inches. Needless to say, I used a lot of hot glue making them.

Storage and shelving

We had a work station area installed for storing all the workbooks and art supplies in the lower cabinets. The upper shelves hold all the “table time” activities and extra storage. I am now able to keep all the Bible lesson materials at church instead of in my studio!

White Board Awning

I saw so many cute fabric awnings when doing research on decorating this room that we had to try it ourselves. We used plant hangers form Lowes to hold up the lower edge of the awning. I think it add a touch of whimsy to the room and softens the white board.

Abacus

We made an abacus for each of the nurseries. The wooden beads were found at Hobby Lobby. Mark made “shadow box” and drilled holes for the wooden dowels. We are hoping the wooden dowels will be strong enough. I love all the different shapes and colors.

We are ordering new tables but for now our covered folding tables are working well in the space. A few new projects are still being developed – a flip down train table and play kitchen.

I have added a few quilts from my “Home” collection to the store.`

Robin Dreams

A Trail Less Traveled

We had some wonderful builders who were willing to tackle any challenge. Mark and I played around with some ideas for the new toy storage area and we wanted something that would be large enough to hold all the toys. Garrett once again put the plans on paper for me using Google Sketch-up. The toy chest turned out amazing. The bottom storage area is large enough for a two year old to lay down and take a nap in!

My son, Garrett, helped lay out the toddler room as well. This room is used as a classroom/play area as we try to get our 2-3 year old ready for the transition to school. Our room that we moved out of was half the size with every inch used.

We were even able to start playing with the graphic paint details.

I am so pleased how this space turned out. We are loving the extra room.

The jellyfish

My Mom made one of the jellyfish and sent the second paper-mâché dome for me to use. These jellyfish are so fun to make.

• I painted the dome with several coats of paint and then finished it with an acrylic clear sealer that gave it a nice shine. I also figured that it would make it easier to clean.
• Punch holes around the lower rim with a hole punch.
• Pull ribbon through the holes. I really enjoyed picking the different ribbons.
• I bought toile on a roll for the middle and added some different ribbons from the outer area.

The jelly fish are not too heavy but to hang it, we used ceiling hooks with anchors.

Paintings

I did 4 paintings for this space. I bought several bottles of acrylic paint and played. I looked for free clip art and then enlarged it to the size I needed. Thankfully, I had a little bit of spray adhesive left – I lightly sprayed the back of the paper then positioned it on the canvas. I also use blue painters tape to mask off the canvas before painting the black.

Ball drop

This is probably the “toy” that gets used the most. Mark laid out the design and then cut all the pieces out of 2” PVC pipe. Once the pipes were attached (glued with hot glue) we spray painted them. The background is a piece of plywood – used so we could use screws to attach the pipes and then something stable to attach to the wall. We chose the pipe size to use plastic golf balls (the ones with holes in them).