AT Projects: The Playroom

So, here it is. The last of the alone time projects. I have to confess it's my favorite one.

Like most of my ideas it started randomly. A friend of mine had started finger knitting flowers and brought me some that she made. I had no idea what to do with them so I put them in a basket and left them there.

One day, several weeks later, while I was cleaning I came across the flowers and I knew what I wanted to do with them.   I got to work making several more flowers that became embellishments for my playroom tree.
 

I am not a freehand artist, so when I started the tree I used tape to make the outline.  I used regular brown acrylic paint and a foam brush to paint it in.  I'm sure you smart people quickly realized that there would be gaps where I made the branches.  When I pulled off the tape it looked wonky and did not at all have the look I was going for.


Enter twinnie.  She is an amazing freehand artist so she quickly got to work and used my original design to make it more free flowing and natural.  I drew the leaves with a pencil and used three shades of green acrylic paint to paint them in.  It seems tedious, but it was kind of therapeutic.  I watched my Sex and the City episodes on DVD while I worked.

After the paint was dry I used yellow and white push pins to put all the flowers on the tree.  I used a decal bird we have on the tree in Riley's room to trace the one on this tree.  I used two shades of blue acrylic to paint the bird.  The bird's nest is some raffia I got at Joann Fabrics and there is a clear push pin holding the  cluster to the wall.



A while ago I blogged about Riley's art work collage. It needs to be updated with her new work and Cam's work too.  In the meantime they both have one of those $2 IKEA frames that I put their recent artwork in.  Blue for him and pink for her.  I bought the multicolored craft supply cups and the metal rods at IKEA too.  They hold things like crayons, foam brushes, pencils, markers, and paint.  Underneath is a large whiteboard that has since been moved to the dumpster.  The kids often color off the board and I got tired of using Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.  I saved the frame with plans to make a chalkboard wall instead.



More $2 IKEA frames display Riley's artwork.  She has painting and coloring marathons and she loves for me to hang up her work.  The ABC's are paper scrapbook letters.  The mirror was at Home Depot in the college section 2 years ago for $4.  The kids love to sing and watch themselves in it.

The playroom is such a happy place in our house and even though it is valuable square footage in our small home our kids definitely needed a dedicated place for all their things.