DIY Graphic Nursery Art

I have a nephew.  His name is Grant.  I adore him.  Sooo……for Christmas I crafted up a little DIY graphic art for his nursery.  I was inspired by this print from Hoot Design Co, but they didn’t have the colors I wanted AND you couldn’t customize all of the letters.  So I set out to make my own alphabet print for Grant with special people, places, and things representing all of the letters.  When I was thinking of this project I thought it needed something a lil extra so I decided to toss in 2 DIY small prints to make it a set.  Oh and with his DIY mobile I crafted up it was on! P.S. don’t mind the shoddy camera work.  It was ohhh about 6 in the morning (hence the artificial light beaming down) and I had 2.2 minutes to get all the pictures taken before we had to wrap these babies up and gallivant on to our Christmas celebration. I know, I should be a better planner.    

For the alphabet print I choose to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, and of course the parents themselves for special people for Grant to remember.  I also added local landmarks, places where he spends time like the cabin and the hunting shack, and things he would most likely do by nature like ice fish, camp, go four wheeling, and bend iron with his teeth.  OK so I’m kidding about the last one, but it’s kind of a rugged and manly family on the hubby’s side.

I choose gray, yellow, and shades of blue for the color scheme.  I used several fonts and LOTS of dingbats! 

For the antlers I made a silhouette in Adobe Indesign and changed the color to fit the color scheme.  You could probably also do it in Microsoft Publisher or Power Point.

Grant’s name wasn’t included in the collage, BUT I thought I would give him his own picture in the set.  This is an alphabet print with letters A – Z repeating in gray and Grant’s name in the middle in a yellow picked from the color scheme of the alphabet print. 

I tried many color combinations for the antlers and name, but I wanted the alphabet print to be the center of attention and the two other prints subtle complements to the piece.  Together the blend in to give the pieces a cohesive feeling! 

My China Hutch is Horney

Notice anything different about my china hutch? Do ya? Do ya?  If you said there was a giant horn on top….you would be correct! Well….partially correct.  It’s technically an antler.  Antlers shed, horns stay.  Classic mistake…I’ve made like 1,000 times since getting my hands on this little beauty. 

Someone (me) happens to know someone that owns an elk farm.  How convenient.  I casually asked my step sister’s life man partner (somehow I feel weird calling him a “boyfriend” since they are all grown up) what it would take to get my hands on an antler…no not a pair…just one.  After some questioning from the step-mother they showed up on my doorstep with this amazing antler (not a horn).  Oh..and they didn't charge me.  How awesome of them is that? Thanks guys! 

Here’s some technical information.  It’s roughly 2 ½ - 3 feet long.  It was the smallest antler on the lot.  My step sister has one that barely fits on her wall…and she has 9 foot ceilings. 

 

It wove perfectly thorough my previous arrangement to give it that added interest.  Nate Berkus (who in my head is my design BFF) said that every room needs a little piece of nature, whether that be a stone, sand, shells, wicker, etc.  I think he would approve of my newly found antler!