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Flower Power In About An Hour
By Laura Ward, Fri Dec 9th
In today's society, time is something we have very little of,and every moment we spend with our family and friends has becomeso precious. I recently had an experience with decorating mydaughters room that made the best of my precious time and foundit to be a special bonding moment with my daughter that I willnever forget. My daughter is almost three now and has always had a fascinationwith flowers. She will pick any flower (even some weeds) andgive them to me as a special gift. I've always wanted to fillher room with the bright flowers that she loved so much. I nevermade it much further than to purchase some bedding with flowerson it that was on sale at target. I've never thought of myselfas much of a designer or artist, but I found myself inspired tofinish my daughters room when I ran across some brightly coloreddaisy wall stick ups from Presto Chango Decor.com.(http://www.prestochangodecor.com/) My inspiration came from anidea that was mentioned on there website stating that theirflower stickers could be placed on foam board/posterboard andcut out to make a curtain valance or even placed on thefurniture. I purchase both a large and small set of their daisypop flowers and expanded a little on some of their idea's. First I planned to make a curtain valance. I bought some posterboard that can be found at an art supply store, office supply,or even target that cost about two dollars for a 4ft.x 4ft.sheet. I first I measured the curtain rods in my daughters roomand made sort of a half box out of the posterboard. My windowjust happened to be small enough to do this with the 4ft ofposterboard, but keep in mind that if your window is larger thanthis it might be fine because the flower appliqués will overlapthe valance box itself to some degree. My next step was tooccupy my little one with a movie. Then I use a razor knife tocarefully cut out a top piece to anchor to the top of thecurtain rods and a piece to hang down the front. I first used aglue gun to bond the two sides together but later reinforcedthis with duck tape since the flower appliqués would cover thetape from sight anyway. I punched two holes on the top piece ofposterboard on either side of the curtain rod using a screw anda screwdriver (you could use a drill or a whole punch if youhave one handy). I then used regular trash bag ties to stringthrough these holes to secure the posterboard to the top of thecurtain rod. I peeled the flower stickers from the backing andapplied them to the remaining posterboard and carefully cut themout with a razor knife. I then applied the new flower appliquésto my posterboard valance, using a glue gun. I stuck the largerones (8in.)on first followed by overlapping the smaller onesbeing careful to cover any view of the duck tape on the valancebehind it. After I was done, It looked amazing. I had seen thisconcept for this valance somewhere in one of the majordepartment stores which for the life of me I can't rememberwhere. I do however remember the price $149.99. I tooktremendous pride in myself in creating the same valance usingone of the smaller sets of the daisy pop flower stickers andsome posterboard. All of which cost me about $30.00 total.
My second idea was to use the flower stickers as a template totrace them onto a felt fabric, and them apply them to anexisting plain white curtain. I cut out various sizes of thedaisy wall stickers (backing and all) with scissors. You can useany type of fabric you want like sheets or clothes that you nolonger wear. I didn't have any of the right colors so Ipurchased some felt in 6 different bright colors to match theflowers. You can purchase the felt sheets in 1sq. ft. pieces forabout .49 cents a piece at your local fabric store. I turned theflower stickers face down on the felt, as not to damage them. Itraced a pattern on the felt with a fabric chalk then cut themout. I use some small cups I had to trace the center dots for myfelt daisy's. I used some fabric glue to adhere the centerpieces on the daisies and then attack them to my white curtain. My third idea was to use old Christmas lights that no longerworked as a curtain tie back. I used some of the flowersticker/posterboard combination again and drilled little holesthe back of the posterboard to place over the Christmas lights,securing them using the glue gun. It worked beautifully. Itlooked like flowers
on a vine. I used the same concept as thecurtain valance to create a wonderful headboard. Another ideathat I would love to do if I knew how to sew, would be to taketwo plain white sheets, cut them to size to fit my comforter andthen sew them together to make a cover. Then I would use velcroat one end , slide an old comforter in and use the same feltconcept I used on the white curtain to make a matchingcomforter. By this time the movie my daughter was somewhatwatching was over, and she made it clear that it was her time tohelp. The only thing left to do was to peel and stick the flowerstickers to the wall, and furniture and we were done. This wasthe fun part, because my little girl could helped me. She went alittle wild with her choices to stick the stickers, but she andI had so much fun. The whole project did take a little longerthan an hour, but the memories will last forever. About the author:Laura Ward Mother, Wife, Teacher, and Writer for Presto ChangoDecor.com For more kids room decorating idea's and removable wall stickertheme's , Please visit (http://www.prestochangodecor.com/)
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