Custom Artwork for the {His & Her} Nursery

I've been back from vacation for a few days now, but didn't want to post anything until I actually had something to post about.

I suppose I could have shared some "highlights" from the vacation, but I wanted to wait until I saw my therapist first. Just kidding, I don't have a therapist, but I should probably find one...and the kids and Studly too, after our week long debaucle. Perhaps I'll post about it a little later.

Til then, let's discuss artwork. I've spent most of the week working on some custom artwork for the nursery. Here's a peek.

The bedding in the room is from IKEA and has these fun, whimsical animals on them, so I decided to pull from that. With a {slightly creepy} zebra head already adorning the space it seemed only fitting to incorporate an animal theme, no?

I am a big fan of vintage storybook illustrations and so I tried to also incorporate a slightly vintage feel to the characters.

This is Frog.

I think he may be my favorite. I love his little bowtie and ridiculously, long legs.

I ended up using the panels from some old bifold doors as my canvas. Why? Cause they were available {just laying in the garage} which also meant they were free!

I used to be a big time scrapbooker, so I decided to create the artwork using a combination of paint and paper. I love incorporating depth and texture by layering patterned or textured paper rather than plain, solid colored paper. I also fashioned a 3-D bowtie out of paper just to add another element of interest {we'll see how long it actually stays on him}.

This is Bear. I made her a princess...obviously because my little darling is one...demanding and bossy.

This is Cow.

And finally, this is Elephant.

Check out those cankles!

The best part about his project, aside from finally having some artwork, was the price. I got the bulk of the paper for 25 cents a piece at Joann's. I used 3-4 pieces of paper per panel. Which means that I only ended up spending $4-5 on the entire project.

What have we learned from all of this? Utilize what you have lying around the house {left over paint, scrapbooking paper, scrap board etc} before running out and buying something. Not only is custom art one-of-a-kind, it's more sentimental and as shown here can be super cheap.

I have a decorative molding treatment I wanna try on the wall before I can hang them up...along with a few other projects. So, stay tuned for the wild {animal kingdom} reveal.