Baby Sandy’s Nursery: Vintage Bib, Ribbon Mobile, Chalkboard Tray
Since the new “nursery” is more of a playroom than an actual nursery (I’m still debating whether or not we’re buying a second crib – so far, “no” is winning) I’m way less interested in making it perfect than making it fun and functional. At the same time, I feel sort of bad that Baby Girl is going to be forced to share her space from the very beginning with an older brother so I’m putting a lot of effort money thought into special touches just for her. I mean, it’s SUPER AWESOME that we’ve already banished most of the ugly, plastic, music playing toys to the second floor, but it also means a pale pastel princess color scheme is totally out of the question. Good thing I was already into the idea of bright colors.
Instead of boring the crap out of you with hundreds of individual posts explaining every step of each project, I’m going to do them in weekly (bi-weekly? monthly? OMG it can’t be monthly because I only HAVE a month left to finish all of this DEEP BREATHS DEEEEEEEEP BREATHS) round-ups.
Project 1: Find a way to display the vintage embroidered bib my mom saved from my (her?) childhood
I *think* it’s a cow surrounded by flowers. Or maybe a vase. Or maybe I’m still high on spray adheisive.
Since the bib is sort of pastel and the room is mostly bright, I wanted a bright frame to put it in.
Green frame from Target: $6.99, tiny fabric squares: free from my swag bag at The Creative Connection, but I’ve seen them at Joann’s for a few bucks a pack
Then I used the spray adhesive to stick the little squares to a piece of off-white cardstock.
I KNOW YOU ARE SO AMAZED RIGHT NOW.
Then I put the bib on the fabric/paper and popped the whole thing in the frame.
And now I have a lovely, girly, almost-free piece of art for the new nursery
Project 2: DIY Ribbon Mobile
I did not come up with this idea, not by a long shot. A Google image search for “ribbon mobile” brings up tons and tons of slightly different versions and it’s not like you NEED instructions. But I learned a few things in my attempt so I’m going to post a tiny how-to.
I only ended up using the larger embroidery hoop and even though I did spray paint it yellow I didn’t really need to. You don’t see enough of the hoop for it to matter.
Figure out how long you want the mobile to be and cut ribbon to approximately twice that length. DON’T go out of your way to make it perfect, since the uneven lengths is what makes it sort of whimsical
I discovered that the thinner the ribbon, the easier it was to work with. I actually gave up on the wide orange kind because it kept coming unlooped. The grosgrain mid-sized ribbon also worked very well once I figured out how to tie it. I originally bought a bunch of ribbon at the fabric store but found MUCH cheaper options at Michael’s – 50 cents a spool with tons left over.
You would think randomly choosing the color order would make life easier, but instead I spent far too long worrying there was too my orange or pink in any one section
In theory, all you have to do to secure the ribbon to the hoop is hold it double, wrap the end where the ribbon is folded around the hoop, then pull the ends through until it’s tight. But with anything thicker than 1/8th inch ribbon, it’s hard to pull it tight enough to make it stay – and I was NOT looking forward to gluing each one individually. So what works is after you pull the ribbon through the loop end, take the free end and pull it through the loop again on the right side. It makes sort of a little knot without changing the way it looks too much.
Ta-da! Beautiful, one of a kind ribbon mobile for the nursery
Project 3: Chalkboard tray as door sign
I used to collect vintage trays and display them as wall art in my living room, so when I saw a chalkboard tray in the Pottery Barn catalog I thought it was a super cute idea. And one that is obviously so ridiculously easy there is no way anyone should bother to buy the one from PB for $200 (sadly, I can’t find the tray online to link to, but it was in the Thanksgiving issue.)
Supplies: totally NON-vintage tray I bought for 10 cents at church rumage sale, chalkboard spray paint, ribbon, Tacky Glue
Yeah, you don’t need a step-by-step for this.
One day, we’ll pick a %^&# name, and I’ll write that on the sign
I’m going to hang it on the door.
Now I’m going to go spray paint some more stuff in my dining room. Because I’m sure that is AWESOME for the baby.
Tags: baby girl, baby sandy, chalkboard tray sign diy, crafts, DIY, framed bib diy, glue, nursery, paint, playroom, projects, ribbon, ribbon mobile diy
Adorable! I LOVE the ribbon mobile, I will definitely be bookmarking that for the future!
That mobile is amazing, and I love what you did with the bib! DIY way-less-work-than-quilt designs steal my heart every time.
I’m loving the ribbon mobile. Very cute! The bib looks cute all framed up like that too. Such a creative girl you are :)
I AM so amazed right now! I AM!
The bib was from my childhood – or earlier!
OMG, you’re my hero!! This is all amazing, you should sell it (err, not the ones for baby Sandy. other ones).
I love LOVE the chalkboard tray! If Elsie already didn’t have acute little chalkboard from my mom I would totally make her one for her door. The ribbon mobile is beautiful, even better than what I imagined when you talked about it last night.
I am taking copious notes about using spray adhesive, GORGEOUS fabrics and cardstock. I can so do that! I can SOOOOO do that!
great work! i wish i knew how to be so crafty, maybe if i have another baby that will get my creative juices flowing. so cute!
I love this bebehblog edition! The colors you chose for the mobile would look perfect in cora’s room. Hmm…any chance you are doing a giveaway with the remainder of this ribbon collection?
I LOVE IT ALL! How awesome are you?!?
love love love!!!
I love the fabric squares behind the bib. Well done on all of them in fact.
I’m kind of in love with all your crafty projects.
That bib is beautiful & the way you displayed it~ Awesome! You are so crafty! I’m impressed. The ribbon mobile turned out great! Her name is going to look so cute on that chalkboard tray!
These are REALLY GREAT IDEAS!!! I can’t wait to see the room. You rock. I also can’t wait to steal them for myself :) (especially the chalk board tray!)
Adorable. You make me want to get crafty! Maybe I should . . .
Love the projects and all this from someone who keeps telling us she is not creative. LOL
These are very clever and awesome looking! Thank you so much for sharing!
So adorable! I cannot wait to see the whole thing once it’s done (it will get done on time… it will, it will , it will).
xxo!!
LOVE the ribbon mobile!!! I am making that for the next baby!
OMG. You are making my craftiness look bad. seriously, this is so creative and pretty. baby sandy is a lucky girl!
also, you should pick a *^%*&^(*&^ name. ;-)
ok so i was just showing rusty your craftiness and he is very distraught that you destroyed that dr pepper tray. he said to tell you he cried for 10 minutes over this.
that is all.
These projects are AMAZING. I LOVE THEM. I think I will be copying at least 2 of them!!
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