Fluffy Three Dimensional Letter Name Wall Art

Looking for an easy project for decorating the walls that's fast & cheap?  Then today's how-to is right up your street: Fluffy Letter Name Wall Art.

3-D names/words on the wall has been around for a while decor-wise, but I wanted something a little different than just basic yarn or puffed up fabric letters.  I didn't wan't it to involve a lot of materials or frustrating techniques though.  This method ticked all my boxes and takes just minutes to make too.  And it works great for any words you want to add to the wall (not just baby names!).

I used was some mdf letters from the craft store:

And some leftover eyelash yarn:

All I did was tie the yarn onto one end of a letter with a knot and then tightly wind the yarn around the entire letter.

I made sure to keep the yarn taut and each strand nice and close to the other so there'd be no gaps.  By using a dimensional yarn like eyelash it creates a puffier, fluffier letter and you can't see any of the winding.  Added bonus was since my yarn had variegated colors, it made some pretty stripe-like effects.

It makes it very forgiving if the strands overlap or you need to do a few extra wraps around the curves.  At the end I simply tucked the tail under a few layers and glued it in place.  That's it!

I didn't want the weight of the letter to pull on the yarn when hanging so my husband tapped in nails so the letters sit on them.  Since they're up high and over a tall dresser they won't get bumped or grabbed at, so it works perfectly.

It goes great with the 3-D Faux Candy Wall Art I did for the other wall of his room:

This little project has been a long time coming.  I actually had it done about 6 months ago, but only finally got it up on the wall (and able to photograph in place) about 2 weeks ago.

Life with a new baby + 3 other kids has definitely changed my speed and prioritizing!  I had the letters done before the baby came though, so he did technically have it in his room when he arrived;)

Making A Little Narwhal Plush Nursery Rug

Narwhals, narwhals swimming in the ocean...who doesn't love the unicorn of the sea, aka the narwhal?  I think they are so fun and are a favorite animal with the kids right now.  Even though our new baby's nursery isn't themed, I thought a fun rug with this sweet sea creature would be a good addition.  Enter my Little Narwhal Plush Rug. 

It's sized to go in front of the crib so this tired mom can be comfy while leaning over to tend to our new little guy.  It also doubles as a play mat/place to diaper change on the floor. Narwhal hugs!!  

The interior is foam to make it cushioned & supportive. The envelope exterior design means I can easily remove and machine wash the plush outer - unlike most rugs that can only be spot-cleaned.  In a baby or kid's room, machine washing is a necessity!  It's also inexpensive compared to most fanciful store bought rugs and because it's DIY-ed, it's even custom colored to match our space.

I used minky as my main rug fabric.  It wears well and is so cuddly and plush.  Perfect for a baby's room!  

For the narwhal's horn I used this silver foil flecked white fleece to add a bit of magic sparkle:

I even made the horn 3-dimensional so it would have the spiral look of the real thing:

Here's how I made ours

Materials:
- Minky fabric 1 1/2yds main, 1/4yd grey for narwhal
- Fleece fabric scraps
- 1yd 24 inch wide, 1 inch thick craft foam
- Paper for pattern making
- High loft batting, handful of polyfil
- Fabric adhesive spray
- Walking foot, heavy duty needle, disappearing fabric marker

I freehand drew a narwhal on paper & cut it out.  My drawing skills are usually awful but I think I got this one right.  I always use a paper roll from Ikea kid's department for big patterns like this.  My paper curled a bit from being rolled after cutting it out, so I used my notions to flatten it:

I cut my one inch thick foam to the final rug size of 36in wide by 24in high (my fabric measurements allowed for the thickness of the foam).  I started the rug by cutting my front & back pieces.  Making sure the nap was going in the same direction on all pieces was key.  

One main front piece was 38in wide by 26 1/2in high. For the back I cut two pieces,  a 14in wide by 26 1/2 high and a 31in wide by 26 1/2in high.  I folded the narrow & wide back pieces two inches toward the wrong side, used spray adhesive to hold them in place, then stitched them down.

I decided how I wanted the narwhal to be placed on the rug and traced the paper pattern with a disappearing marker:

After cutting out my narwhal from grey minky, 

I traced on the face:

Then stitched on the eye & smile I'd cut from some dark grey fleece scraps:

I cut a second narwhal from my high loft batting, but trimmed an inch off around it so it would be encased when I sewed the appliqué on.  

I used fabric adhesive spray to attach my batting to the appliqué fabric on the wrong side so I could be sure to have the right placement & no shifting while sewing.  Then I sprayed the joined narwhals on the other side of the batting, stuck them in the outline on the rug front and topstitched.

Next I stitched the horn in place, leaving a one inch gap and then stuffed that with some polyfil using a chopstick and stitched the gap closed.  Less is more with stuffing or it will make the fabric underneath pucker a bit.

Time for the swirl!  I drew some angled lines for the horn's swirl effect:

And stitched over them using my walking foot since it was bulky:

To finish the rug I laid the smaller end of the back face down over the front, pinned the matching 3 sides and stitched:

Then I placed the wider back piece on, lining up its top, bottom and side with the front's, pinned & stitched.  This created the envelope overlap of a few inches for the back opening:

I turned it right side out and stuffed in my foam piece:

The rug has worked great.  It's soft underfoot, adds some fun decoration to the room and washes great.  I'm not 100% in love with the angle of the horn though.  I thought it would fit better on the fabric tipped a bit higher than I originally drew it, but now I wish I'd left it alone...but since it sewed up easily, I could always pull it off the foam and make another if the perfectionist in me can't live with it.  I'm also debating adding a few more details to it, but for now, we're enjoying this special guy with our special guy.

Baby Room Decor: DIY 3D Candy Wall Art Tutorial

We're officially in countdown mode for baby #4's arrival and I'm only just getting the last touches done in our nursery room now that it's nearly d-day.  Besides not having time until now, I didn't have any ideas of how to decorate it once we had all the furniture in because I was going theme-free this time around.

After so many years as a mom and several previous baby rooms, I just didn't want to have a set theme.  Parents usually spend so much time, money & effort on one, but it's a bit pointless.  More stuff, kid preferences and less time to keep things "perfect" means it all goes out the window after a couple of months anyway, so why not start with something neutral & flexible?  By DIY-ing, it made my decoration inexpensive and unique.  And everyone likes candy, right?

What makes it fun is how the suckers have a real 3D look (but will be well out of reach for safety obviously):

I'd had this idea a long time ago, but had to figure out how to make it.  Once I got my plan together, I went with sunny shades that would pop against the neutral walls & furniture in our room.  

Now I'm Sharing How To Make It!

Materials:

- Canvas (mine was 16x20)

- Wood tint or acrylic glaze

- Paint brush, hobby cement/strong glue

- Fabric squares

- Wood ball knobs

- Sucker sticks

- Twist ties

- Adhesive vinyl, transfer tape, cutting machine

I used a blank canvas and brushed on some wood tint that I had left over from some previous projects.

I liked using this because it left a texture-y glazed look, almost like wood grain which added extra dimension to the project.  The painted base is also key for helping adhesive vinyl to stick to a canvas.

For the faux candy, I used wood ball knobs, sucker sticks, fabric and twist-ties.

I hot glued the sucker sticks into the holes of the knobs - keeping them nice & straight as they dried.  No one wants wonky, tilted suckers!

After I made my six, they were starting to look like the real thing....

At this point I decided to cut out my vinyl wording to figure out my layout.  I used two fonts, Pacifico and Fredoka One and sized & cut them using my Cricut:

After that I played around with the placement to see how I liked it best and then marked it lightly with pencil.

I used transfer tape to apply my vinyl.  I used to always use a kind that was like masking tape, that wouldn't stick too much to painted surfaces (and potentially wreck them), but it's hard to find so I had to settle for the plastic stuff which doesn't want to grab the vinyl as easily, but does have a handy grid:

I used the scraper tool to apply it.  One tiny spot refused to lie flat, but I keep pressing it down so hopefully it'll finally stick!

Next I took my cotton fabric to finish the suckers.  I'd originally planned to use some scraps I had, but I really wanted the colors to be a good match to other things in the room, so I broke down and bought some solid FQs in the exact shades I wanted.

I cut those into 6.5 inch squares:

And wrapped them over the faux suckers, securing them with my twist ties.  I glued them into place with some hobby cement.  The glue's got to be strong to hold them well.

I've still got to mount it to the wall, but am so happy with how it turned out.  It works for boys or girls and if you've got a particular color scheme, it's easy to tailor.    

You could even use print fabrics to tie in a theme if you wanted, but I liked keeping it simple with candy colors.  Now whatever direction our little one's interests go in as time passes, our room will stay sweet;)