The Folding Screen and Silhouette

First of all, welcome to my blog if you are coming over from I Heart Organizing. Glad you stopped here! I'm working on making different projects in our home and this is where I'm documenting it all. Keep coming back to see tutorials, tips and things I'm working on.

Children's bedrooms are fun to decorate especially when you have your children's input about what they want their room to look like. Our daughter Lauren helped me decide on the color and she helped paint her room. When I brought home the folding screen, she helped pick out the fabric too! This girl loves color and is very artistic so we want her room to reflect her beautiful personality. I'm showing only some of the room since this is still a work in progress (some other furniture in here needs to be painted).

Two great projects which have enhanced this room are the folding screen and silhouette picture. I talked about the folding screens in this post.

 You can see we have a gallery started on the wall with some of her artwork up there (more to come). 

Making a silhouette portrait has been on my crafting bucket list for awhile so it's nice to have something done for the new year. Here's how I did it:

                                   1. Take a profile shot with as much light as possible behind the person.

2. I went to the edit section of Picassa and made the picture into a pencil sketch. You really just want the lines of the profile to stick out the most. With editing you could even lighten most of the dark behind the person. In Picassa, you can crop the image and make it a bit larger. 

3. Carefully cut it out and paint or use a sharpie. I painted mine black, but I love silhouettes in different colors too. I did one in pink for my daughter's tea party . Also, using card stock paper is best since it can handle the paint better than printing paper. 

Now for the screen: Here's the before shot when I brought it home from the thrift store. It was cute, but not the color we wanted and the hinge needed to be fixed. I took out the backing and swapped out the pink fabric for the citrus green stripe. When reupholstering, just hold the fabric tight as you are stapling so that you don't get creases. My husband fixed the hinge for us and now all three pieces are together again.

This room is starting to take shape! I really like how these projects turned out. Making a silhouette portrait is a great way to customize your home and bring in some character (it's also a cheap thrill since it won't cost hardly anything). Also, putting the screen behind the bed brought in a great layering effect. Have you ever put a folding screen behind a bed? Or done a silhouette portrait? Do tell. 

Paint- Watery by Shermin Williams
Screen- Thrift Store (I think it was a Pottery Barn Kids)
Fabric on screen- Fabric.com
Owl pillow- T.J Maxx
Garland- Rifle Paper Co.
Quilt- treasured gift from Grandma
Floor lamp- vintage, yard sale find, spray painted white
Bed- Thrift Store find, painted

I'm liking up this post to:
Not Just a House Wife
The Shabby Nest
Thirty Handmade Days

Pinkies Up!

Darlings! We had a very fun tea party birthday for our daughter this past weekend. The girls enjoyed eating tea sandwiches, decorating sugar cookies, and stamping fans. I want to show you some of the details. 

 I used sheets and wrapping paper as our table linens. Wrapping paper is my 'go-to' table runner for any birthday party because once the party is done then you can just throw away the sticky mess that was on  the table. I found this gold striped one at Target.

The herbal teas were put in labeled mason jars and I made a lemon strawberry cake for a dessert. The banner I got here. I made a silhouette of our birthday girl and posted it up rather quickly, but I think it turned out nice. Tomorrow, I will show you my trick on how to make these. 

My dear friend Andrea made these amazing lemon tarts for the party. She has an incredible food blog and has a tart recipe similar to the one she made here.

The girls had fun decorating paddle fans with stamps and a pencil eraser to make dots.
Overall, it was a sweet themed birthday party. Do you chose themes for your children's birthdays? I think when there is a theme to the party it is easier to do unique decorating, food and activities.