travel train box

Like many three-year-olds, our son is obsessed, dare I say, addicted, to trains. He actually gets a bit cranky if he doesn't get a hour or so of train time every day. We have a few trips coming up, and I know it will be best of everyone involved in a few of his trains and tracks come along for the ride. So, good mommy that I am, I made a travel train box. 

I got the idea when I saw this sliding wooden box from my days in the music business. 

 

Since D's favorite color is yellow, I picked up this can of yellow spray point.

I untied the rope handle because I would certainly get it full of paint.

Next I taped paper around the edge so the inside would stay natural.

It's definitely a bright, cheerful yellow. It took two coats. (I didn't use any primer).

I decided to use this blue chalkboard paint for the lid.

The logos were embossed so it took three coats to cover them.

Progress after the paint dried.

I used masking tape to tighten the frayed ends so I could reattach the handle.

Making sure the lid still works. (Whew! It did!).

Testing out the chalkboard. This was my first time using it!

I remembered these fun star stickers from another project (to be posted later) and thought they would be a fun addition.

The next morning, I showed the project to D. Think he liked it?

Update:
I found another little box and made a second box for D's cars.

From this:

Add a little paint:

And get this: 

Linked to:
The Hankful House * I Heart Naptime * Milk and Cuddles * Miss Information * Mums Make Lists * Naptime Creations



Est. Art

If you've been following our blog for the last few months, I'm sure you've picked up on the fact that Niels and I just celebrated our anniversary. I'm rather sentimental about milestones (another fact you may have noticed), so hitting the big Oh-5 was a big one for us. 

We've been in our house for almost six months now, so we are deep into the personalizing stage of settling in. We haven't done much with our master bedroom, but I came up with this idea just in time for our anniversary. (Since it was Niels' gift, I couldn't post until now!).

The inspiration for this project came from this square frame I bought from Goodwill. (I am SO happy to have found one that gets Target cast-offs!)

I came in on just the right day, because red tags were 50% off. For those keeping score at home, that means I bought this $15 frame for $1.50. Not bad!

To get started, I gathered the rest of my supplies: a .79 cent sheet of cardboard, leftover vinyl letters and paint, a straight edge, brush, and exacto knife.

I used the glass from the frame as a template to cut my poster board.

I had enough poster board that I could do another one with the other frame I picked up.

Our master bedroom is Sherwin Williams Sensuous Gray.

I didn't want my letters to be an exact match, but I liked the idea of a dark purple. But then it looked a little plain, so I played with some silver paint, too. 

I really didn't have a plan, but somehow I ended up painting lots of N's and J's--our initials.

 I left the painting dry for a couple of hours, then hid it when my hubby came home.

The next day, I added the vinyl letters. These are the cheap letters so they didn't take to my straight edge trick very sell. As a result, the words are little off, but then, so are we!

For a moment, I thought about keeping it like this.

But then I decided to paint it white. Too late, I had the idea to put in a purple border. If I here to do it again, I'd put some painters tape around the border, and then paint the rest.

By this time, my son was up and he wanted to paint, too.

Once again, I left the paint dry...and hid the project from the hubs!

Close up of the painted vinyl. I've heard that you can spray something on the letters to help them adhere better and avoid the bleeding look I often get. Anyone have any hints on that?

I was still wishing I had the purple textured border, so I had the idea to paint a glitter border. Not my best idea.

I do like my sparkles, though.

When the paint was dry, I peeled off the vinyl.

I really like how the letters look with the purple and silver paint.

I'm less crazy about the bleeding letters.

Finally, I put the sign in my frame and considered where we would put it.

  
Probably not in the foyer, but it was good light to see it against the Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray, in case we hang it in our bathroom.

Here it is in our water closet, also Sensuous Gray.

I think it will probably end up in our book shelf. At least for now!

Linked to:
Snap!
Tip Junkie