Modern Woodland Bedroom

Woodland themed rooms seem to be all the rage these days, heck I have one in my house right now. They are fun, playful, and bring the outdoors in. 

Making a woodland space for an older boy though, can pose a challenge. They don't want soft and cuddly, and they don't want tents, and campfires.  So, I thought I would give you a couple simple tricks to pulling off a modern woodland bedroom, with a room designed by my favorite designers, at Dy Lynne Decor.

1. Use bold, warm colors. Keeping in rustic palettes will give off the vibe of woodland, without having a bunch of themey fabrics. In this room the wall color is a grey-green tone. The accent color used, was a deep maroon. By adding splashes of grey, and a dark wood grain, the room feels rounded off, but not overly simple. 

 2. Woodland art is a must! For the younger crowd, owls, and cute little foxes are the perfect fit, but in this grown-up boy room, It wouldn't last him many years. For the art work in this room, a simple silhouette is enough to let you know the overall theme. Keeping in the same shades from the rest of the room, helps it from overpowering the space. The pattern, and scale pull in the modern vibe. I love how these two are mounted, off set to each other, this keeps your eye moving around the room, and makes it more interesting to look at. 

3.Accessorize. This is where people tend to go overboard on a room, making it too themey. You don't need to buy every piece of woodland decor you see. Some books about the outdoors stack on the nightstand, and a simple silver faux deer head, is just he right amount to balance off this side of the room.

A lamp, with a chevron grey and white lampshade, and a box of faux antlers, help balance out the dresser on the other side of the room.

It doesn't take alot to pull this look off, and modern is the perfect way to go with simple (and inexpensive) decor and design elements. 

This would also be a great way to make a hunting themed room. Here in Texas, hunting is big, with just a few adjustments in the accessories, the whole theme could be changed.

The deer art is such a big part of this room, check out the how-to for this super simple DIY art piece.

How-To: Making Deer Art

To start, I used a large roll of craft paper to sketch out my deer head. You could also use some left over wrapping paper for this (you know, that ugly one you have had tucked away for the past 5 years). If your not ready to free-hand a deer just yet....print off some clip art in a larger scale. You don't want it to fill up your entire space, so keep it about 3"-6" away from the edge. 

Carefully cut your new pet out, taking extra care with the antlers. You only need one of these for this project, you can just flip it over to make a matching piece, if your doing two. 

Lay out the little guy, making sure he is right where you want him, get a level if you need it (you don't want to have to start over because he's tilted). Trace around the craft paper cutting. 

Though you may not be able to see it, this is the canvas with the tracing on it (I work in the middle of the night, which means very dim lighting).

The next step is to paint your darker color. Try to stay in the lines, although after all these years, I'm still having trouble with that. You will be going back over the white, so don't worry to much. 

If you opt to do a pattern of the back, this is when to do it. I think it gives it more character, but if you want super simple, leave it plain. For a quick fix, you can pick up a simple pattered stencil at Micheal's or Hobby Lobby. If you have a bit of time to order one, you can find a much larger variety of stencils, online at  Royal Design Studios.

Try to keep the pattern simple, you don't want to change the focus. 

Keep the stencil out of the white as much as possible, it's just more to cover up later. 

Lastly, you will need to fill in the white space, some areas my need more than one coat to cover up any grey that overlapped.

And there you have it....very simple. 

You could do this with any theme, or any animal really. It works best on something with a detailed silhouette. A hippo for instance, may just look like a blob. It would be cute with a yellow background, and a giraffe head, or a leathered background and a football silhouette....the possibilities are endless.

This bedroom was designed, and decorated by the team at Dy Lynne Decor.

New Additions & A Giveaway!

I have some fun new additions to my Etsy shop, and I wanted to make sure all of you, were the first to see.

I'm also having a giveaway, for a $25 gift certificate to my shop! See the details at the bottom.

My first new item, is the Circus Animal Stands. 

They are the perfect circus party decoration. You can use then in lieu of a cake topper, or as a table centerpiece. Each stand had the age of the child, and most all of my animals fit on one, or the other. Even if your not planning a party, they make great gifts, paired with an animal. They can also be customized to match any animal or party decor

They come in three sizes, small, medium, and large. Check out my shop for all of the stands, and party animals.

My other new item, is my Small Circus Wagons. 

These are similar to my larger version,but there are the perfect size for the regular, and small size animals.

Each of these come with a white flag, that has the age attached. They fit into one of several small holes on the top of the wagon.

 This one has glittered stars, and a matching glittered number.

As does this wagon

Here are some of the larger wagons

Check them all out at my shop, Painted Parade on Etsy.

Tell a friend, "Pin It", share it, spread the love!

Put your entry in here, on this Rafflecopter, for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate towards the Painted Parade Shop. Simply leave the name of your favorite party animal. That's it! Raffle copter open until 11pm on Tuesday April 8th...so get your entries in!

Circus Birthday Bash

I saw that it was snowing in some parts of the country yesterday. Yuck. I'm sure you are sick of it by now! So to brighten your day, and get you ready for spring, and not to far off, summer...I have an awesome circus party to show you!!

This party was for a lucky kid who was turning 5!

Check all the amazing party details, vendors, and more pictures, over at Rip+Tan. Jenni has an amazing blog, that you are definitely going to want to follow!  

They went for the whole rainbow for the color palette of this event. 

The table cloth was made from some drop cloths, that her kids splatter painted with acrylic paints.

What a fun project to do, my kind of messy!

This custom sign that I made for them, was hung at the entrance to the party, adorned with tissue tassels.

Love this rainbow cake. Almost to pretty to eat....I said almost!

Some my fun party animals, walking down the table.

An amazing light up circus sign.

How great to be a kid at this party. Heck I'd keep this tent up all year :)

A great photo booth area, complete with a custom Kissing Booth sign that I painted for them. 

Set up with fun props, and a spot to hang the snapshots. 

How great is that? Check out the rest of Tanner's 5th birthday party here.

Hope this gets you ready for some warmer weather, and for parties outside!

See more circus parties, and events using my animals and signs under the Parties tab or Painted Parade tab up top.

Don't forget to check out my Etsy shop, Painted Parade.

A "Crafty" Birthday Party

My daughter just turned 12, and it feels like it went by in the blink of an eye....truly!
You know that moment, when you hear some mom say " It makes me feel so old" and you just laugh, because you've been there. Well prepare yourself.....

It makes me feel so old!!!

I know, I know, it only gets worse.  I was taking her annual, first day of school shot (between the eye rolling), a couple months ago, at the start of 6th grade. While comparing the days pictures, to the kindergarten pictures...it really hit me! She' not so little (or innocent) anymore. 

This age, for some reason seems like such a big deal to me. 

I guess her whole childhood, I'd been preparing for 13, for all that comes with 13! I don't know why exactly. My mom told me once, that's when I became a pain, so I guess I was thinking I had more time....NOPE! Since so many things in her life are changing as a middle-schooler, and lots of new friends were being introduced, I decided this would be the year to let her have a big party. 

She begged for a sleepover with 10 girls...WHAT?!?!.... NO WAY!! That would age me 10 years over night!!! With two little kids, and no basement to stick them in...we opted for a day time party.
But what the heck do you do with 10 girls?
I have no energy for chasing them around some gaming place, and January's weather  is to unpredictable to do anything out doors. So we decided to do what we know best....crafts!

Invitation made by NineEighteen on Etsy

We came up with a craft, that would take a good amount of time, and let the girls be creative....without being overly hard to do, and needing little direction or assistance from me.
We mixed in a simple tween circus theme....cause that's her favorite...I wonder why :) My number one fan!

The party colors, and the cake, were what she was most particular about.  She wanted a colorful cake, with an animal topper.....she let me pick the rest.
So I did a simple ombre icing on the cake (which is sort of hard to tell here), and finished it off with a giraffe topper.

 I normally would make the food, I practically insisted.....but my husband brought me back to reality, and reminded me how stressful it would be to cook, among everything else I had to do....and that teens will eat just about anything...without flinching!
45 Min before the party,  I realized how super thankful I was, that we ordered sandwiches!!!

I used all sorts of party animals. Some held signs...like this hippo.

Others just manned the drink station, like this jumbo giraffe in a circus wagon. 

There were a total of 9 girls involved, so we set up a large table, with a craft kit for each one.

For the runner, I used some plastic grass sheets, covered with a parade of circus animals.
We couldn't have anything tall, blocking the girls VERY loud conversations, or singing sessions. 

Each girls basket, was fill with everything they needed to make an embellished bird cage.....Fabric strips, a wired cage (which I made ahead of time), flowers, buttons, butterflies, and a bird. 

To save the girls form any minor arguments, over who had the better stuff.....they all got the exact same fabrics, and same basic embellishments and birds.

 The girls had such a fun time putting these together. Most of them, hadn't really ever done any kind of craft project. A couple had never even used a glue gun before. They were ecstatic with the result...that they had made this cool thing, that could be displayed in their rooms. 

They have been talking about it all week at school. 

So I'd say it was a big hit!!!

This is such a good idea for any age really. The younger crowd could do a paint project, and as they get older, more involved things, like jewelry making could be introduced. 

It's nice because they were all confined, sitting, happy, and still able to chat and visit with one another. They don't get to do alot of bonding outside of school. 

I will tell you though, this was NOT a quite party...lots of songs were sung, and gossip was talked, I defiantly felt older by then end.  

 This gave them such a confidence boost, that they too, could make crafty things!!

Check out my Etsy shop, for more animals and party decorations, like the ones used here.

Painted Parade