Thursday, January 3, 2013

Star Wars Themed Boys Room

My 7-year old son loves Star Wars, so his bedroom is a a wonderful sci-fi mixture of the trilogies and the Clone Wars.  I've seen some really cool Star Wars themed rooms out there.  You could dump a lot of money on creating a totally sweet bed that looks like the Millennium Falcom or the inside of the cockpit of a Fighter starship, but you don't have to.  There are lots of easy things you can do to create an awesome Star Wars themed room without spending a fortune.

My mother-in-law saved a few of my husband's old Star Wars figurines, along with a calendar that included pictures from the first trilogy.  I framed the calendar pages with their matching figurines in shadowbox frames, and I love the way they turned out.  They hang on the wall above his desk.

I also bought some vinyl clings to put up in various empty spots and a couple of posters I found on AllPosters.com.  Some I framed, others I just hung up as is using 3M products.  They also have vinyl clings or stickers with memorable quotes from the movies, which would be a fun addition.  Our walls are textured, and those stickers don't stay on very well.  If you have the same problem, try using a piece of plexiglass, metal, wood board, or canvas instead of putting the stickers directly on the wall. 

The walls were already painted a light grey.  For the ceiling, I used a faux painting technique with a special roller called "The Woolie," which is a double roller and comes with a separated tray so you can use two colors at once.  You apply the paint in a large, over-lapping V pattern.  I used a dark blue paint color and a black paint color.  I used semi-gloss, but if I had to do it over again, I'd probably go with less gloss, either completely flat or eggshell maybe.  I covered the whole ceiling, plus 18 inches down on the walls on all four sides.  This gave it a dome effect.  The picture doesn't show all the detail, but you get the drift...


Onto the stars....at first, I used glow in the dark paint to make stars, but the consistency was really runny and hard to control.  Also, it was transparent, so it was hard to see what I was doing.  Plus it didn't glow very well.  I decided to try blacklight-sensitve paint instead.  I found some wonderful fluorescent paints to make the stars and a galaxy.  We bought a large blacklight and the stars really pop out.  It looks amazing at night.  For the final touch, we bought some model starships, put them together, and hung them from the ceiling using fish-line so they look like they are flying.  We put Rebels on one side of the room and The Republic on the other.  They are facing each other, like they are heading into battle.

I also painted the Death Star on canvas and added some fluorescent details to it as well. 

If you are not a painter, try wallpaper, borders, or stencils.
 
For the bed I bought a plain, solid blue comforter and dressed it up with some Star Wars pillows and a plush Yoda.  I saw some cool pillows on Etsy.com where they took a solid color pillowcase and appliqued symbols for the Republic and the Rebels that were cut out of felt.  Looked easy enough to do on my own, so that project is still on my to-do list.  We also purchased a Bobo Fett lamp/clock.

Here are some of the other cool things I found online:

Inspiration: http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-star-wars-y-wing-themed-bedroom/
Beds: http://www.forevergeek.com/2011/05/6-killer-star-wars-beds/

Vinyl Clings & Wall Stickers: http://www.kidsdecoratingideas.com/star-wars-theme-room.php

Wampa Rug: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/e071/ 

Voice Activated R2D2: (for the older kid) http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102962936&c=&cm_sp=Search-_-Suggested-_-102962936

Anyone else have some cool Star Wars room ideas?  Please share!



Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A "Year In The Life Of..." Album

A few years ago I purchased a scrapbooking magazine that had a fabulous idea.  It was a "Year In The Life Of..." album, which captured the regular, every day moments that make up the story of our life.  The basic concept is to take one photo a day, every day, for the whole year.  At the end of each week, you create one scrapbook page with seven photos, so by the end of the year you have 52 pages (or 26 double-sided).  For the less ambitious version, do one or two photos per week, and create one scrapbook page per month for a total of twelve pages.  I loved this idea, but when I found the article, it was well into springtime already, which was a bit late to start.  So I waited...

Last January I was so excited to start the project.  I was diligent about taking several photos every day, to be sure I would have several to chose from, and I even made some journal entries in a notebook so I would remember the context and importance of the photo.  I used the Picasa software to create a photo collage, which was very quick and easy...my version of digital scrapbooking.  I did this for three weeks.  Then, one day somewhere in the middle of the 4th week, I had a crazy busy day and completely forgot to take photos.  I realized it early the next morning and I took extra photos that day to compensate.  I figured no one would know the difference from one day to the next.  A couple of days later, it happened again.  I forgot to take photos.  This time three days went by before I remembered.  Well...I sure blew THAT idea.  



This year I'm shooting for the less ambitious version.  Maybe I'll just do "A Week In The Life Of..." or just a month, instead of a whole year.  I'm hoping I'll have better luck fitting that into my schedule. :) 

Here's a great article I found that explains how to start a project like this along with some awesome tips for success:
Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way

Here's a blog of someone who actually does this.  She takes a photo every day and writes a little about it.  Contains some neat ideas...
Daily Documentation: Document the Everyday, Every Day

Here are some other resources I've found that might help with this project:

10 Can't Miss Photos To Take Each Month from Creating Keepsakes Magazine

Photo-a-Day Layouts: Cool layouts for scrapbooking a week's worth of photos

A Year In The Life: Scrapbook your year in 24 simple layouts ebook.

Start taking those photos!!!  I can't wait to see them!

Have you tried this scrapbooking technique before?  Was it successful?  Please comment below!
Happy crafting!
~Sarah