painting tiny furniture!

i think because i am crafty, i have a bit of a sickness when it comes to leaving something too plain. granted, this can backfire on me when i start trying to craft something up and it ends up overdone and tacky, and i want to throw the whole thing away despite my hours of wasted work, time and supplies. but every once in awhile, i see something plain and just have a vision for how i want it to look instead... and it actually turns out that way.

my perfect example is this sweet little wooden toy crib that kenna's grandmother got her for her first birthday. i loved it, but the paint needed a little touch up. and i decided i could just touch it up, or i could bust out the craft paint and touch. it. up.

before:

my vision was for little brown and green stems with two shades of pink flowers on them around the edges, a tiny bit orla kiely-y, to go with her new pink and green big girl room. and across the front, above where the little baby doll's head would be, a painted word almost like a little headboard.

so i started by spray painting the entire thing light pink to freshen it up. then i got out a little paintbrush, free handed the stems, and then free handed the flowers with little leaf shaped petals in light pink, and little dots in dark pink.

then i painted "bebe" [french for baby] with what i've been mentally referring to as the "pencil transfer method." be patient, i had to paint about 4 layers of these tiny letters before they showed up as dark as i wanted them to.

unbelievably enough, it worked out geniusly and turned out exactly as i wanted!

after:

i'm loving how it looks in her room with her newly green walls, and she is already loving playing with it! so fun & girly... yay!

[granted, it only took me almost exactly a year after she got it for her birthday to begin with...shh, we won't dwell on that.]