A LaLa-Lovely Bed for the Lalaloopsy Room!

I just finished telling you all about the new Lalaloopsy bedroom that my little one got for her third birthday. As a part of that renovation, her bed went from a small toddler bed (that was a built in piece) to a big girl twin bed. I searched around the web a bit, looking for a perfect bed frame for the little princess, and I found this:

Bed from Wal-Mart

So. First of all, I love the tufting. So cute. Second, what princess doesn't love pink!? I thought the color, while having the possibility of being extremely overbearing, would compliment the colors of the room nicely. At $200, it wasn't a bad option, but...I'll say it again...I HATE paying for something I feel like I could make!!

I'll admit, I've never made a bed frame, let alone a headboard. I knew I needed a little help structurally here, and my mother in law found this at a second hand store:

It's wicker. White wicker. Not really the hugest fan of white wicker, BUT...look at the shape of it. It has the same gentle curve along the top, which was one of the parts I liked about the inspiration headboard.  ---and look!!

Seriously?! $7.50?! For all of you keeping score, that's about 4.89 pounds over in England, 7.61 dollars up in Canada, and 408.83 Rupees.

Bargain!!!

I wanted a plush head board with soft fabric, so I headed to JoAnn's (coupons in hand!) and got a roll of batting and some material. After I cleaned off the head board pretty well, I stapled down two layers of batting, then cut away the extra.

Next, the material was stretched over the batting and stapled down (this isn't rocket science, here) :)

And lastly, I gathered up random sized, shaped, and colored buttons from my ginormous stash and started randomly tufting. I used the wicker to my advantage here and tied my floss onto the little pieces to hold the tufting.

I think the final result was worth the $20 I ended up spending on it!! So I wonder if I can use the $180 I saved on other crafting supplies now... :)

A Lalaloopsy Birthday - and New Bedroom!

So I realize it's been FOREVER since I last posted! I've been traveling like crazy for work, and I've realized that the few moments I do have at home need to be focused on my kiddos. Because of all of that, I'm JUST getting around to posting about my (not-so) little girl's Lalaloopsy birthday party and new Lalaloopsy bedroom! I am completely thrilled with how it all turned out. My family was able to drive down from Ohio to celebrate with us, and she had a wonderful weekend with them.

Her cake was just a bit over the top, but I really couldn't help myself! I just kept adding, and adding, and adding...until there was absolutely NO MORE ROOM to add any more!!

Her bedroom was my favorite part of the whole thing. She has an incredibly tiny room that, until the redecorating, only had a toddler bed. She's getting to be tall and lanky (could it be genetic?), so the switch to a twin bed was a must.

We found super huge vinyl wall clings that added the perfect touch.

I try to contain her growing collection of Lalaloopsy dolls on top of her bookshelf, but it looks like I'm going to have to find more space if any more are added!

And now to my favorite part of the decor...the plush tree and clouds!

Let me begin by saying that yes, I own a sewing machine, but it's mostly used for scrapbooking. I am by no means a great seamstress. I hate buying things that I'm pretty sure I could make.

After flipping through Lalaloopsy books and studying the pictures on their packaging, I knew the look that I was going for. I bought a few coordinating fat quarters and material for the base of the tree and got to stitching!

To me, the technique (and I use that term loosely) that 'made' these pieces is the extra stitching around the edges. After praying that I wouldn't completely jam or break the sewing machine, I flattened the edges of the stuffed pieces and shoved it back through the machine, pinching and praying with each little stitch. Not only did it make the pieces fluffier (here I go with horrible terminology again...the extra stitch packed the stuffing in tighter, making it fluffier...make sense?), but it gave it the look that I was trying to replicate from all of the pictures.



The extra stitching wasn't as evident on the clouds, so I added a hand stitched border using blue floss



And then came the dilemma of getting these 'pillows' attached to the wall. I essentially wanted to hang them somehow, so I stitched a few loops on the backs and hung them using the teeny tiniest of those removable wall hooks. They work perfectly!!!

Here's a list of where we found everything, in case you're looking to create a Lalaloopsy bedroom for your little princess!!

The bedding is from Wal-Mart

The wall clings are from AllPosters.com

Her cute little chandelier is from Lowes

Picked up the fabric at JoAnn's