Card Pumpkins

Easy Nursery Artwork

Decorating your nursery to create a fun and relaxing environment for your baby doesn’t have to be expensive. There are plenty of ways to create a theme or add some colour to complement your nursery design and baby furniture. And unlike many other ways of creating affordable décor, this technique doesn’t really require any creativity at all!

Time: 30 minutes
Age: Any Age
Level: Easy

Materials
- Printer
- Paper
- Scissors
- Picture frame
- Picture hanging hardware (hook, screw, nail, or stick on hook)

Method
1 - Purchase a few picture frames
The first thing you will need to do is go out and buy some picture frames or purchase them from an online shop. Sizes and quantity are completely up to you, but consider the maximum size paper your printer can handle and make sure the frames are smaller than this. In terms of style, keep the frames fairly simple, the artwork here is the hero, not the frame. Try to pick complementing colours as well to match your existing baby furniture and nursery colours. White or timber frames are great. Black can work well too in some cases but be careful as darker colours can be a bit cold. Also consider the quality of the frames, because you have the option to swap many images in and out of the frame as your baby grows into a toddler and you may keep the frames throughout their whole childhood.



2 - Find suitable pictures to print
The internet is littered with thousands of gorgeous images that would be perfect for your nursery. Which ones are you allowed to use? There are hundreds of websites that offer free stock photos that are free of copyright that are 100% free and safe to use. But are you allowed to copy any image on the internet for personal use without infringing copyright? This is probably an entire article on its own, but I personally believe most images are fine to print for personal use only in your home, as long as you are not advertising or using it for commercial use. This comes under the Fair Use policy applicable in most countries, including Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

So enough on the legalities of printing images. Let’s assume you’ve found some websites and are strolling through the images. Look for images that have lots of colour that will tie in well with the rest of the furniture and décor in your nursery. I think it should also be interesting, something that will stimulate your baby’s creative mind. Although I don’t remember much when I was a baby, certainly when I was a young child I vividly remember looking at posters and artwork on my room for hours on end and creating a world around that image that I would go into as I daydreamed or went to sleep. This is the time to think like a kid again and remember how much imagination you had when you were younger, while also looking at the holistic design of your nursery.

Don’t stress too much though, it’s super easy to swap the pictures out at a later date when you are bored of them or your baby grows out of it or you just feel like swapping some colours around.




3 – Print pictures
Once you have found the images you would like to print, you can either save the images and print them directly or you can copy onto a word processor and print from there. Print in full colour on the highest or photo setting so that you achieve good colour and picture quality. This uses a bit more ink and you will need to sit aside for a few minutes for the ink to dry


4 – Frame artwork
Disassemble the picture frame, and use some tape to stick your picture onto the card border so that it is centered and level. Reassemble picture frame




5 - Hang your artwork
Depending on your wall construction and whether you own or are renting your apartment, there are a few options for hanging your artwork. The easiest option is probably the stick on hooks you can buy everywhere nowadays. Artwork should be at eye level and consider positioning to be in view for your baby as well. And presto, your nursery décor has just been enhanced at minimal cost and perhaps you have just put the icing on your nursery theme.




Click here for more great ideas on nursery planning and styling.

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#easy
#nursery
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