I can’t believe Q has been in his big boy bedroom for almost a year. Luckily, the kid still loves trains. I had so much fun putting
that room together. Speaking of which, did you know that one of my pins of his train themed bedroom on Pinterest has
almost a thousand repins?! Seriously!
But eleven months later, that big, empty wall over his bed
still bugged me. I can’t hang anything there because I’m worried it will fall
on him in an earthquake… or, more likely, if he keeps kicking his wall. Since
Quinn loved the train silhouette I put on his closet doors – and since I got so many compliments on it – I
decided to make another one to go around the wall, the full length of his bed.
Again, I made it out of self-adhesive chalkboard contact
paper. I started this project eons ago, but wasn’t able to finish it. Then, I
was given a whole 48 hours alone in the house (more on that miracle later), so
I spent the time completing a few half-done projects, including this one. When
Quinn returned home, he was amazed! He loved it! And, of course, he can name
every single car of the train.
I made twelve components to the train: a steam engine, coal
tender, dining car, coach, boxcar, hopper, tanker, logging car, crane car,
autorack, flatbed car with boxes, and a caboose. Here’s how I did it.
I downloaded images of each type of train car, printed them
on cardstock, and cut them out. Then I traced them on self-adhesive chalkboard contact paper and cut them out
again. My Exacto knife got quite a workout. Some of those train cars are pretty
intricate!
The whole project actually did take quite a bit of time. But
now that I have all the images and I created the templates, I figured I could
make more pretty easily. So I decided to open an Etsy shop! Check out AWideLineDesigns on Etsy!
Ever since I did Quinn’s first birthday party and my friend’s wedding/first birthday party for her son, my friends have
been encouraging me to open an Etsy shop. I’m working on getting the
appropriate licenses to offer some of the party packages I’ve created, but I
knew I could offer these simple wall decals right away, no problem.
So for anyone who’s not into DIY décor projects – or at
least not ones that require getting hand cramps from wielding an Exacto knife – I thought I would offer my
services. I put up listings for the large train wall decal on Quinn’s closet doors and the small, long train wall decal over his bed. And if trains
aren’t your thing, I could pretty easily do other shapes or designs instead.
And since I already have a commercial license for the Very Hungry Caterpillar elements I used
for my friend’s baby shower last year
(and because someone already paid me to create a package for her baby shower
just based on finding my blog post!), I put that listing up on the shop as well. I’m working on getting
licensed to offer a train party package like I did for Q’s second birthday party, and a racecar party package like
I did for his third birthday… which I just realized I never told you about!! (Ack!
Okay, so yeah, Quinn turned three in March and had a kick-ass racecar party.
Pictures and info coming in a future post. Geez, I have got to get my act together!)
Anyhoot, if you want to create your own train silhouette wall
decal and have some questions, email me. Or even better, if you want me to make one for you, check out my Etsy shop and I would be
happy to make a chalkboard paper wall decal customized exactly how you want it. I got skillz,
yo.
