I started with a basic zippered linen/cotton blend pillow cover from IKEA. It was $6. It’s really not worth making your own for that price, I promise.

Next, I printed off my basketball template (which you may remember from a freezer paper and bleach stenciled t-shirt last summer). I then folded the paper into fourths and ripped it along the fold lines. You could use scissors or some sort of paper cutter if the ripping bothers you.

I enlarged each fourth by 200% on my scanner/printer and taped them together.

I filled in any blank spots with a Sharpie, so it’d be easy to trace and then traced the pattern onto freezer paper. If you’re not familiar with freezer paper, go check out my freezer paper primer.

Get cozy with some sort of craft knife and cut out the basketball shape. Position your outer circle on your pillow cover and iron it in place.

I like the look of part of the ball hanging off. Do whatever you like! I also like to iron on junky old towels on my countertops instead of getting out the actual ironing board. Who’s lazy? Hint: me!

Cut out (if you haven’t already), position, and iron the rest of the pieces. I labeled mine, just in case (R1-R4 for the right half and L1-L4 for the left half).

After all the ironing was done, I put a piece of tape along the piping on the edge of the pillow cover because I didn’t want paint to get on the piping.

I filled in the shape using a foam brush and some Tulip Soft Fabric Paint. The color I used is Marine Blue. I let it dry for a bit and then peeled off the freezer paper.

(There’s a piece of freezer paper inside to prevent bleeding.)

I made one for the reading chair.

And another one for the bed.

Where were we? Oh yeah…trying to find away around my unsteady painting hand.

I taped off all the straight lines using FrogTape Painter’s Tape.

Image from FrogTape

I find it seals better than the blue stuff and it’s a little more see through. You’re going to want see through…trust.

Next you’ll want to put a piece of tape right over the top of the curved lines, too. See why you need to be able to see through the tape, at least slightly?

Take an X-Acto knife and cut lightly (enough to cut the tape but not enough to screw up your walls) along the pencil line. Peel off the excess tape. Here’s what mine looked like when I was done taping and cutting and peeling everything for the yellow part of my mural.

Apply the paint to the inside of the taped area. I used cheap-o foam brushes for the yellow and green (small) parts of my mural. I used a foam roller for the blue (large) parts. Here’s how much blue we’re talking…

I turned on the ceiling fan so it would dry quicker and applied another coat before peeling off the tape and I let it dry for several hours before putting tape over the top to paint another color.

Here’s a shot whilst I was waiting for the blue to dry so I could paint the yellow.

Clean up any pencil marks that are still visible. I used a fairly dry Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

The final product?

Watch out for the fan when you climb on the bed to take pictures.

Aaaand one more shot:

So, are you gonna try it?

Image from Artograph

It’s available at Michael’s and sells for $50. I used a coupon and got mine for $30. Tangent: It was obvious that someone else had used and returned the one that I bought and then taped the plastic shut again on the bottom. Don’t do that! Come borrow mine if you’re desperate, but let’s keep it honest.

First of all, let’s talk about the limitations of this projector. The size image you can project maxes out at about 3.5” X 3.5”. It’s really best if you can reduce your image to that size and then move the projector further away from the wall. Trying to project the image in sections (even after drawing an elaborate grid system) will make you curse. Because of the mirrors and stuff inside, you can’t just slide the projector over and have the image cooperate.

It also took me a bit to figure out that you didn’t turn the black part to focus…you slide it in or out. I’m sure none of you would have that issue, though.

Are there nicer projectors out there? You bet. Was it worth $30? Absolutely.

So, I printed out a Utah Jazz logo and projected it onto the wall and traced the whole thing directly onto the wall in pencil.

And then I started painting and realized that I am way too uncoordinated to just PAINT something like that.

See those edges on the right side of the ball part? That was the problem. I’d taped off the straight line over on the right and liked how it looked, but I didn’t know what to do about the curves.

So, I had to come up with a plan. A plan which you will hear more about tomorrow.

Part 2

You know the cheap “fabric” bins you can get to fit square bookshelves? Like these?

Image from ClosetMaid

You have some, right? Us too. We have a bunch in the playroom and some in kid closets and I think there are even a few in my sewing room.

They’re practical and they’re cheap. They’re also a *little* bit boring. And, my kids never remember what goes back in which bin. I bet your kids are smarter than mine though, right?

I saw this post over on Crafterhours yesterday and I felt my wheels turning! Keller’s new Utah Jazz inspired room doesn’t have a dresser…we’re using lockers instead. And in those lockers? “Fabric” bins.

I used some downloads from the Silhouette store for my clothing shapes…except for the underpants. I drew those on my own using the Silhouette Studio software.

I cut the shapes out of freezer paper and then stenciled using Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in Metallic Platinum. Check out my freezer paper primer for the basics on freezer paper stenciling.

Things you should do differently to stencil on this type of bins:
You’ll need to crank the heat on your iron way down to a wool setting at the very highest. I’d probably start even lower and then bump the temperature up a bit if the paper isn’t sticking. You’ll also want to place a press cloth or a scrap piece of fabric over the paper and the bin before ironing.

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