Creating a Superhero room

Piece by piece we've been building a superhero bedroom for Landon.  I will at one point add pictures of the rest of his awesome room, but for now I'll put up the things that I've made so far for it.  

Superhero coat rack after sculpt

I had a vision in my head of doing this totally awesome superhero coat rack for Landon's room.  Right now his coats just get laid on the bed and I wanted a fun way to display them.  For someone who is not the best with crafting I was pretty impressed with how the sculpt turned out.  (Thanks Mr. Martin and your 3D art class)

We went to Hobby Lobby and bought a pre-made wooden coat rack with the pegs.  We also stood and stared at the clay options for what felt like forever.  Above is the clay we used.  It's just an air dry molding clay.  Real clay would have been awesome to work with, but too brittle in the end since it couldn't be fired.  They have clay that can be baked, but since I was doing it on pegs that were attached to a wooden board we went with the air dry and it was very easy to use.  The only thing that went bad was the Hulk hand.  As it dried it cracked because it was such a mass of wet clay that it expanded.  The cracks affected my detail in my sculpt.  I attempted to fix those cracks after it dried, but the clay wouldn't stick to itself, most of it chipped off after it dried.  What did stick I sanded down  to try to make it look smooth and even.  

 Sorry for the poor quality of images, but they were taken with my phone.  Here is my finished product!  

 I was pretty excited to get Thor's hammer to be sliver and the rings on Captain America's shield silver too.  I was going to go with gray for Thor and leave the shield rings white, but then WHAM!  I realized I had silver spray paint on hand.  I sprayed it at close range onto a paper plate and then was able to brush it on.  Side note: if you are going to brush on spray paint don't use a brush you care about.  Or at least plan on attempting to use paint thinner to clean them.  I used cheap Crayola brushes that I had bought for Landon so I just threw away the ones I destroyed.  oops...I really didn't think about that ahead of time!  But they are shiny...and it's awesome!

Before Landon moved into his big boy room John and I made him some awesome outlet covers.  My favorite is definitely his light switch plate.  It's perfect!  We went to the comic book store and bought some comics that we knew had pictures we could use to create these.  We then cut them up and modge podged them onto the covers.  They are so cool!  Landon was pretty stoked about them when he moved into his room.  He still thinks they are cool, and hopefully will for a long time.  I seriously love how they turned out.

 Shortly after moving into his big boy room he got his superhero comforter made by me and my Mom.  He loved it from the moment he got it.  He still gets upset if I'm washing it and he doesn't have it for bed or for a nap.  He asks for his "avenger's blanket."  That's right, folks, we have a nerd in making!

Oh, and of course his room is Superhero blue!  (no that wasn't the name of the paint)
One of these days I'll get pictures of the rest of his awesome decor and get them up.

Playing Crafty

I have always wanted a glider rocker, but never wanted to dish out the money to get one.  With my last pregnancy I nearly bought one, but the store didn't have it in stock and I never went back for it.  I guess the crafting gods were planning some things for me.  One of our good friends had purchased a glider and ottoman at a local thrift store for next to nothing.  She had grand plans to do something with it to get it back into working order, but just didn't have time for it in the end.  We had discussed how I wanted one before and so she offered it to me.  Now, this was last year that the offer was made and accepted, but we never made the trade until now!  So about two weeks ago after a double date with her and her hubby we loaded it into our car and brought it home.  I don't think I had any idea what I was in for.  I forgot all the things that needed work.  The wood on the chair and ottoman are completely different colors.  The back cushion on the chair was completely missing and the seat cushion and ottoman cover were stained and dirty.  So there it sat, crammed into our tiny nursery next to the rocking chair I have been using for three years.  Don't get me wrong, I love my rocking chair.  It was my Grandma's, it's a pretty shape and it's comfortable.  It's only downside is that it's a low-back rocker and so on those late nights of rocking a baby my head would drop to my chest as I fell asleep with them.  Not so good for my neck.  With both of my boys I spent most of their babyhood with a very sore neck.  I just wanted to lay my head back (and put my feet up).  Instead of being lazy and just staring at the project for months like I usually do  I hopped on it quick!  I've been using it since I got it with a large floor pillow as the back pillow and a balled up blanket for my head.  Will seems to really like being rocked to sleep in it and I like laying my head back.  He's been teething and therefore the two of us have spent a few late nights in that chair lately.  Now I know I'll be really comfortable in it!

What I had to work with

I'm not the best seamstress in the world, but lucky for me I have the best Mom in the world!  She came over today and helped me pull it together.

A few supplies to start the day

I went to purchase the items I needed the other day.  I was very surprised by the price of foam!  Man!  Lucky for me my Mom also happened to hook me up with a 50% off coupon for JoAnn Fabrics.  I was pretty happy to have it with me.  And to make the day even better the fabric was on sale for 40% off!  It was a good day to be fabric shopping.  I bought "home decor" fabric since it is heavier and would hold up to the wear and tear of use for years.  I also purchased 3" foam.  I really wanted 2.5" foam, but they didn't have it and the 2" foam seemed too thin.
Now, let me tell you a little story about that staple gun.  I have watched a million DIY shows and seen them recover things and BOOM BOOM BOOM they staple that fabric down one handed while pulling the fabric taut and it looks so easy.  Liars!  I first put a double layer of batting down to add to the worn ottoman.  First I stapled that down.  Well, apparently staple gun + particle board = ridiculously difficult.  It just kept bending the staples or they couldn't go through everything.  By the end of pulling and stapling and grumbling to myself I had a blister and couldn't actually squeeze the trigger anymore.  It took two hands people, TWO hands, not one.  Dirty liars.  But in the end it looked amazing and was well worth the hours I spent on it.  We both thought that would be the easy part, we were very very wrong.
We also realized that the seat cushion didn't come with the chair.  It had been put there by a previous owner and didn't fit well. So we tore it apart and cut it to fit the chair.  We were very busy ladies.  Add to all this a three year old, who just wanted to play with his MaMa, and a teething 8 month old to tend to.  And I finished dinner and my Mom got both boys baths.  So very busy and productive!  So, you want to see the finished product?  Well, the nearly finished product.  Of course you do!  Unless you've just scrolled to see the pictures....boo.

Close up of the fabric choice

My nearly finished chair

The fruit of my labors and cause of my blister

What's left to do?  We are going to try to figure out how to make padded arm rests next.  I need somewhere soft to put my arm while my babies sleep of course.  When the weather gets warmer I'll be tearing apart the ottoman, stripping off the finish, and then making it match the chair.  I have to wait for better weather since I don't have a garage and will have to do it on my back porch.  But I am excited to get it completed.

I am so excited that this project came together and looks so great!  I can't wait to rock Will to sleep tomorrow in it.  Hooray for productivity and crafting!