Our Safari

In our house, the play area is affectionately referred to as "Diegoland" (named after my son who first inhabited the area). Unfortunately, it's in a part of the house that was an add on so the walls are actually the original exterior walls...making it difficult to hang anything on them as they are brick. So when it came time to decorate Diegoland, I had to get creative. We'd already been calling it Diegoland so I decided on a safari theme.



I already had a large canvas that I had previously wrapped in fabric and hung in our living room, but since our move, I no longer had the room to hang it, so it wasn't being used.

I went to my local Joann's (my home away from home!) and found some animal print fabric. This is actually fleece which is a little more expensive, but it really had the look I wanted so I splurged! I also bought some green felt, and Heat N Bond Ultra Hold iron-on adhesive. Then I picked up some really cute wooden animals (already painted!) at Michael's (I think they were like $.50 each).

I found a font that matched my theme (there are all kinds of free fonts on the internet, or just use one from Microsoft) and some free clip art paw prints (again, from the internet). I enlarged my letters and clip art and printed them off on the computer. Then I ironed my Heat N Bond onto my felt, traced my letters and paw prints and cut them out.



Next, I ironed my letters and paw prints onto my animal print fabric. Then, I stapled the whole thing to the back of my canvas, making sure to stretch it tightly across the canvas. I trimmed the excess once it was stapled on.



Finally, I hot glued my wooden animals to the fabric.



And voila! An inexpensive, personalized sign for Diegoland! This would also look cute in a kid's room. Canvas comes in all different sizes, so it would really fit in any size room. You can personalize it and embellish it any way you'd like. The only limit is your imagination!