Crafting Mama (part II)

Well this project started when I was googling nursery ideas after we found out Mango was a boy. I knew I wanted a room that he could grow into as a child and not just one that was fit for a baby... so when I saw the idea of a huge animal mural I thought "what little boy wouldn't love an almost life sized giraffe in his room?" From that point on I was pretty determined to make one... but how?

My original plan was to cut out a little giraffe from card stock and project it onto the wall, like a big shadow puppet. I thought this would be perfect because I was really worried that trying to draw a huge giraffe free-hand would be almost impossible to get his scale right. So I cut out my little mini giraffe and proceeded to try to cast him on the wall. Well for many reasons this was an epic failure, mostly I think due to the fact that we don't have the right kind of light for it. I was a little discouraged at this point....looking at that huge wall and wondering how to get my giraffe on it. Then Mark had the brilliant idea that I could try free-handing it with chalk. The chalk made it so that I could see the giraffe very clearly AND so I could easily wipe it totally clean because the walls are painted with a semi-gloss paint. So I figured it would still take a lot of tries, but this way I could get him right before I painted. Well it actually only took two tries and I got him just how I wanted... so then THREE coats of yellow paint later... and voila! I hope Mango likes giraffes as much as his cousin Keenan!