DIY Girl Jungle Nursery Decorations

Create homemade decorations to accent your baby girl's jungle room.

Choosing baby bedding and a nursery theme for your little one are the easy part. Decorating the nursery is a little more work. Although stores carry decorations to match almost any nursery theme, making your own decorations adds a touch of individuality to your baby’s unique room. To decorate your nursery with a jungle theme, make your own custom lampshade or create a tree to complete your nursery design.

Things You'll Need

• Cardboard tube
• Acrylic paint
• Tissue paper
• Liquid starch
• Drill
• Silk banana leaves
• Hot glue
• Planter pot (optional)
• Stencil
• Lampshade
• Masking tape
• Ribbon

Instructions

Jungle Trees

1. Paint a 6-by-36-inch cardboard tube with brown acrylic paint. Let the paint dry overnight.

2. Tear brown tissue paper into 2-by-6-inch strips. Dip the strips into liquid starch or your favorite homemade papier-mâché glue recipe. Wipe the excess glue off the strips and press them on the painted tube. Do not smooth the tissue paper. You want it textured. Cover the entire tube and let it dry overnight.

3. Drill one-quarter-inch holes around the circumference of the tube, spacing them 1 inch apart. Position the holes 2 inches down from the top edge of the tube.

4. Insert the end of silk banana leaves into the holes. Spray paint the leaves with a light pink color to soften them if desired. If the leaves are not snug in the holes, apply hot glue around the holes to secure them.

5. Place the completed tree in a corner or in a planter pot.

Jungle Lamp

1. Attach a stencil to the side of a solid-colored fabric lampshape using masking tape. Choose a stencil with a jungle animal on it, such as a monkey or a tiger.

2. Dip a dry, stiff bristle brush into acrylic paint. If the nursery is decorated in muted colors, choose a muted color, such as a soft pink or purple, to paint the animal. If the nursery has brighter colors, stick with the typical animal color, such as orange for a tiger or brown for a monkey.

3. Brush the paint onto the lampshade, inside the stencil. Start at the center and drag the brush outward.

4. Let the paint dry overnight before removing the stencil. Paint any additional details onto the animal after the stencil is removed.

5. Tie a 6-inch piece of pink ribbon into a small bow. Attach the bow with hot glue to the head of the painted jungle animal.

Tips & Warnings

• Continue the jungle theme with framed art on the walls. Hand paint jungle art on furniture. Or create your own jungle-themed mobile using an existing mobile apparatus and small jungle-themed stuffed animals.

• Avoid touching the metal tip of the hot glue gun or the glue when it's hot. Both will cause serious burns.

References

• DLTK’s Growing Together: How to Paper Mache
• Channel 4: How to Stencil on Fabric