Printable Kid's Room Decor

Printable room decor can be found in coloring books or made from photos turned into line drawings, book plate engravings, or tracings of favorite comic and picture books. Using a projector, an easel pad and a pencil, nearly any image can be turned into a printable.

Printables can be applied to chalkboard or whiteboard walls. Using a jig saw, band saw or scroll saw, they can be traced onto wood, plastic, ceramic or metal and cut, burned, painted or stained. The resulting two- or three-dimensional piece can be made into head and foot boards for beds and cribs; applied to children's arts-and-crafts tables; or made into whimsical tables, chairs, shelves or riding toys. Printables make it very easy to create a themed child's bedroom, family room or play area.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Easel paper Pencil Overhead projector Tracing paper Overhead sheets Coloring book images Book plate images Old photographs Postcards Jig saw, scroll saw or band saw Wood or metal work files Sandpaper or emery paper Sander or sanding blocks

1. Find the image you want to make into a printable. Thousands of images are available online, or you can use old photos of favorite family events, comic book pictures, children's book illustrations or freehand drawings you make yourself.

2. If the image is online, select it and hit print. This will get you an 8-inch-by-11-inch copy of your image, or an 11-inch-by-14 inch copy, depending on your printer. If the image is not large enough for your purpose, enlarge it. Place the image face up and put an overhead sheet on it. Trace the outlines of the drawing with a grease pencil.

3. Place the overhead sheet copy you just made in Step 2 on an overhead projector. Carefully draw the outline on the wall or on the wood or other material you intend to use. Use a wood-burning tool to incise the lines of the drawing into the board or wall. Paint the drawing as desired.

4. Use a jig saw, band saw or scroll saw to carefully cut the image from the board, plastic sheet or sheet metal you used in Step 3, if the image is not going directly onto a wall. Sand or file any burred edges to prevent cuts and scrapes.

5. Stain or paint everything using non-toxic paints and finishes. Use the printable image pieces you cut to make furniture, riding toys and wall decorations.