Baby Room Decor: DIY 3D Candy Wall Art Tutorial

We're officially in countdown mode for baby #4's arrival and I'm only just getting the last touches done in our nursery room now that it's nearly d-day.  Besides not having time until now, I didn't have any ideas of how to decorate it once we had all the furniture in because I was going theme-free this time around.

After so many years as a mom and several previous baby rooms, I just didn't want to have a set theme.  Parents usually spend so much time, money & effort on one, but it's a bit pointless.  More stuff, kid preferences and less time to keep things "perfect" means it all goes out the window after a couple of months anyway, so why not start with something neutral & flexible?  By DIY-ing, it made my decoration inexpensive and unique.  And everyone likes candy, right?

What makes it fun is how the suckers have a real 3D look (but will be well out of reach for safety obviously):

I'd had this idea a long time ago, but had to figure out how to make it.  Once I got my plan together, I went with sunny shades that would pop against the neutral walls & furniture in our room.  

Now I'm Sharing How To Make It!

Materials:

- Canvas (mine was 16x20)

- Wood tint or acrylic glaze

- Paint brush, hobby cement/strong glue

- Fabric squares

- Wood ball knobs

- Sucker sticks

- Twist ties

- Adhesive vinyl, transfer tape, cutting machine

I used a blank canvas and brushed on some wood tint that I had left over from some previous projects.

I liked using this because it left a texture-y glazed look, almost like wood grain which added extra dimension to the project.  The painted base is also key for helping adhesive vinyl to stick to a canvas.

For the faux candy, I used wood ball knobs, sucker sticks, fabric and twist-ties.

I hot glued the sucker sticks into the holes of the knobs - keeping them nice & straight as they dried.  No one wants wonky, tilted suckers!

After I made my six, they were starting to look like the real thing....

At this point I decided to cut out my vinyl wording to figure out my layout.  I used two fonts, Pacifico and Fredoka One and sized & cut them using my Cricut:

After that I played around with the placement to see how I liked it best and then marked it lightly with pencil.

I used transfer tape to apply my vinyl.  I used to always use a kind that was like masking tape, that wouldn't stick too much to painted surfaces (and potentially wreck them), but it's hard to find so I had to settle for the plastic stuff which doesn't want to grab the vinyl as easily, but does have a handy grid:

I used the scraper tool to apply it.  One tiny spot refused to lie flat, but I keep pressing it down so hopefully it'll finally stick!

Next I took my cotton fabric to finish the suckers.  I'd originally planned to use some scraps I had, but I really wanted the colors to be a good match to other things in the room, so I broke down and bought some solid FQs in the exact shades I wanted.

I cut those into 6.5 inch squares:

And wrapped them over the faux suckers, securing them with my twist ties.  I glued them into place with some hobby cement.  The glue's got to be strong to hold them well.

I've still got to mount it to the wall, but am so happy with how it turned out.  It works for boys or girls and if you've got a particular color scheme, it's easy to tailor.    

You could even use print fabrics to tie in a theme if you wanted, but I liked keeping it simple with candy colors.  Now whatever direction our little one's interests go in as time passes, our room will stay sweet;)