Madigan made… brightly colored school supplies and storage.
Are other people in your family crafty or creative? I feel lucky that my family and my husband’s family both have creative relatives in them. And my husband’s one little niece is quite the creative bird! She loves to make crafts and like most girls, she loves all things pink, purple and princess-y.
She turned five years old this past July and I needed a fun idea for her birthday present. What do you get a crafty princess-in-training?
Well, I searched online and I ended up deciding on these adorable Rosie Flo's Coloring Books
. (Thank you, Laura, for the recommendation!) The books are drawn by a woman in England and they depict people’s clothing in an old-fashioned style. The author purposefully left off the arms, legs and heads of the people so that children could draw those in. Clever and cute, right? 
So, I bought 3 books for the crafty birthday girl! And I thought it would be cute to give our niece some coloring instruments to go with these books. I picked up some crayons and markers. I also grabbed plastic pencil cases and a composition book, too. And, of course, I wanted to decorate the containers a little! 
Given the vintage nature of the coloring books… I headed to The Graphics Fairy for inspiration. Have you ever been to Karen’s blog? She searches and shares free vintage images that you can print off and use to create! It is so easy to get lost on her site!
And, lo and behold, I found that Karen had these cute line art images of vintage children! I thought they complimented the vibe of the Rosie Flo coloring books. So, I printed the images onto colorful paper that coordinated with the books. I used a yellow crayon and colored in some of the areas for added interest. (It was kinda fun to color in those images! I forgot how much I used to love coloring!)
Then, I sprayed the images with an acrylic sealer so that the printer ink did not run under the decoupage. (I’ve learned that lesson before, the hard way.)
I trimmed the images and other colored paper panels to fit the notebook and the cases. Then, I spread decoupage down and adhered the bottom panel. After that layer dried, I applied more Mod Podge and smoothed down the next panel… and so on… until I had three different colored panels of paper on each item. Finally, I applied several coats of Mod Podge on top of all the layers to seal them. (Note: It is tricky to decoupage onto plastic as the glue can peel up sometimes. The treatment usually is not permanent. But, I find that paper does stick for awhile, especially if you use several layers of decoupage on top.)
After everything dried, I felt the pieces needed one more little detail, so I glued down these black mini round gems in the corners.
I initially picked this paper out to try and match the colors of the coloring book covers. I was skeptical how the bright colors would look with the graphics. But I’m pleased with the end result.
Who knew neon pink and and vintage images could be so cute together?
I’m hoping our crafty little relative is enjoying her coloring books and colorful supplies! (We are told by her mom that she likes them!) I’m tempted to make a set of these pencil cases for myself!
Note: This post contains affiliate links and some of the materials used in this project were given to me for a prior paper project. All opinions are my own.
