A whimsical doll cradle for our birthday girls ~

For their birthdays my husband and I gave our two daughters (who turned 7 and 2) a large doll bed that I refurbished from an old baby cradle. I gave it a fun Scandinavian/mythical animals pattern from textiles designer Lena Corwin. (For a piece of furniture that was clunky and brown and pretty ugly to start with, we were pleasantly pleased with its new look!)





With 4 layers of over-painting, and oodles of stencil cutting (first from photocopies, and then from contact paper), making this was a labor of love! Our daughters were over-the-moon on birthday party morning!
 
   
   
The mythical animal stencils were patterns I gratefully copied from the book Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens, by textile designer Lena Corwin. This project from Corwin's book was the inspiration: