Gym Christmas Tree

Our home gym was begging for a themed tree; here's what I came up with:

I used a NY Yankees cap for the topper:

I purchased the cutest string of lights on Amazon. They're little baseballs and mitts (from Amazon: Kurt Adler UL 10-Light Ball and Glove Light Set). Besides the sports-themed ornaments, I laminated baseball cards and hung award ribbons (also from Amazon):

I made the tree skirt from baseball-themed fleece and fur trim, both from JoAnn Fabrics. I added thick batting between the layers of fleece, to make the skirt nice and thick. Although I sewed the skirt, I hot-glued the trim on afterward. Non-sewers could assemble the entire tree skirt with hot-glue:

Movie Theater Christmas Tree

 Here's my fun take on a movie theater themed Christmas tree; I made it for our home theater:

I made the tree topper from a metal film reel from Hobby Lobby, with a miniature Academy Award statuette epoxied to the front. I also spray-painted and then epoxied a PVC pipe inside the reel so the top of my tree would fit snugly inside:

For the garland, I laminated tickets (purchased from Amazon), then hole-punched them with a very small punch and added tiny gold open jump rings to string them together. For ornaments, I purchased mini clapboard keyrings from a party supply store, and removed the keyring part. I also saved mini candy boxes from Halloween, then hot-glued them shut and added ornament hooks. I think they add a lot of charm to the store-bought movie-themed ornaments:

I made the tree base from 4 full-sized movie clapboards; to hold the tree, I screwed a threaded pipe into a metal floor flange that was mounted to a piece of plywood (all purchased from Lowes):

Fireman Themed Bedroom

While one grandson wanted a policeman themed bedroom (you can see it here: Policeman Themed Room), the other requested a fireman room. Here's what their beautiful mom and I came up with.

I used the exact same technique for the fire engine wall hanging as I did for the police car in the post I referenced above: I created and saved the image to a USB drive, printed it out (extra large) at Kinko's, then cut it into thirds. Then, I used Mod Podge to attach it to three large canvases.

We placed it over the bed, and then made three pillow covers with iconic fireman designs on them. For the pillows, we used my Silhouette machine and heat transfer vinyl.

We placed the same images on the fabric bins in his storage cubby.

Here are the bins, close up. How cute are the accessories? That's a toy fire extinguisher on the top left, and fireman boots on the top right. If you know a real fireman, you might be able to score some real gear.

I found this cool sign on Amazon, but when it arrived, it wasn't large enough for the space. Rather than send it back, I mounted it on a piece of flat black canvas.

Here, I drilled a hole into a toy fireman's helmet, and inserted a lamp base purchased by my daughter-in-law at Ikea. We added the yellow stripe (made from duct tape) to tie it into our theme colors. I covered the hole in the helmet with air-dry clay, painted black.

We repeated the same design on this other cubby. The fire hydrant (from Amazon) is actually a plastic storage container. We made the ladder with pieces of wood trim. Very easy!

This is my favorite element in the room. I used bulletin board paper because I don't know how to mount wallpaper (this is the same paper I used for my Harry Potter party; you can see it here: Harry Potter Party). Once we stapled the paper to the wall, I brushed on a heavy coat of Mod Podge to protect it. Then, I added a chair rail and the cutest hooks EVER:

The hooks are from Amazon. You can find them if you search for "fun vintage faucet spigots." 

I freshened up these vintage chairs with paint and added the fireman symbols (cut from my Silhouette machine, but you could use an online image and Mod Podge instead). Then, I made the table, using a wooden table top and very short legs that I purchased from Lowe's. After I painted the legs, I covered the tabletop with a tire cover that we cut down and stapled to it. You can't tell from the photo, but the tire cover (on Amazon, called a "silver diamond plated steel vinyl spare tire cover") looks very much like this, only it is a soft surface:

This little cutie loves his new room!

UPDATE: I found an old fire hose in an online auction, and thought it would be a great addition to the room. It looked a little tired, so I painted it with a bright yellow acrylic craft paint, then I anchored it into the wall, for safety. I think it adds a lot to the room:

You may notice that the "brick" wall looks a little different, too. That's because the bulletin board paper didn't hold up very well over time. I ended up dipping a rectangular-shaped sponge in red paint, and creating the brick pattern on the wall. The porous sponge created realistic-looking "bricks," and I didn't tape off the area or try to make it too perfect. It looks much better now.