I went with a garden theme for my newly-walking-daughter's room. You'll need: 1 flimsy plastic binder. half gallon of blue latex paint. gallon of bright green latex paint . absorbent chunky ant stamp. Glossy acrylic paints: black, red, orange, & yellow. Objects to trace for ladybug: small circle (ladybug spots), medium circle (head), large circle (body), oval (wings). I used 3 different sized bowls for circles & for the wings, a football shaped pretzel bowl. Thick black marker for tracing objects. Chalkline; what's this? I had to ask my husband. Turns out it's not what surrounds a homicide victim. A chalkline is a roll of thick thread that's coated with blue chalk so that when you snap it against a wall, it leaves a blue line behind(@ Lowes, Home Depot, etc.). REQUIRED: A bottle of wine.

Start by snapping a chalkline about halfway down the walls of the room. For the sky( upper half of the walls), I chose scuba diver blue. I only used a half a gallon of paint for 2 coats. Use painter's tape on things you don't want to paint (carpet, door frame). Once you finish painting the upper half of the walls, it's time to make a stencil for your grass. Go to any store that would carry school supplies & buy a flimsy plastic binder; it doesn't matter if it has binder clips or metal fasteners. Cut the front & the back of the binder off so that you just have 2 sheets of plastic. Now cut both of them in half length-wise so that you have 4 long strips of plastic. Line them up on a flat surface horizontally and have each overlapping the other about an inch so that your stencil "flows"; in other words, so that there are no abrupt gaps. Now use duct tape along one edge of the "line up" to hold them all together (DON'T skimp on this step with scotch tape, you don't want your stencil shifting on you). Now you have a stencil template which is probably 3 1/2 to 4 feet long. Draw a grass design on the plastic. The points of your grass blades should be reaching toward the taped side but not going onto the tape. I mimicked a heart monitor; sharp up & downs. Cut out your grass with scissors. Painting the lower portion of the walls is going to be a bit time consuming; you can only work in increments of 3 1/2 to 4 feet at a time (depending on how long your stencil is). If you will be painting on drywall/primer, you'll only need 2 coats to get the true color of your green paint. Using painter's tape , tape your stencil to the wall so that the painter's tape is halfway on the duct tape & halfway on the wall. Make sure that your blue paint appears at least a 1/2 inch BELOW your stencil. This way when you paint your "blades" of grass, you won't have to go back and detail in between the blades with blue paint. Make sure your blue paint is DRY before you start this. Make certain that the flat top of your stencil is level. You should ALWAYS start from the top with your paint. It's important that you are always using a downward motion while painting over your stencil. If you try to paint going upward, the stencil could lift & paint would get between the stencil & the wall, making the stencil stick to the wall if you leave it to dry. Paint all the way down to the floor (don't put boundaries on yourself, paint the baseboard too!) & leave it to dry; don't mess with it. Go feed the baby, take a nap...just don't linger; you may be tempted to fool with it & mess something up like I did. Don't remove the stencil yet, you need to put on a secod coat still. You want to have at least one fan pointed at the section of the wall you're working on & a few windows open to exhaust the fumes as well as dry the wall.

When the wall is completely dry, apply a second coat & let it dry. These 2 coats should do the trick. Now remove the stencil & place it next to the area you just painted. Again, make sure the stencil is level before you begin. You have to do this all around the lower portion of the room so pace yourself. Now would be a good time to start rationing that bottle we talked about in supplies earlier. If you've been working on this since early morning(sevenish), stop here for today. Don't do anything for anyone. You deserve a break.

Okay, day 2. You're a little sore from painting yesterday but the dog's already caked with dry paint & the kids are used to entertaining themselves (for now) so you carry on, Sharpie in hand, ready to stencil your ladybug. Once your background (blue upper half) and foreground (green lower half) are finished it's time to start on that ladybug. Choose a wall in the nursery; perhaps the smallest one so the ladybug looks that much bigger to your baby. Start with the wings of the ladybug using your oval object to trace around. Then, use your smallest circle object and trace a few randomly placed spots onto the wings. Now trace around your medium circle to form the head; you won't need to trace the entire head because the wings are supposed to look like they're "overlapping" the head & the body. Now use your largest circle object to trace the body . Staying inside the lines is key. Simple enough concept: cover all space INSIDE  the lines & make sure NOT TO PAINT OVER  any lines. These lines give more definition to your ladybug. Keep a wet rag close by just in case your brush slipsover one of the lines. The ladybug will also need 2 coats of paint. Paint the body & head yellow first; start from the middle & work your way out. While you're waiting for the yellow to dry, start on those giant wings using the red paint & make sure that you steer clear of heading into the spots on the wings. Hold off on the black 'til these brighter colors are finished. Okay, now remember yesterday? The whole thing about leaving it to dry? Do that thing again. The good news is that you don't have to twiddle your thumbs for too long (isn't that what you dads out there think we're doing all day anyway?). Acrylic paint dries in a much shorter time frame than latex takes. Apply the second coat, starting again with the yellow head & body first & moving out to the red wings. Once this second coat is dry, you can fill in those spots. The good thing about the black paint is that it's more concealing so you should only need 1 coat here. To put your little ladybug in "motion" we're going to paint freehand (yeah, it scares me too) onto the wall using orange paint to create a loopy "flight pattern". Using a one inch wide brush, load it with orange paint (but not so much that it will run in drips down the wall when applied) & just brush on a dashed path with each dash being about 4 inches long. Whatever pattern you choose to make, be sure that it appears to be her flight path & not just your frustration materialized in displaced paint jabs at the wall. If you want to make this a 3 day affair, bust out the wine again, but spare enough for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a celebratory feast of Easy Mac & (dare I say it) boxed wine; or old grape juice if the kiddies insist upon being included.

Day 3. Pour some black acrylic paint into a paper/styrofoam plate/bowl. Hunt for the chunky ant stamp (I got mine at Micheal's if you want the same ant) & grab a small paint brush; if your guy doesn't have a stash of spongy one-time use hobby-brushes (.39-.79), I officially give you permission to throw the empty wine box from last night at him. Dip your brush into the paint & brush paint onto chunky stamp. You only need enough paint to make a mark on the wall, so don't overload the stamp. The idea behind the ants is to make an ant path around the other 3 walls in the nursery (I didn't put any ants on my ladybug's wall; I thought it might look overcrowded). Starting at the beginning of a wall (a doorway is a good place to start) firmly press your painted ant stamp onto the wall. You don't have to hold it there for any certain period of time; just so that an ant impression is left on the wall. It may take 3 or 4 ants until you get it right. When you take the stamp away from the wall, pull it straight back or it could slide from the suction created by the wet paint. Place them about 4 to 6 inches apart & you should be done in no time.

Take small screw-ups in stride & remember no two ants are the same. That's a lie, there's probably a lot of ants that are the same, but they don't live in your house so do your own thing. Let the ants dry & voila! A brand new nursery. If you want the wooden ladybug frame w/glass (for 4x6 photo) I'l set up a BIN for $9 (free s & h). If you want the 12 x 12 printed artwork (no glass) & plain frame let me know & i'll set up a BIN for $30 (free s & h). -Meg