Greetings, extended Clutterfamily! We here at Blue Palm Manor have been chugging away all weekend working on our DIY Nautical Nursery. We’re super excited to finally begin sharing what we’ve got up our sleeves. This is the first post in our tutorial series on how to create a Nautical nursery of your very own.
Look at all of those signal flags.
This is the ship I served on when I was in the Navy. We were pulling into NYC for Fleet Week in this photo, but take a second to admire the colorful signal flags blowing in the wind. Maritime signal flags have been in use for a long time, even before radio communications were available. Each flag means something, and they can be flown in different combinations to communicate with other vessels.
Image courtesy of CelebrationFlags.com
I was perusing Etsy looking for Nautical themed items for the Clutterbaby’s room. If I was crafty, I would sew him some signal flags . . . but I’m not crafty. Not even a little bit.
The problem I was running into was that many items have sailboats on them. We are a Navy family, which is why we want a nautical theme, but we really don’t like sailing. I did come across these amazing prints of various signal flags and their meanings.
Awesome. Please check out Bexpert's Etsy store if you're interested!
The only issue is that they’re roughly 8″x10″, and I was looking for something a little smaller. I also wanted to spell out Clutterbaby’s name, or at least his initials. These are a little too large for my wall space. I might buy a couple for our living room at some point because I love them, but for now I had to come up with a DIY alternative for the nursery. She’s also in the UK and I live in Japan, so I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
I found a frame in the back of the closet with spot for two 4″x6″ photos, and dug out two pieces of 4″x6″ photo paper. Photoshop and I were about to be become very good friends.
Keep in mind that there's a lot of work involved when I say "found" and "dug out."
I decided that I would make 2 small pictures with my son’s initials. A quick Google search helped me find the images below, as well as the exact meanings of the flags.
"MIKE." My vessel is stopped and making no way through water.
"LIMA." You should stop your vessel instantly.
I decided not to make it exactly like Bexpert’s, but tweaked the basic idea a little.
1) I started with a 4″x6″ Photoshop canvas, and added the title.
2) Then I added the signal flag, as well as the letter it represents. I decided to match the color of the font to the flag.
3) I added text with the flag meaning and spaced it around everything else until it looked “right.”
I decided to switch the position of the flag and the letter for the other initial. I want them to coordinate, but not match exactly.
I printed them on photo paper and popped them into my frame and voila! Since I already had the frame and photo paper lying around Clutterhome, it was free nursery art! Photos to come during the big DIY Nautical Nursery Reveal.
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