My first tutorial! Easy and inexpensive way to decorate a child's room

I posted this on Facebook when I first did it but I thought it would be good to put it on my blog too.

I painted a castle mural on my daughter's wall several years ago and then I painted my oldest son's room when it was built last summer (blue only- nothing fancy).  My youngest son was the only one with plain white walls. So I asked him what he wanted and he said kitties.  He also wanted orange and green walls but we had a lot of paint left over from his brother's room so he got blue by default. 

His obsession with all things cat has lasted for seven years and there are days I wonder if it will ever end. (He still wears tails on occasion - but not as much as he used to.) I did not want to go through all the trouble of painting adorable kittens on his wall to have him decide six months later that he'd prefer soccer balls. But since he wasn't going to get his color scheme, I decided he should get the one thing he really wanted - a kitty room. 

So I made the kitties out of contact paper - the kind of sticky paper you line shelves with and don't not leave a mark when removed. I used white contact paper but there are a lot of different colors and patterns available.  I found outlines of cats online, printed, and cut them out.  Then I used an exacto knife to trace the pictures onto the contact paper and stuck the kitties to the wall.  I added a few little circles for balls and a little mouse too.  The best part is the kitties can easily be removed and I can always use more contact paper to create a new motif when he is done being obsessed with cats. 

This was one of the first kitties I put up.  My son informed me that it needed an eye.  Cutting out an eye is easier said than done.

With this kitty I used a marker for the eye.  Much better. I didn't notice the smudge in the paint until after I was done.  It isn't as bad in real life.

See the Spiderman poster?  He does like things other than kitties.

The upside down kitty is playing with the ball.

This kitty is chasing a mouse.

My favorite is the kitty with its back to us.

One last shot showing most of the wall.

That's it for the tutorial.  It's an easy project that requires little to no artistic skills and is really inexpensive.  I put all the kitties up high but if you put them lower, your child can help stick them to the walls.  Have fun!

I have a very exciting announcement coming soon!  Stay tuned.