The Reading Nook Improves

After adding the shelves in the nursery's reading nook, I realized the wall still lacked a certain "je ne sais quoi". See how bare the wall above the books seems? 

I thought I could add a splash of color on the wall like John & Sherry of Young House Love did with their clothespin wall art. 

I found these cute phonic flash cards in the dollar bin at Target and knew they would be perfect. 

I knew I wasn't going to use all of the flash cards so I set aside the ones that matched the fabric we're using throughout the nursery (like we did on the rocking chair). 

To hang the flash cards, I wanted to use colored twine. But after visiting several stores, I failed to find any colored twine. Is it just me? Or is this stuff hard to find? I ended up settling for regular twine, but I didn't think it would look nice with the blue walls. 

I used some food coloring to dye the twine. I put about 1/2 a cup of water into a small bowl and added a couple drops of food coloring. Then it was just a matter of adding a piece of twine and letting it soak for a couple minutes (make sure you do this in your sink, it can get pretty messy). 

I tried out some green:

Then some blue:

And finally some yellow: 

Once the pieces of twine were dyed, I hung them out in the garage to dry overnight.

The green turned out way too dark and the blue looked faded. Yellow was the winner. 

Next, it was time to work on the clothespins. Plain clothespins just wouldn't cut it, so I decided to cover them up with some scrap paper. I used the remaining scrap paper from the nursery wall letters and the nursery button art.

I traced a clothespin on the back of a piece of scrap paper and cut it out.

Then I used that piece of scrap paper to cut out more strips. I cut out about 36 strips, enough to cover 18 clothespins on both sides. 

I applied some Mod Podge on the side of a clothespin and then glued the piece of scrap paper on it.

Then I applied some Mod Podge on top of the scrap paper. Once that dried, I flipped the clothespin over and did the same to the other side. 

I did the same for all 18 clothespins.

To hang the twine, I bought two white hooks at Home Depot. We hung them right above the book racks. 

Attaching the twine was a little tricky. I played around with the length until I was satisfied, but it took a couple attempts. 

Then it was as simple as attaching the flash cards to the twine with the clothespins. 

I think it adds just the right amount of color and fun to the reading nook.

Best of all, it was super cheap and easy to do:

Clothespins: $2

Scrap Paper: Already had

Phonic Cards: $1

Twine: $3

Dye: Already had

Mod Podge: Already had

An awesome addition to the nursery for under $10! Gotta love it!