Nothing like blogging about a project 4-5 months after it happened, right? Well welcome to Ramona’s birthday week. Sit back and enjoy some birthday DIYs while the house finishes this week (fingers crossed).
A cool tradition in the town that we moved to, one that’s been going on for as long as anyone can remember, is painting an old railroad building to tell someone happy birthday. The building is right along the road that drives through the center of town so everyone can see it. It’s a really endearing small town tradition.
This year, for Ramona’s birthday, I decided I would do it a bit differently… street art style. The whole time I was working on it I kept telling Amber “I’m pretty much the Banksy of [insert town name here]”
I’ll skip over the technical details, but basically I created a threshold image of Ramona in photoshop. Exported it to Illustrator, so I could create a vector image out of it. Once I blew the image up, I took it to Office Max and had them print it out on their giant plot printer. It printed 36 inches wide, so I made it 72″ x 72″ to have 2 long prints that would need to be connected.
Photo was from our maternity session with J Noel Photography.
The prints kept screwing up, so I had to end up print them about 50 different ways. Eventually we got a combination that would work.
I went that night with Amber’s sister Apryle, and we painted the wall pink. Remember Beckett was 2 weeks old, so Amber was preoccupied.
The next night I made some wheatpaste… which is basically just boiling water and flour together until the gluten forms a glue.
I went out when it was dark, well because it just seemed right, and mopped on the glue. Yes mopped with an actual mop.
Once the surface was covered, I put up the prints and mopped over them with the wheatpaste. And continued to paste until all of Ramona was all the way up on the wall. It’s a similar process to Mod Podge.
We placed the letter individually the same way.
The next day was Ramona’s actual birthday, so we took her in the morning to show her our little birthday card to her. She loved it, though I’m not sure she appreciated how much work it was. Hopefully she’ll see this when she gets older and think we were cool parents back in the day.
She called it the “big Nona” – Nona is our nickname for her. Hilarious because she calls the Statue of Liberty the “big lady”. We can’t pass the building now without having to read her what’s on it. Nothing says I love you like birthday street art especially when it’s legal.
Check out more of the birthday party, grab a printable invitation, and see our favor bags with a free printable!
holy awesomeness! ramona must have felt like a star!
She started sending out tech. riders to birthday parties she was attending after that.
That is beyond awesome! You two get the super cool parents award! xo Kristin
thanks dude #cooldad
I know what Nate needs to do for my birthday!!! 😉 (P.S. He occasionally reads your blog. I think you all are the only DIY blog he reads.)
Ramona is one lucky kid!!!
Haha. Maybe he’ll get this hint then… also, “sup Nate”
what a neat tradition!!
As someone who didn’t grow up in this community (Amber did), I’ve always loved the “small town-iness” of it. Makes kids feel like superstars.
Wow. Just wow.
I bet Will can tell you all about this tradition. I’m sure he was the star of the building a few times in his life!
holy crap! I just cant even think of what to say, amazing sounds too little to describe it.
you can use whatever words you want. you’re in a safe place here laurel
Whoa. That is the best birthday thing ever! And good job living in a town where friendly birthday graffiti is smiled upon :). I don’t know how it would go over here. I’ll have to try it and see….
Oddly enough the building had to be moved from the railroad tracks because the RR commission said so. It sits by a church now, but the new building that the RR put up is fenced and has barbed wire at the top. If someone tried to paint that, then there would be no smiles. Luckily some idiot several years ago did it and the town just decided that was a good use for that building. It has so many layers of paint that it’s significantly larger than it’s original size. Moving it was a challenge because of the weight. Isn’t that insane?
this is so cool! love it. I love that your town does this. cool town!
Cool town indeed!
Oh my, that is so cool. My daughter would totally love that too!
You could put it on a piece of plywood and do it! Next birthday…
I totally love this. Parent award of the year from me
It’s so totally “Switched at birth” too. http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/axe-girl
Love it!!
Awesome we’ve always wanted that award.
Oooo maybe next year we can do an install and go back and paint the white. Interesting way to mix it up.
That is AMAZING!
Haha thank you! We felt like really hip parents once it was up. Or at least the only parents in the town that have a DIY/design blog.
Natalia’s bday is in November and Ava’s is in July…can we rent you guys to come and do this in Lakeway once we get settled…I am thinking the Watertower would be nice….:) #bestparentsever…p.s. don’t tell Bo I hashtagged…hahahah…
Deal as long as you don’t tell him that I replied to your comment during business hours
This is sooo freakin sweet and adorable! I love that your town does this!
It’s by far my favorite tradition. (I grew up here.) I wonder how much longer that building will hold up. At some point the paint will be too much. You can already tell the surface is super bumpy.
This. Is. Amazing.
Seriously – I think this gets the coolest parenting award. From me. I give the award.
Pinning.
Thank you Kim. It’s an honor to receive it.
SOOOO cool! And so charming that your town allows/encourages that!
Thank you! Yes it’s completely endearing! We love this town so much already.
This is insanely awesome!!! You win all of the awards.
Thanks Jenni!
WOW, what an amazing wall and an AWESOME birthday card! You guys definitely win the “cool” parents award! Looks like it was a lot of work, but definitely worth it
Thank you! People do some pretty awesome murals. We always joke that there’s no way ours took longer than painting superman in detail. Truth is neither one of us is talented enough to draw anything. This is basically all we got!
Well I think it turned out fabulous and I can’t draw either so it makes me feel like something I could maybe do someday, haha. I’d love it if you linked up to The Makers link party going on at my blog right now, http://upcycledtreasures.com/2014/02/the-makers-link-party-6/
Hope to see you there!
You guys are the Parents of the Year for 2014. I can say this with full confidence as Lisa and I won in 2013. Now, I need you to paint all the things.
Well technically we did this in 2013, so do we still win?
This is so great! What an awesome tradition and I love your art. What a lovely memory to look back on.
Thank you! It was a wonderful start to her day (and ours). She was so excited to see herself “big”. It was her actual birthday, so it was full of surprises from that moment on.
This is so cool! What an awesome town tradition too. I need to move to a place like this.
Thank you! It is a pretty cool town if I do say so myself.
You guys are AMAZING parents!
I mean, we’re at least average right?
I always had a feeling Nick was Banksy. He does fit the mysterious profile. It’s only a matter of time until I find that secret instagram account as well
But really, this is fantastic. Way to make birthdays special!
The real problem is what are we going to do next year AND we’ll have 2 birthdays like back to back. Oh the pressure!
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this is just SO amazing! so beautiful, too… what an awesome birthday surprise! ^__^
Thank you! She loved it and still talks about it all the time. Mainly requesting that we paint over whatever is there now to put up a message to her again. 4 year olds…