I know I’m not alone in the #CrazyAuntsClub being absolutely obsessed with my nephew and wanting to give him literally everything he may possibly enjoy, and as a crazy crafter, when the chance comes along to personalize something for him, I’m always on board before I even get asked.

Before my gorgeous and perfect little monster David Alejandro was born, my mom wanted to get him (among other things) something that could be used in his room and that could last him a long time. We were at Michael’s one random Sunday, and stumbled upon a plain blue knit style chest in the basket section, which my mom thought would be useful for anything. She gave me the “can you do something with this?” look, and my eyes lit up. I went over to the paint section to buy a few colors to add to my stash, and we barely made it out of the car before I started working on it.

My brother and his wife decided to decorate David’s room with the Jungle 1, 2, 3 theme, and so my mom wanted me to personalize the chest to seem like it was part of the set. Theme? Check. Paint? Check. Canvas? Check! I started drawing right away, even though I wasn’t sure how I would tie it all together or make it work, I was just anxious to start seeing it come alive.

I started with the monkey in the front – my brother has always had a thing for monkeys and we knew that should be the predominant image. Then I went to one side and made the giraffe, and drew the elephant on the opposite panel. Even though the animals were cute, I felt they were missing something. Since the monkey looked like he was hanging from something, I started painting a branch for him, and proceeded to make a full blown tree run along the whole chest. Looking at the front, I realized that the panel on the top lid had enough tiles to fit his first and middle names, with spaces and everything! I went into my bag of wooden letters, jumped of excitement for having the ones I needed, painted and glued them on to make it even more stimulating for David.

To finish off, the Jungle 1, 2, 3 set only has those 3 main characters, but I saw a couple of other interpretations of the theme with more animals like lions, zebras, birds, etc., so I thought it would be a nice complement to add the lion on the lid. It fit in perfectly:

And that’s it! I’m super proud of how it came out. I did 2 or 3 coats for each of the characters since the fabric absorbs a lot of the paint, and it really looks like it’s part of the original set.

My brother and his wife have used it in a couple of different ways, first for his clothes, and most recently it became his Toy Treasure Chest. It warms my heart to see him playing with it – he lives in Colombia so it’s mostly through FaceTime or videos – but he just looks SOOO cute next to it ❤

I know for a fact that lots of aunts and moms out there go crazy crafting for the babies and toddlers of the house, and I would love to see some of your work! Comment below and link back to your blogs if you have them up 🙂