Vinyl Decals

I bought a cheap and cheerful vinyl decal of a tree from Ikea when I was re-vamping my craft room . It was nice but I guess you get what you pay for and at £8 you can't grumble but it never quite looked right - a little bit too blocky and  you could see the clear vinyl around the edges.

Then I found a similar product on Etsy from a company called walldecals001 - admittedly pricier at £48 but far superior in quality and look. The detail is much finer and the vinyl is matte and thin so when it adheres to the wall , it looks as if it's been painted.

It came with a hilariously translated set of instructions ( they're made in China ) but never having been one for instructions , I set at it like a demon possessed without even looking at them , determined to get it up on the wall within the hour. Can you see where this is going ?

I don't suppose it helped that I decided to photograph the process and I'm not sure why I chose to do it before I'd eaten any breakfast , on the hottest day of the year so far and with crippling back pain . Somewhere in my reckoning, I'd supposed that the task would take my mind off the pain .

After having got the damned thing on the wall , I noted that the instructions suggested you'd need 4 people, so I was feeling pretty smug that I'd managed it alone ... oh apart from  a little 'help' from my eldest teen at one point,  who stayed for his attention span of about 5 minutes then flounced off in a huff.

Let's just say it was a pretty sticky process . In fact everything was sticking to everywhere , including me as I'd worked up quite a sweat by this stage . The whole event typified my general approach to life -  no patience , it can't be that difficult , I'm sure I don't need to do as it says etc.

Anyway - it's up and looking fine and dandy . Loving it in fact and it only took 2 hours .
My recommendations if you fancy attempting one of these :

• Don't tackle it if small children are within earshot - the profanities were flying 
• Avoid unsolicited 'help' from grumpy teens
• Read the Instructions - if only for a laugh at the Mandarin to English translation
• Eat first - sticky backed plastic wrangling on an empty stomach can get ugly
• Adopt the mind set of " Well Nature isn't perfect so neither will my tree be " 
• Read this 

And here are the pictures to show you what it looks like.  By the way - this design is called Happy Tree - how could you possibly not buy something called that ?

Stage One - this is going to be easy ...

errr ... maybe not

Pokey tool came in handy for reluctant leaves

Necessity is the mother of inventions - used a one metre metal rule to roll it upwards

Then all you have to do is peel the clear vinyl away
( I'm making this sound way too easy  ) 

Job done

Before ....                                          

... and after

Haven't added the birds yet  and there was also a vinyl cat that came with the design , sitting look up at the tree but I don't want to put ideas into my pussycats' heads , not that they need any encouragement , but then that's a whole other blog post.