Art Project

We had plans to get Kail's helmet wrapped, but when Jordan called the car wrap company that said they would do it, to find out why we had not heard from them, it became clear that "I don't know when I'll get to that"  just meant they should have said no at the beginning.  So we decided to paint it.  Thus began the nightmare art project. 

A couple years ago Jordan figured out a way of painting our nursery wall.  We painted the wall, then put a decal down, then painted over the decal and then pulled the decal off.  This makes the first color we painted show through where the decal was so that now said decal is in paint instead of vinyl.  It worked out awesome on our wall so we decided to try the same thing on Kails helmet.  That being said good luck finding a place local to buy small custom decals.  We ended up at 102000 south at the only place we could find that would do it.  Then we bought the paint.  We decided on spray paint as we thought this would dry quickly and go on easily.  So here is what actually happened.

1. Turns out spray paint doesn't dry quickly AT ALL and what we thought would be 2-3 hrs turned into 24. 
2. Turns out spray paint tends to bubble up if you spray it over other spray paint, so no it doesn't go on easily.
3. Turns out spray paint douse not like to stick to plastic and can melt it . . . and that's what his helmet is made out of.

I had plans to take pictures of each step of the process but as each step was quickly followed by an utter panic moment (or hour) that just didn't happen.  My favorite panic moment was when we were almost done (ie hours and hours into the project) but it needed a little paint brush touch up.  So I took the spray paint and sprayed into some plastic cups which then melted in my kitchen sink not only painting the kitchen sink but making us realize that we may have just melted this very expensive little helmet.  The helmet has not turned into a puddle of plastic goo on this head so I think we are OK, though we still worry that it doesn't fit exactly the way it used to.  Not sure if it really changed or if we are just being paranoid. 

So now for some pictures.  Before the art project (and before the teck cut the helmet just a little so the eye line let him see better):

At the end of the first day we got it back on him so he could sleep in it but we were not able to seal it yet and it was still shinny.

And so of course during the night Kail decided to use his nails and scratch up the only part of the paint job that was perfect but oh well, it now has some texture on the side.  and Now that its all sealed I think it turned out pretty good for all of our panic.  And Yes Kail seems happy in it.