She's right. Its blue, grey and black. In her mind, all boy colors. Here's his bike on the day he got it, his 4th birthday. He turns 8 in a week, so he got a good 4 years out of it!
Of course his sister had to give it a try. She looks so tiny! Its hard to believe that she can ride it now - without training wheels no less.
To make it more her style I knew I'd have to paint it and replace the blue accessories (handle bar grips etc.) with colors she likes. Before painting the bike, I removed the tires, the tire splash guard things, chain/gear cover, and all of the existing decals. I also cleaned the bike really thoroughly. I taped and covered everything I didn't want painted like the pedals and gears. I decided to keep the grey and black, and paint only the blue. I used frog tape and plastic grocery bags to cover the areas I didn't want painted. Of course I neglected to take a picture of this. Eventually I'll get the hang of this blogging thing!
While the paint was drying (I used left over white appliance spray paint from this project) I used my Silhouette Cameo to make decals to dress up the bike. We call our daughter little B so I cut out a bunch of yellow bees, as well as purple and yellow flowers, and polka-dots (per her suggestion). I also cut out some strips with a scalloped edge to trim the transition sections between the new and old paint (although, the frog tape made VERY crisp lines).
I kept the tire splash guards black and covered them with bees and flowers. The handle bar grips are new from Amazon. They were a little long so I cut a section out of the middle before sliding them on. They are very snug so I'm not worried about them sliding apart. The bike seat cover is also from Amazon.
I removed the old blue bar covers and used them as patterns to make new ones. I had some iron on fabric laminating sheets in my craft stash which I used to make the pink and rainbow fabric water proof. That is my very last scrap of rainbow fabric. I think I bought it for her second birthday party. The basket is from her old bike.
I ordered the flower spoke clips on Amazon and let her clip them on.
Its definitely a custom bike! I have a few more decals that I'm going to let her stick on this weekend. Hopefully we'll get another 4 years out of it!
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