DIY Project: Handmade Nursery Art
Posted in Art, DIY, Things of Beauty by evie s. on May 7th, 2008
I made these wall hangings for a friend of mine. Her nursery is being done in a cute elephant theme and her primary colors are brown and blue. You could really use this idea to match any design or decor. Here is how to make these for yourself.
What you need:
- Three 5 x 5 Paper Mache art boards ($2.99 at craft supply stores)
- Ribbon for hanging
- Scissors
- Acrylic paints and paint brushes
- Card stock for printing your design
- Permanent spray adhesive
Steps:
- Remove rope strands from the boards and discard.
- Choose a style of ribbon and cut 3 strands the exact same size.
- Apply your base coat to cover the brown paper mache. Paint everything, including the back side.
- Start painting! It helped me to sketch out my design on the computer before diving into painting. I used acrylic paints and paint brushes. All three boards were given a different pattern in the background.
- I drew the elephant in Adobe Illustrator and chose two colors for the elephants. Then I printed them out on card stock and cut them out, leaving a little white border to help them stand out against the painted backgrounds.
- I tested out the placement before adhering the paper elephants to the boards. Using permanent spray adhesive, I adhered the elephants to the boards. Tie on the ribbon to hang and your done!
To see a full-size photo of the finished product, go here.
Christa Baca says:
Evie! You are truly a genius! I am in the middle of an art project here and I never thought to apply my art to paper mache boards. I have some art I have done prior to this project and I mounted it to some press board that I got at home depot. (Um, can you say really heavy???)
Thanks! You are an angel!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
evie s. says:
Great! Yes, I considered using square canvas boards, but at $11 each I liked the idea of using the paper mache boards better. Much easier on my wallet!
May 7th, 2008 at 4:00 pm