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Did you realize that Easter is only 3 weeks away? Oh my gosh…it is totally coming quickly! I think that means that I should take down my Valentine’s decorations now, right? Yep, but I still haven’t. To motivate myself to move on to the next holiday, I made some glittery wall art for my Spring/Easter mantel. It is the first step in moving on from Valentine’s Day (yep, I’m that slow this year). Oh well.

Every year, I usually make or buy something new for my mantel. It just makes it fun to me to always have something a little different. This year Elmer’s asked me to join their Craft-It Crew, which means I will get to have some fun this year with their great line of products (which is a lot bigger than I thought)and they will sponsors some posts, like this one. Elmer’s asked me to come up with something for Easter using their new colors of foam board.

Now, we all remember this is called The Real Thing with the Coake Family, right? So, I’m not going to lie to you. This one threw me for a loop. Often when I’m given materials or a theme for a sponsor I know immediately or very quickly what I want to do or I have an idea that I hash out and figure out as I go. When Elmer’s asked me to make something for Easter with foam board (which is 20″ x 30″), I totally drew a blank. What am I going to do with that big foam board. Now I love foam board! In fact, I have used Elmer’s foam board for 2.5 years as my backdrops for my photography (I just upgraded to a ‘real’ backdrop) here on the blog, but something for Easter that would be a size I could easily photograph and really be something I would use. Well it stumped me for 3 days, which is a long time for me.

Thank goodness I keep a notebook full of ideas and inspiration. I kept pondering and looking through my inspiration folder and it hit me. I can make some wall art with foam board and glitter…of course! I’ve made my fair share of wall art. It is fun to do! The only thing I wasn’t sure of is if I could cut the foam core board and do a decent job…i.e., that it wouldn’t look like a kindergartener cut it. Since I’m not afraid to go for it…that is just what I did. Let me show you. 

Supplies:

• Elmer’s Foam Core Board (I used Slate Grey and Neon Blue)
• Utility knife
• Straight Edge or T-Square
• Tape
• Egg pattern
• Painter’s Super Tip Paint Marker (I used Blue and Silver)
• Elmer’s Glue-All
• Paper cup
• Craft stick
• Paintbrush
• Glitter
• Adhesive circle
• Elmer’s CraftBond Foam Mounting Squares
• Ribbon

Start by measuring the size you want for your wall art. You will most likely need to cut the foam board to a smaller size.

This is one of those moments when all of the supplies we have on hand for homeschooling come in handy. I grabbed our t-square and used it to make sure I got a totally straight line. If you don’t have a t-square, just use a ruler or some other straight edge.

Make sure you place something under the surface where you are cutting through the foam board so you don’t cut that surface with your utility knife. Your foam board will cut best if you use a new blade. Just give firm pressure. It may take a couple of passes to go all the way through, but if you have a sharp blade it should be a good clean cut. If you didn’t get a clean cut, use some sand paper to smooth the edge.

For the egg, I found an egg pattern (I got mine from Activity Village) and blew it up at 165% on my printer/copier. It was 10″ x 7″. Tape the pattern to your board and once again use your utility knife to cut out the shape.

As a side note, Elmer’s sells egg-shaped foam board, so you could skip this step all together and use a pre-cut egg. Theirs was a little bigger than I wanted for my wall art.

I didn’t want the white part of the side of the foam board showing, so I used the Painters Super Tip Paint Markers to color the sides the same color as the foam board.

Mark off the pattern you want on your egg with a pencil.

Next up, did you know you can make your own decoupage medium? And that it is a lot less expensive than buying it already made?

Mix up your decoupage medium, which is just 3 parts Elmer’s Glue-All and 1 part water. Easy peasey.

Use your paint brush to fill in the portion of the pattern that you want to glitter first. I found it was easiest to start with the top section and work my way to the bottom of the egg.

For the middle section, I wanted to add two colors of glitter. I cut out circles from adhesive vinyl and put them in that section, then added the decoupage and glitter. When that has set up, remove the adhesive circles and add decoupage medium and glitter to that portion of the egg.

My glitter egg is far from perfect, but it is sparkly and fun. Good things in my book.

To adhere the egg to your other piece of foam board, which is acting as your backing, use the Elmer’s CraftBond Foam Mounting squares. It will make the egg stand out from the backing piece and add a little bit of dimension to your wall art.

You can see the space between the two pieces of foam core as well as how I painted the edges with the markers.

Use Elmer’s Glue-All to add a ribbon to the back. You will use this to hang your wall art.

The piece looks cute and adds color to my mantel. Like I said it isn’t perfect, but it adds some Easter cuteness and fun glittery color to my mantel.

Now if only my mantel didn’t really look like this. Yep, see I wasn’t lying when I said I needed to change from Valentines Day decor. I keep it real around here. Aren’t the almost dead flowers a really nice touch? Those appeared the day after our 16th Anniversary, “Just Because.” I’m pretty sure the “because” is that my husband forgot our 16th Anniversary. Anyway, I should have the Easter decor finished, those frames finished, and the dead flowers gone this weekend and show it to you next week.

In the meantime, you can make this cute glittery egg for your home. It could be a fun craft to let the kids do as well. I can see my girls having a great time with this. Wouldn’t it look cute as a decoration on the door of their room? Of course, you have to not be afraid to have glitter everywhere in your house. I forgot to mention that I always work with glitter on an old cookie sheet that I dedicate to crafts. It contains the glitter and makes it virtually mess free to work with. Love that!

More Crafty Fun for You:

More Easter Inspiration for You:

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