Auggie's Adventures: Crafty Friday- Simple DIY Elephant Artwork

I have been looking for decorative pieces to hang up in our house since we have moved. I've looked at Target, Wal Mart, Big Lots, Hobby Lobby... you name it, if I've been, I've looked! Of course the things that catch my eye are expensive and since we're on a budget, I found a better way to decorate- Make It!

I did this project for Auggie's nursery and figured I could do it for around the house, too! As most of you know, I fell in love with Carter's Green Elephant Nursery Decor... What I didn't fall in love with was the price of most of the decorations! Below is my inspiration for Auggie's wall art:

Carter's Green Elephant Canvas- $33 at Babies R' Us

Supplies:

Tissue Paper

Marker

1 Patterned Paper

2 Solid Card Stock

1 Brown Felt

Carter's Green Elephant Quilt

Square Canvas

Scissors

Green Paint

Paint Brush

You can choose any type of design to work with but I like how simple the elephants were so I could stick to 1-3 different papers.

Step 1:

Paint the edges of your canvas with the green paint. This added some space between our white(ish) walls and the canvas.

Painted edges

Step 2:

Lay the tissue paper over the elephant on the quilt and trace it with the marker. Since the design is simple, there's the body, ear and eye.

The traced elephant

Step 3:

Lay the tissue paper over your patterned paper and use tape to adhere the tissue paper and patterned paper together. Using a small amount of tape outside the design will prevent the tape from tearing the paper on the design.

Step 4:

Cut the outline of the outer most shape of the elephant- the body. To keep from tracing the elephant multiple times, cut the shapes from the outside to the inside.

Step 5:

Now lay your body cut out over the solid card stock, adhere the tissue to the card stock and cut out the ear. When I did the first elephant, I wanted to do the ears in felt but I thought it didn't look right so I changed to the card stock.

Didn't think the felt looked right so the ears were eventually cut out of card stock

Step 6:
Assemble your cut out pieces to make sure they coordinate and are spaced properly. Then start taping/gluing them together.

Step 7:
Cut the brown felt into a square.I cut my felt into 8x8 inch squares.

Step 8:
Once the canvas is dry, adhere 12x12 inch solid card stock onto the canvas. The original canvas color did not match the whites on our walls or the whites in the patterned paper so it was covered with a coordinating white(ish) card stock.

Step 9:
Adhere the square felt piece in the center of the canvas

Step 10:
Adhere your assembled elephant onto the canvas. And you're done!