Fruity Art

I love this project. It might just be my favorite thing that I've shared on the blog, to date.

Do you have kids in your home? We have one small person living in our house, and I've made it somewhat of a quest to make our home fun, quirky, and child-friendly without having it look like an explosion of Toys 'R Us clutter.

As a baby gift, my incredibly talented and creative cousin, Jodi, painted a kid-sized table for us. Now that Maren is old enough to sit at this pint-sized table, it's become a semi-permanent fixture of our kitchen. There was a perfect blank space above the table for a kid-friendly piece of art. I love fruit, and this idea quickly popped into my mind.

*QUESTION: I typically don't reveal any 'finished' pictures until the end of the post...would you prefer to see one up front instead? Do tell...

My husband picked up some large scrap shelving pieces a while back, and I had him cut me four 6 1/4 in. squares. Since he's handy, I also had him add a little border using his router. {I know there are ladies out there who can handle power tools with the best of 'em. I tip my hat to you, and thank the Lord for a husband who is willing to do my sawing. Ha!} This wood is nothing fancy, people. It's just a heavier-duty press board of some type. No need for anything pricey for this project.

Next, I applied two coats of black spray paint, being sure to get the edges extra-good. You can see that the middle of the boards get a little faint. Since that part will be covered with paper, there's no great need to have it perfectly painted.

I cut 5 in. squares out of some funky scrapbook paper I had on hand. It looks like dictionary pages. I only had enough to do 2 each of the black and white backgrounds, but I didn't mind the contrast at all on the finished product. I wanted to keep this project free, so I used what I had on hand. I applied the dictionary paper to the dry black boards with a thin coat of Mod Podge, being careful to smooth out all the bubbles.

Next, I cut out fruit shapes from paper I had in my scrap box. I knew what colors I wanted, and I chose my fruits accordingly. I also picked fruit that I like and that my daughter likes and would recognize. This art is for her, after all!

I arranged my fruit on the boards after the first coat of Mod Podge was completely dry. Don't skip the completely dry part, or you'll be sorry!

Since my fruits were all assembled in a layered way, I stripped them down to the first layer, and applied that layer with another thin coat of Mod Podge. Here's what they looked like as they were drying:

When that coat was dry, I applied another coat and stuck on the second layer of detail for the fruit. When that layer was dry, I applied 2 more good coats of Mod Podge to the entire piece. The pictures are hanging over a kid table, and I wanted them to stand a chance at survival against various inevitable spills and splatters.

Here's the fruit in it's new home:

I get so many compliments on these little pieces, and I love how they look over the table. Isn't that the most amazing table? I've got the best cousin. Someday I'll tell you more about her. We've had some fun together. (Hi, Jodi!) P.S. Please ignore the phone jack smack dab in the middle of the wall...who's idea was it to put that there anyways, and how on earth can I disguise it? Argh...
Do you have any child-level art in your home? This is my first installment, but I plan to implement more in the coming months.

I'll be linking to these places throughout the week: