It’s Halloween! So sad October is over, where did the month go?? I’m mostly sad my warm Arizona sun is leaving me…wah! But what comes with the fall is food, lots of yummy food, so there is a perk, right?? To kick off fall, I made this faux deer head pallet art, the first of my fall mantel. I added a quick pom pom bunting as well to create a little festivity too! Does this look like wood to you?? Did we trick you?? {TRICK or treat…it IS Halloween afterall…I crack myself up…} It’s FOAM!! Fun, huh?? I had a few girls from church over last night and they all thought it was aged barnwood! I love that we work with FloraCraft and accepted their challenge to make pallet art from foam, genius. I have played with real pallet art, {remember my fox pallet art?-home is where the heart is pallet art?-state pallet art? I’m realizing we may need an intervention…} and it was nice not to have the bulk from the real stuff. You’ll love it, read on for the full tutorial to make your own faux deer head pallet art (;
Gather your supplies.
- 2 1’x3′ foam sheets
- foam cutter
- smooth finish
- foam connectors + eyelets
- styrofoam glue *optional
- measuring tape
- Sharpie marker
- putty knife
- 3 acrylic paint colors
- decopauge
- bakers twine
Directions:
- Measure 4″ up from bottom of your foam. I only made 4 cuts total so I ended up with 6 strips of foam.
- Trace a straight line down the foam so you can easily cut it in the next step.
- Cut your foam with the Styro Cutter tool. This is an awesome helper! It melts the foam for you, very little work!! I love love loved using it! Just follow your straight line, the tool does all the work. Note: If you don’t want to buy the tool, you can use their cutting tools shown above as well. It’ll take longer and you’ll use your muscles but it’ll will work just as well.
- I google image searched for a deer head I liked then used a Sharpie to copy it onto the foam. As you can see, I messed up a few times which is okay since you’ll be painting soon anyhow.
(Tip: Right click deer image, save, print then cut out to use as a stencil)
- Next, coat your strips of foam with a putty knife and a lot of the smooth finish. Give yourself a couple hours for it to dry, this project literally took me the whole 6 hours my kids were at school to finish…in between laundry and mopping floors of course (; Make sure to coat the sides but don’t worry about the backside.
- Sand it down till it’s smooth. I used my mouse sander which did a beautiful job! Notice on the lower left corner (above) the difference between sanded and unsanded, you’ll definitely want to sand!
This is the fun part: painting!
- Paint your base coat chocolate brown, don’t worry about coating it 100%. Don’t forget the sides!
- Dry brush a layer of gray on top, using your rinsed out brown brush, after it’s dry of course.
- Using the same unrinsed gray brush, add some tan where you feel like it’s too dark or too much of one color.
- Using the same unrinsed brush again, add some of your original brown until you like the final look.
- Note: This is fun and personal to your preference! Just keep going until you love the outcome (:
- After everything is dry, connect your foam pieces together using the connectors.
- Optional: Using the Stryo glue, glue in between slats for added strength.
- Optinal: I also used greening pins to secure the backside since my kids may tug on it occasionally. It’s ridiculously sturdy!
- Push the eyelets into the backside (or top) to hang easily using bakers twine!
- I added a quick pom pom bunting to mine using fall colors. It’ll be fun to swap out colors for different holidays.
Are you getting the pallet art bug?? Check out more fun of them at Crafts n Coffee, plus even more inspiration at MakeItFunCrafts.com! Check out all our DIY projects and fall/autumn decor too!
JaneEllen says
My gosh with all the deer head projects and any others yet to be discovered will be on here all night. Awesome blog. Are you twins?Dumb question?
Thanks for sharing all the great ideas, will be fun to make some deer. Last year I had right shoulder replaced on Dec. 7th, so holidays were pretty tame at our house. What I got done before surgery is what was done. Actually was kind of nice not to be working on projects at last minute to get them done. Will try to give myself a break, not do too much again.
Can hardly keep my eyes open so will have to come back later today. Enjoy weekend
Shonee says
What an awesome project!! No one would ever know that it was made out of foam! So clever!
-Shonee
http://www.hawthorenandmain.com
Laurel Stephens says
Thank you for your inspiration and the deer head silhouette. I used it to make an ornament, and one day hope to make your beautiful artwork, too!
Kim @ The Celebration Shoppe says
So clever! Love it!
Daryl @ home builders Cape Coral says
I really like your project and I’m sure my wife will love it. This type of project would fit nicely our home’s rustic decor. By the way, I think your project looks more like a moose with those horns : )
lollyjane says
Thanks Daryl! Always fun to see a guy on our blog. 🙂 And we love moose, too! lol
Deborah says
I just LOVE this. That is my idea of a deer head and about the only one that would hang in my home 🙂 GREAT JOB!
BTW- I finally got a post on about the Nesting Event. I loved going and wish I would be able to go to more however I have since moved to OR. Here is the post: http://www.salvagesisterandmister.com/craft-night/ although I was hoping the pics turned out better.
Theresa @DearCreatives says
Lovely job. makes me want to try a foam project
Anja says
Wow, what a cool idea! And this will be so easy to hang on the wall (as opposed to those super heavy pallet things)! Cute!
Ashley says
This is so awesome. Where did you buy everything? Im guessing you went to the craft store and hardware, but just curious! Does the craft store have all of the floralcraft products?
lollyjane says
FloraCraft is at any hobby store, all the supplies are from local hobby stores ie: JoAnn’s, Michael’s, Hobby Lobby. (:
Crystal says
I love the deer head pallet art!! We used to have three actual deer heads from my husband and daughter’s hunting adventures. When we downsized, we had to let me go, but we took many pictures to remember them.
Sherri @ PaintedVintage says
What a clever idea!! I’m loving this!!!
I shared it with my peeps 🙂
lollyjane says
Thanks, Sherri!
xoxox
katie says
LOVE this faux pallet art, and the deer head is perfect!!!
Tausha says
This is beyond awesome! You rock…(like you didn’t know this already)
Beverly {Flamingo Toes} says
This is so cool! I love the deer silhouette!
Shanna Gilbert says
I can’t believe that’s not real wood! This is so cute! Great job!
Stacia says
On first glance, it really does look like wood! I noticed the techniques you used, though, from my theatre major days. I did plenty of painting old wood techniques. It looks really great, though, and I love the pom pom bunting!
Sharon says
This is gorgeous! Your paint job is incredible and it looks so real. Love the pompom garland, too. Thank you!