Thursday 27 October 2016

DIY Halloween Decor - Faux Insect Taxidermy Plaques

If you know me, you know I love bugs. Entomology fascinates me, I have a few pieces of antique and vintage insect taxidermy and quite a lot of insect themed homeware! I also spent several hours this past summer studying pictures of interesting beetles and painting them in watercolour, which I found so soothing and I love my mini canvas now!

Annnnway, if you know me you'll also know I LOVE Halloween, I mean, I love ll seasons and events, but Halloween is GREAT! and I've gone all out this year with nice, somewhat grown-up Halloween decorations that I will hopefully keep and reuse for years (vs the normal poundshop/ dollarstore tacky stuff - which I also love!)

One of the things I made this year were these faux insect taxidermy plaques, which are seriously simple to make and I think look so cool!





Here's what you'll need;


  • Wooden plaques in your chosen size - I used these which I got on eBay (I chose 3 diff shapes)
  • Black/ dark gray chalk paint - I used one I had which has great coverage and dries quickly
  • Plastic insects in your chosen size - again I got these on eBay
  • Gold spray paint - I used this Rustoleum one because i'd bought it for another project, but cheap spray paint will work as well!
  • All purpose glue or glue dots
  • String/ ribbon (depending on the plaques you have and how you want to hang them!)


Feel free to use whatever paints you already have too to keep costs down!

All in all this project will cost around £6 -£20 (depending on the paint you choose) as I already had the paints, it cost me £5.93!


 Step one - Paint your plaques


If you are using chalk paint like me, you won't need to prime your plaques at all (whoohoo!) just slap the paint on there, I made mine a bit patchy and textured on purpose to make it seem old and spooky. I also mixed more or less water with the paint and did a few coats in areas to get this effect, but feel free to be a neaty-pants if that how you are!



Step two - Spray those bugs!


If your insects have removable wings or other parts that you don't want to spray, remove them first, set your insects on an old piece of cardboard and spray away! Make sure to get the underneath of the insects too!













Allow to dry and stick any wings etc back on.



Step three - Arrange your insects


Figure out how you want to arrange the insects, play around with different shapes and sizes until you get a mix you like, then stick on! I used glue dots to start with but once I hung up the plaques the insects fell off. (Que me jumping at the giant gold spider suddenly hitting the floor :') )







Step four

Hang those bad boys up and admire your creepy crawly creation!




So simple and really cool huh? I just love them, and they aren't too 'out there' so really I could have them out all year round! But I think I'll keep them special for Halloween :)


If you make these for yourself please tag me on Instagram ( @lindzibun)  or feel free to comment and tell me how it went on this post!

Love,
Lindzi


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading this post, what do you think? Let me know below! Keep it polite please :) #NoTrollsAllowed