Hi! Mandi here! Here at A Beautiful Mess, gold and glitter take center stage while silver seems to get no love. Poor silver. But what better application for silver leafing than some moon decor? My one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Lucy's favorite thing is the moon right now, so I thought making this simple little wall art featuring some phases of the moon would be perfectly suited for her bedroom—plus, someday it will make a cool teaching tool perhaps!
I was a little disappointed that the photographs of the moon art don't convey how shiny and silver the moon phases are, thanks to the silver gilding paint. So that's a bit of a bummer. But you'll have to just use your imagination or see for yourself as you create something similar!
Supplies:
-20" long 2×4
-silver gilding paint
-black paint
-moon phases template (you really only need to print out one here)
-picture hanging hardware (not shown)
Tools:
-large & small paint brush
-pencil
-hammer (not shown)
Step One: Cover the board with black paint. I watered mine down so that it acted more like a stain than paint.
Step Two: Cut out the moon phases template, and on the back of the template, scribble with a pencil along the border of each shape. This will prepare the shapes for a graphite transfer.
Step Three: Place the template right side up onto the board. Now trace around the shapes with a pencil or pen. When you lift the template you should see a graphite outline of the moon phases. You may use the same template, flipped upside down, to do the other half of the board too. The scribbled pencil marks should hold up for at least one more transfer.
Step Four: Use a fine paint brush to fill in the outlines of the moon phases. Allow a little bit of the black to show through, and your shapes will look even more like moon phases.
Step Five: Mount picture hanging hardware on either side of the back of the board, and you're ready to hang your art!
This simple little wall art is great for using up scrap lumber and is perfect for mixing in with gallery walls or small art arrangements. It's fresh and fun for a kiddo room, or an adult space too!
Credits // Author and Photography: Mandi Johnson, Photos edited with Spring and Valentine of the Signature Collection.
where can you get that piece of wood from or similar to it???
Simplistic, but so lovely!
Wow!!! Soooo beautiful and interesting!!
I was so excited when I saw this on Instagram. I’m kind of a geek when it comes to moon phases and astronomy. I’m totally making one of these for our bedroom!
I love this painting……this is really amazing. I am first time see this type of wall picture.
i want one for my room! so cool!!
http://wethinkthereforewecreate.blogspot.com
thanks 🙂 I just got it printed properly and am about to start. I swept a little bit of blue on my black background to make it look more like night. I will post on pinterest when done 🙂
It’s vintage, sorry! I found it at a flea market last summer.
Also, I guess I got my moon phases backwards. Whoops! Goes to show that DIYers make mistakes, and also may help you understand that I didn’t copy the project you linked to, or I would have made the phases correctly.
Oh my goodness! Thanks for letting me know!
Just make sure you don’t resize it when you print. It may say that cropping will occur, but it won’t.
They are very similar, wow! But I have never seen that project before, so it wasn’t a copy, which is why I didn’t give credit to anyone. If I do my own versions of someone else’s work, which I actually have done here before, I always link back to the original project. Sometimes these things happen, because as they say, There’s nothing new under the sun. Or the moon, I suppose.
If you’re interested in how my creative process worked on this project, I was originally inspired by the symmetry of this print: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/212091463675542336/, and it brought to mind the moon phases graphics from my old classroom in high school. Putting it on a black background seemed obvious since the moon is, of course, seen on the dark sky. I considered doing it on a textured black paper and framing it, but I couldn’t find any frames that long and narrow, so I thought I’d do it on a piece of wood. To find the moon phases, I googled “moon phase graphic” and found an astronomy site (http://www.ancienteyes.com/gifts_astronomy.html) where I found the moon phases that I digitally replicated for my stencil. So there ya have it. I’m not too surprised there is something out there similar, because the concept is pretty simply and moon phases are kind of a popular trend right now.
Thank you! I’ll be scouring eBay! 😉
LOVE! Perfect use for the random 4×4 bits I have laying around.
Super cute idea! Not to be a smart aleck/debbie downer, but you have them backwards. Maybe flip it upside-down so your daughter learns the correct phases? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase
Love this! Totally adorable!
xoxo
Taylor
love moon phase art! all things earthy! i might try it on cloth and make a wall hanging!
Really like this!!
really love to try out this and hang it in my room !
http://www.ryokogurl.com/
really love to try out this and hang it in my room !
http://www.ryokogurl.com/