DIY Glitter Art with Xtreme Glue

The last time we hosted family dinner at our house (we do it monthly) the topic of childhood awards came up.  My son’s school has a monthly assembly where students are given awards for a variety of things. It seems that everyone gets an award at some point and the idea of awards for the sake of not leaving anyone out  The conversation quickly turned to what kinds of awards we had all won as children and this really got me thinking, because when I was in first grade I won an award in our schools art show.  It was for a sand art piece of a fish.  And I still have it.  See.

I realized at that moment how special that had been to me and decided to recreate that same concept only better.  I mean I don’t keep a stash of colored sand on hand, but I do have a ton of glitter.  I know that glitter has a bad rap in the crafting world, and I’m not saying that some of that isn’t well deserved, but come on…it’s GLITTER!!  Then I found this glue, and I realized that maybe glitter didn’t deserve all the mean things people had been saying about it for all these years, maybe it was glue’s fault.  I mean, glue’s the one who is falling down (literally) on the job and letting all those beautiful, shiny flakes of goodness run free in your house.  So I decided that in my attempt to recreate my artistic prowess of first grade I would also try to one up myself by using glitter.

So here’s how it went.  I started off by picking a pattern. I used washi tape to tape off my borders and I assigned colors to each section so that I wouldn’t forget what I was doing and mess it all up.  I went with a geometric print, because I am realllllly digging a colorful herringbone these days.

via @craftilyeverash on Instagram

I started off by squeezing some glue into each of the spaces marked with a 1 one at a time.  I wanted to work with one color at a time to avoid bleeding.  I spread the glue evenly across the whole section and then used the funnel (that came with my glitter!!) to add the glitter.  I let it sit for a minute or two and then gently tapped the foam board onto my catch paper.  You know the paper I mean, right.  The one you lay down under your work surface to catch all the stray glitter and return it safely to its home.  Yep, now normally that sucker is loaded up with enough of the shiny stuff to make a disco ball cringe, but this time…not the case.  There were definitely still some escapees, but overall the glue did its job and held tight to those shiny, flakes of goodness.

I repeated this process for each of the other 4 colors I was using. Each time shaking off the little bit of excess. Once I was done I peeled off the washi tape. I let the piece dry overnight, then I added it to my built in shelves. It’s a fun and bright addition to our decor. I’ve got a few more foam boards ready for my kids to give it a try too!

Did you ever win an award when you e were a kid? Do you still have it?