Recycled Mosaic Kitchen Art

I just finished these little mosaics for the wall going from our kitchen to the butler's pantry. It is an awkward space because it steps down from the kitchen and the wall is tall and narrow. I needed something long and narrow to fill the space and look proportional. I also knew that I wanted something dimensional, colorful and unique. I'm so happy with how they turned out.

Huge bonus I discovered once they were done: Each little art piece is a mystery game for my 2-year-old! She loves to point out each square and guess what it is....she can point out Mommy's cereal (Raisin Bran), Daddy's cereal (Go Lean Crunch), pancakes, goldfish, crackers etc.

I've been saving all of these boxes for a year. I had grand plans of cutting them all into little 1 inch squares, sorting them by color and making a huge fruit or veggie mosaic with them to decorate our kitchen. Since I've never gotten around to that, and we seemed to have run out of wall space I made some smaller more manageable mosaics.

First, I cut out lots of 2 inch squares from all the boxes so that I had an interesting selection of colors. (I actually cut the squares about 1/16th larger than 2 inches so that the cardboard would hang over the edge slightly.)

I made a small template to make the cutting process easier.

Here is Sienna working on her own mosaic. (Sorry she didn't dress up for her photo op)

Then I laid out the squares in a design that I liked. For the base, I bought 8 x 8 inch cradled Gessobord (2 inch deep). You can usually buy these at your local craft store. I got mine at Aaron Brothers with their weekly coupon.

I like to use Liquitex Matte Medium for collage glue. It isn't sticky and spreads well.

I worked in rows...brushing on a generous layer of medium and placing the squares in place and then brushing a layer of medium over top as well.

As I finished each row, I laid wax paper on top and used a brayer to roll out any air or glue bubbles underneath. This also helps to make sure that the squares are adhering flat. (Note: If you don't use wax paper, your top layer of the cardboard squares will begin to disintegrate or peel....you'll end up with a huge mess.)

Note: Only leave the wax paper on for a few seconds as you roll out the bubbles.....it will leave a waxy residue if you let it dry onto the squares. You can also use freezer paper for this step.

After the squares were completely dry, I took a razor blade and with a "sawing" motion cut off any excess cardboard down the sides.

I made three different mosaics.

I sprayed the top and sides of each mosaic with one coat of Krylon Triple Thick Clear Glaze.

I didn't have to use any hardware for hanging. The boxes are so deep that I just put 2 inch wire brad nails 6.5 inches apart into the wall and hung them.