Wooden Elephant Art

This project was inspired by a cute book our kids love us to read to them, "Kiss Kiss" by Margaret Wild. 

The book is actually about a baby hippo who leaves his mama to go play. As he is walking past his little jungle friends giving their mamas kisses, he realizes he forgot to "kiss kiss" his mama! 

It's a simple, yet adorable children's book about a baby and his need for his kisses.

Do I need to say more!

I chose to use elephants, because I loved the way they give kisses with their trunks. 

That's at least how I think a sweet mama elephant would kiss her baby! 

It didn't take much for me to put this together. I already had these scrap pieces of stained wood from an old jewelry box (it was large!) that fell apart.

The wood was still in great shape, and to my husbands demise I have kept it for projects like this.

All I needed was some small nails (found at the bottom of the tool box), a sawtooth hanger, scrap wood, a hammer, elephant clip art and coordinating scrapbook paper.

I wiped down the wood to clean of all the dust.

Then lined up my four longer pieces of wood on top of my shorter piece. Once I knew which order I wanted them in, I started to carefully nail them down. This wood is old and pretty dry, so I didn't want to crack the wood.

Next, I took an elephant clip art I found online and opened it in word and resized it. One larger and one smaller. I had to print them a couple times to get the size I wanted.

Then I traced the mama and baby elephant on some coordinating scrapbook paper and cut them out.

Next I positioned them on the wood and used just enough mod podge to get them to stick. I could have used spray adhesive, but I didn't have any.

 I glued their ears on separately so they pop out from the art. I LOVE how the ears turned out! 

It adds more depth and character.

Lastly, I hand painted the "Kiss Kiss" with orange paint. After it dried I added a sawtooth hanger to the back and it was ready to hang!

It is looking adorable in the boys' room! We are working on getting the right hardware for Jude's crib and then I will post a picture of where it will be above his bed.

I just love when I can make something with stuff I have on hand! Cute art for a cute baby for free!

Gotta love it!

Have you made any projects lately with materials you already had on hand? Let me know, I'd love to hear about it!