Blog Inspirations: Filth Wizardry Coral Reef Livingroom

One of the blogs I love to check out on a regular basis is Filth Wizardry. This Mom and her girls REALLY love a big mess. They do BIG messy projects! I tried their Coral Reef Livingroom, only I made mine in the playroom downstairs! This was a project that we took our time on, as the mermaid tails were added about 3 weeks after we originally started, and we could very well continue adding to it if we come across the perfect materials!



We started with coloring the fish available on the Filth Wizardry post, and making fish out of white labels. We added a few of our own favourites, like Squirt from Finding Nemo. We used tape to stick the paper fish on our bed sheet, as I plan to use it again for it's original purpose :o)






We then moved on to our own idea of creating sea shells by coloring very firmly on sandpaper. We then made duplicates by ironing over the back of the sandpaper when it's pressed onto white paper to transfer the wax.



In theory, this turns out much darker, but we had used a no name brand of crayon that was a funny wax. Normally, this craft turns out quite stunning (you may need to copy over your child's original with crayon again before ironing it just to make sure it's dark enough). But our sandpaper originals were really neat anyway.


I then took out the eye dropper paintings we had made a few weeks previously out of paper towel (and I didn't know what to do with them then) and cut them into starfish and shells.



I added the coral using streamers and the green bottom was just some gift bag stuffing I had laying around that I bunched up and wrapped with pipe cleaner.

I found a Nemo Pinata on clearance one day at the Bulk Barn while we were still working on our mural and snatched it up to hang by the ceiling. We will someday fill this with candy and beat it to pieces. My older sister can attest to the fact that this is one of my favourite activities (sorry Nemo. we really do love you!)



Instead of adding a scuba divers legs to our mural, I opted for a mermaid's tail, as I knew it would excite Rachel.



She had a friend over the day we made it, and we painted such a large canvas that I also cut out two 'baby' mermaid tails.

I just covered the table in paper, squirted it with green paint and let the girls finger paint, and use sponges.



We added some glitter to our mermaid tails when the paint was still wet, and once dry, I cut out the tails.



I'm not too impressed with them (It's not my greatest artistic achievement to date by any means), but the girls thought they were great, and that's what matters!

Who knows how long our mural will stay up (until the baby gets his hands on it I suppose), but it's a great addition to the playroom! I can't wait to try more inspired projects from Filth Wizardry!