Prickly Pear Cactus Art on Canvas
As part of our cactus theme for the latest Tinselbox. We made an easy DIY and colorful art project – the Prickly Pear Cactus on canvas. Start with a simple white canvas and paint the full canvas black – we used chalkboard paint.
Then draw with a marker or chalk marker – the outlines of the prickly pear. The base oval should bleed off the bottom and the others stack on top of each other – like a snowman with many limbs. Then in a mosaic-form you will glue pieces of painted paper to form the cactus. You can put a green paint wash on wallpaper or even magazine paper. The best option – is what we used – we got pieces of scrapbook paper – with many different patterns. Then we painted those swatches in various shades of green, teal, kelly, olive and mint. Then we cut the pieces and placed them in the oval shapes to form the prickly pear cactus.
Once all the pieces are glued down – with regular glue. Then take white paint and paint a think edge around the whole cactus. This thick white line gives a nice to align the spikes of the prickly pear cactus, and cleans up the ragged edge of the green pieces.
To add a little to the coloring and to help give the prickly pear cactus some contrast – make a pattern using oil pastels. Purple is a great accent to the green.
Now – the spikes will be added to the cactus. We cut out triangles of colors out of magazine paper. Making sure that the accent purple is in some of the spikes too.
Line the colorful spikes on the edge of the thick white strip. This will give the prickly pear cactus it’s whimsical and joyful look.
Then the whole piece is complete – spray the entire canvas with clear-coat polyethylene. And then the piece is complete.
If you want to make this adorable cardboard cactus. Find all the details on the blog.
Celebrate with a cactus party!
