Cereal Box Mosaic

I have had this frame from IKEA for about 6 years now. I had bought a bunch of them when I was going through a glass mosaic phase and I had one left. It has been just stored away waiting for an opportunity to make a grand debut.

I wanted a place where I could put Isaac's verse of the week that would be in a prominent place for him. And of course, I wanted it to be cute. So I got the idea...sometime late at night, laying in bed when all my weird crafty/decor ideas come to me...to mosaic the mirror with cereal boxes. We have a love for cereal in our house and have a cuh-jillion boxes. I hate throwing them away and I am always looking for ways to repurpose them. Case in point...my cereal box notepad.

So for "craps" time Isaac and I cut up all the boxes into little squares and rectangles. I also spray painted the wood part of the mirror white.

And then we had a big ole pile of color to work with...

I used matte finish Mod Podge to adhere them to the frame. If you have never decoupaged before boxes are a great beginner project. Many people complain of bubbles in their projects and they are very unhappy with the results. With box material you don't have to worry about bubbles because of the thickness of the board. The worst problem I have is them not sticking all the way (see picture below to see what I mean), all I did was pull up the corner and stick some more Mod Podge under there and brayer it down.

The great thing about mosaicing with boxes is that it is easy to just cut them with scissors to fit in the place you want them to go. The fun part is mixing all the different shapes and colors.

If you have seen any of my other decoupage projects here, here, or here you know I am a big fan of using a brayer to burnish the paper/cardstock/box to the surface. It works like a charm. After burnishing it well I let it dry.

Once dry, I put three coats of Mod Podge over the mosaiced box mirror to seal it. I gave it a nice coat and let it dry completely between coats.

Then I primered the mirror and used a foam roller to paint it with chalkboard paint.

I just need to find a place to hang it. It turned out cute and colorful and I LOVES IT! Isaac thinks it is neat to point out all the different pieces and which cereal or fruit snack box they came from.