Upcycled Wall Art With Mini-planters

We've amassed a lot of cardboard boxes recently. As a result, we've been thinking about how to put them to good use, while not making a huge dent in my budget.

In this Instructable, we will showcase this custom wall art piece made from cardboard and other cheap materials. I love how LED lights can transform this space into different scenes as they shift. One moment, it feels like a traditional mountain landscape; the next, like a coral reef in the ocean, a dreamy fantasy world, a spooky cave, or even an erupting volcano.

This project is also highly customizable - we later added some planters to give the wall art some life.

Material

1. Regular Cardboard
2. Single Face Corrugated Cardboard
3. Sand, crushed eggshells, or other materials that can be used to build texture
4. Foam board
5. Small plastic bottles
6. Mod podge
7. Spray paint
8. Hot glue and glue gun
9. Optional: LED light strips with power adapter and remote control (This was the only item purchased for this project!)

We designed a pair of wavy patterns-one set will be on the bottom left of the frame and the other at the top right corner. We will layer several cardboard shapes onto each other to create depth. Cut out these layers of wavy designs and arrange as shown.

We wanted to give our boards some texture to make them look more natural.

Sand or tissue paper can also be used to make texture, but here we chose to use leftover eggshells instead. Bake the shells at 400F for 30 minutes to sanitize. Blend the eggshells into a powder.

Mix the eggshell powder with Mod Podge and brush it onto the wavy boards as shown. The layer of Mod Podge also helps waterproof the cardboard.

Paint layers of cardboard in shades of gray—from darker in the front to lighter towards the back.

You could also paint the cardboard to be lighter in the front (like if you were looking down at a pond), but we wanted to create something more along the lines of looking into a sunset.

STRENGTHEN: Strengthen each wavy board with extra cardboard on the back as shown. We added 4 layers of support cardboard for each wavy layer. When gluing on support boards, try to interweave the support boards to make the support sturdier.

Optionally, make a "pocket" at the back to hold a bottle planter later.

LED (Optional): Set aside all the boards in one "group" (bottom left group or top right group). Wrap the LED strip lights board by board, starting with the smallest wavy board at the front and working towards the back. Carefully secure LED strip lights at the back of each wavy board around the supporting boards as shown. Most LED light strips have glue strips at the back, but if yours don't, use tape.  Glue on the next board and continue wrapping the LED strip around. Repeat until all the wavy boards are wrapped with LED lights and put together.

Repeat this for the other set of wavy boards.

Now, make a cardboard shadow box big enough to hold both cardboard sets. There are several Instructables on this, e.g. https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Shadow-Box-Using-Cardboard/

Added a painted backboard and glue on the two cardboard forms. Drill or cut a hidden hole to let the LED power and control wire come out behind the backboard.

Optional: Wrap the side of the frame with painted single face corrugated cardboard for texture. You can also add a frame on the front with foam board and painted single face corrugated cardboard as shown.

I went for a walk and picked some plants from our yard. Arrange the leaves & flowers. Add water and flower foam as needed into the plastic bottle.

Carefully insert the bottles into the slots we made earlier at the back of each board.

Enjoy!