DIY Glitter Deer Head Art

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This little art project is really the story of my marriage.

A few weeks ago, I put the supplies to start this project on my kitchen table and looked at my husband, who is an avid deer {bow} hunter, and–kidding– said,

“Honey, this project is representative of both of US–an animal head for you, with chevron AND glitter for me!”

My sweet hubby looked at me and smiled, and not laughing, and said  “Really? Thank you so much for making something that is about something that is so important to me.”

Wow. And I just thought it would be a cute little blog project. Who knew?!?

Now, if you must know, my husband and I have had one decorating battle our entire marriage, which is that I don’t want his real taxidermy in my “public” rooms. Not everyone thinks his trophies are as lovely and appealing as he does.  Right? So, he’s pretty happy {and probably also slightly puzzled?} by the sudden trend toward antlers and deer heads in home decor.

I, for one, am loving being able to incorporate the stark graphic of a deer head when I can–especially this Christmas. It really does make me happy to decorate with something meaningful to him, but of course, everything is better with a little glitter mixed in! Right?

I didn’t read any tutorials on how to do this, as I decided ‘on the fly’ in the glitter section at Michael’s I wanted to make one.

So, here is my Glitter Deer Head ‘technique’, such as it is 🙂  Sources are linked.

MATERIALS

Blank Artist’s Canvas {I used 18×24}

Glitter

Bonding Agent

Chevron Frog Tape

Paint

Paper Deer Cut-Out

1) I started by printing off the deer head on paper. You can find these images online {I googled “deer head graphic”} then

re-sized it in my design software.

I printed it on my standard printer, using the “tile” function so it printed it largely over several 8.5×11 sheets of paper. You could also order this printed to size from Staples or Office Depot, its only about $2 for an “engineering” print, which would save the work of piecing it together. You can see I traced slightly outside the lines, I wanted the deer to fill the canvas a little more then I expected when I first sized it, but that worked fine.

2) I used FrogTape in the chevron pattern {a freebie from the Haven conference last summer, thank you FrogTape!} and taped up the canvas so I could paint it with a pattern background. I just used a ‘custom’ mix of some cream chalk paint darkened with some craft paint. Yes, it’s ‘custom’ because it is just what I had on hand and mixed together. Next time, I would use only craft paint as the chalk paint got pretty gritty, it’s not really designed for this type of work so live and learn, but it worked out fine in the end.

3) You can see below what I used for glitter and a bonding agent to adhere the glitter, this was all purchased at Michael’s. I did two coats, using a paint brush to put the bonding agent/glue on the canvas, then generously sprinkling the glitter on. After letting the first coat dry for several hours, I made a trip outside to gently shake off the extra glitter, then went back and filled in the gaps with more glue and more glitter. The bushes outside my house are quite sparkly right now!

That’s really all. I let it dry overnight and then set it on my fireplace. I liked it so much, I decided it was all done. I may need to set it with some sort of a topcoat to hold the glitter a bit, we’ll see how much more drops off over the next few days. Soon, it will get styled for the holidays but I am resisting the urge NOT to jump on the early decorating bandwagon just yet.

It’s kind of quirky and quite an interesting addition to our family room. We inherited some bold decor in this house {we’re only here a few more months so we aren’t repainting this two-story room with it’s burgundy striped accent wall} but the deer head seems to work. It’s a fun little element, mixing up some glitter with some wildlife. Why not?

And, best of all, my husband finally gets to hang a twelve-point buck over the fireplace!

Here’s the pin-able graphic, just in case you have a wildlife-loving man to impress too!

Thanks for stopping by!