Easy, Faux Living Wall Art

Well, it finally happened. Potty training resulted in needing to call a plumber. And, of course, this happened in the basement bathroom toilet the day before I’d planned to redo the floors, meaning I had to put renovations on hold until we could remove the toilet.

To de-stress and avoid glaring at my 3-year-old, I decided to make some artwork for the bathroom walls. This project was cheap, easy, mess-free, and took me less than an hour, plus I was left with enough materials to do more mossy projects in the future. It helped that I already had leftover embroidery hoop inner rings from other projects, and I was happy to finally think of a use for them. And I’m so glad I talked myself out of ordering 2 boxes of fake moss, because one box went a LONG way…even with my 4-year-old stealing it for her own art project when I wasn’t looking at my piles. 🤦‍♀️😂

Step 1: Cut the paper backing and glue it onto wooden rings. I used long packing paper that had been wadded inside an Amazon delivery. You could use paper bags instead just as easily. Placing the paper on my counter, I didn’t worry about making perfect circles just yet, but I made sure the paper was fairly flat and smooth. I set my wooden rings on the paper, then cut out wide “circles” around each ring.

As soon as my hot glue gun was ready, I carefully squeezed the glue all around the back edge of my first wooden ring. I did this as fast as I could so the glue would stay hot, and immediately I placed the ring back on top of its corresponding paper. Gently, I pushed the ring down so the glue stuck all the way around. After giving it a second to cool, I made sure the paper was attached all around without any big gaps.

I repeated this for my other 2 rings, then moved onto the next step once all 3 circles were ready.

Step 2: Glue on the decorative faux moss. I went through a LOT of glue, but I only did small sections at a time to make sure it stayed hot/sticky. There was no real skill needed for this part, just zigzagging and swirling the glue onto the paper backing. I did about 3×3 inch sections at a time, one circle at a time. Around the inside curve of the wooden ring, I made sure to glue that wood as well so the moss would stick right up to the sides.

Immediately once each 3×3 inch section of glue was on, I tore off chunks of each moss color and stuck them in place by gently pressing the moss into the glue. If any area had exposed paper visible around or through the moss, I squeezed on a bit more glue and added more moss patches.

This took a bit of time but came together kind of like a puzzle as I arranged my different colors of moss. I did one circle at a time, and, once finished, I liked how the random moss sections seemed natural and how all 3 circles looked together. I briefly considered doing more circles since I had so much extra moss, but I didn’t want to overdo it on my wall.

Step 3: Cut off excess paper and glue. This took ZERO time to dry, and then it was time to cut off the excess paper around the back of the circles. Some glue had squeezed out of the backs too, and this was also easy to cut so that nothing stuck out farther than the wooden edge of the circles.

Step 4: Hang and enjoy! Now my mossy circles were ready to display. Because these are so light, I only used one small nail to hang each ring. First I hammered in the nail, then held the moss circle in place, then gently pushed so the nail poked through the paper and hung on the wooden ring.

I love how these turned out. I wanted a really natural, organic touch on my walls, and these do the job! It’s a bit like having a “living wall” without any hassle or risk of dead plants. LOL. You could create these mossy circles in nearly any color, because you can find decorative faux moss in white, pink, blue, orange, yellow, etc. personally, I hope my green mosses will play off of my bathroom’s tiles, countertops, and shower panels…but we’ll see once I finish those projects! 😜

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