plexiglass

Hey Lovelies! Is it as hot as it is here?! Gosh, I am not made for weather above 25 degrees Celsius, and it is currently 33 >_<. I feel sick cause of the heat and my body aches.. I just want cold/rainy weather! xD (We don’t have airco and houses are build to keep heat inside on cold days..well, it does its job on hot days too..)
Anyway, I am glad I did plan an easy DIY for this week, so I could slowly work on it. I wanna show you how to make Monstera leaves from plexiglass. I had this material left over from some old frames. I’d better use all the stuff I’ve around. (I need to come up with a few more plexiglass ideas, I’ve many more *Hides). I guess the virus also brought something good, I started using a lot of the materials I already had around. I barely bought any crafting supplies since.

For this DIY you’ll need:
♥ Plexiglass. (Can be as thick as you want)
♥ Sharp Knife or Fretsaw /I believe it is called/.
♥ Shape of a Monstera leaf printed out or drawn.
♥ Cutting Mat.
♥ Sanding Paper.
♥ Glue.
♥ Green Acrylic Paint.

♥DIY Monstera Leaf of Plexiglass

First draw or print out a shape of a Monstera Leaf of your liking. Keep in mind, that the more details it has the more complicated it will be to cut out. You can make it as big as you want, but small is tricky. I made mine about 17cm.

Now trace the leaf to the plexiglass. I used a knive to carve it in lightly, but you can also use a marker. Make sure, that if you use a marker, that there’s still the protective foil on both side. This makes life a lot easier with working on the leaf. It doesn’t get stains or scratches.

♥ Cutting the shape

Now it’s time to decide if you wane use a knife to cut it out, carving it in and breaking off the remains carefully. Which can be tricky, (mine broke at some spots I didn’t wanted it to). Or use a fretsaw to go around the out lines. Whichever way you chose, be careful, both are sharp things to use, and if the plastic breaks as well, it’s sharp, don’t hurt yourself!

When you have the shape completely cut out, use some sanding paper on the edges. To remove any un even edges and the sharp points that might be there.

Now it is time to remove the protective foil. If you want you can keep the shape like this and say it is done. But you can also give it some color, like I did.

• 

• 

♥ Painting

Mix glue with a tiny bit of green paint (You could use paint only, but then you loose transparency). You could test the color first on one of the scrap pieces to test if you like the color. If you do, paint the whole leaf green, on one side, it’s okay if the layer isn’t even, I think that adds to it. Try to avoid very runny glue, plastic won’t take watery things very well. You can better have it on the thicker side.

When you are done, let it dry completely and give it a gloss varnish if you like.

Later I was thinking, what if you add black/metallic tape to the edges, so it looks like stained glass, wouldn’t that be cool?

I hope you enjoyed this DIY! If you decided to make some leaves, show me on Twitter or Instagram with the #DelinleaDIY.

Have a wonderful day and I’ll see you next week!

Love
Danielle

PS. The transparency isn’t really visible, but I refuse to go take pics outside right now! Maybe I’ll update this post later, when heat wave stopped!