cherry blossom

Cork boards are awesome because they can be great functional pieces of art. They take on paint really well and serve as a great surface to pin your daily reminders on. Not only will you be on top of everything you have to do, but your office will also look great!

To make this pin board, you’ll need: 4 8 ½” by 11” cork sheets, multi-surface paint, brushes, double sided mounting tape and our cherry branch 11 x 11 stencil.

Step 1: Lay out your four cork sheets side by side so that they form a square. Place your stencil on the top right corner of your square. Angle it so that it looks as if your branch is part of a big cherry blossom tree.

Step 2: Using brown paint and a stencil brush, begin to paint in the branch. Make sure to use a dry brush technique, this means that you are using a very small amount of paint and applying several layers to make the color more saturated. Use an up and down dabbing motion to paint.

Step 3: Rinse your brush, or use a different brush to paint your petals white. If you are re-using your previous brush, make sure you dry it really well. Again, use very little paint and an up and down dabbing motion.

Step 4: We love the colors of cherry blossoms. To simulate that look, we used a dab of pink paint (paint your plate a little bit to get the excess paint off your brush) to tint parts of the petals a pastel pink.

Step 5: Use the stencil at different angles to paint some flowers and petals falling off the branch.

Step 6: Once your paint is dry, put a piece of double-sided mounting tape of the back of your cork sheets. Hang them up arranged like you painted them, but allow them to separate a little bit from each other.  Snap a picture of your pin board and show us what it looks like in your home or office! @stencil1