How to make crafts from foam with your own hands. Original do-it-yourself foam crafts Useful do-it-yourself foam products

Styrofoam crafts are popular among both experienced handmade craftsmen and beginner craftsmen. The material is very easy to purchase at any hardware store, it is light in weight and easy to process. They make garden figures from it, use it in the interior of rooms, decorate wall panels, sculptural compositions for the holidays.

For foam crafts, thick pieces and thin plates are used. For a large three-dimensional figure, several sheets are glued together, and after drying, the contours of the figure are cut out with a sharp cutter. If you want to decorate the garden with a sculpture created by yourself, then after cutting it out, you can putty it and paint it, weight it by placing it on a heavy base or strengthening the craft with pieces of reinforcement or wire.

In the article, we will consider several options for making DIY foam crafts that people who do not have special artistic abilities can easily do. The main thing is to want to do the work, to show interest in a new kind of creativity. A schematic image can, in the absence of drawing skills, be printed from the Internet on a printer. The manufacture of the figures presented in the article does not require special cash costs, so people of even a small income can make crafts from polystyrene foam.

Swan for an artificial lake

To cut out such a large sculpture, you need to assemble a large parallelepiped from a foam sheet cut into rectangles of the desired size. For high-quality bonding, purchase the following tools of your choice:

  • liquid Nails;
  • glue designed for foam;
  • silicone sealant;
  • facade glue that can withstand frosty temperatures;
  • mounting foam.

When everything is dry, on one side of the three-dimensional figure, the contours of a swan are drawn - a side view. It is recommended that you first make a sketch on a piece of drawing paper, and only then transfer it with a marker to the material.

To cut a large figure, use a hacksaw, cutters, a sharp knife. Of course, after such work, the edges of our swan will crumble and look unaesthetic. Therefore, the next stage of work is to cover the entire surface of the foam craft with gypsum putty. It is best to take a small, rubber spatula. Stir gypsum powder with water in an unnecessary bowl to a state of thick sour cream. Cover the swan with a thin layer. Then you need to let the figure dry. If necessary, smooth out the remaining irregularities, you can add water to the solution and wipe the figure with a sponge again.

Acrylic paints are best suited for painting a swan, although some masters also use the usual facade. The final touch in the work is the coating of the figure with varnish. Now she is not afraid of rain, the craft can be washed with a sponge. In order for the figure not to fall from gusts of wind, it can be glued to a stone.

openwork house

It is most convenient to make a polystyrene "house" craft from a ceiling covering. It is sold in squares, has a small thickness, so you can cut along the drawn contours with a simple knife or chisel. The house is made up of 6 parts. 2 sides are drawn together with roof triangles, 2 others are wall squares. It remains to cut out two parts for the roof slopes. If you want to make an openwork craft from foam with your own hands, an ornate pattern is applied to the ceiling panels.

Do not forget to put a wooden board under the foam to work. After all the details are made, they can be glued together in the form of a house. The floor is not done, since you can put a small night light inside, which at night will create indescribable comfort in the room.

Styrofoam craft "dog"

2018 is the Year of the Dog according to the Eastern calendar. Many, decorating a room for a holiday, put figurines of this animal under the Christmas tree or on a bookshelf. We offer an interesting version of a congratulatory stand with the onset of the New Year using the example of a dog.

On a thin foam sheet, draw the contours of a dog that sits on a large bone. On a separate segment, we draw the numbers we need, indicating the coming year. Then all the details are cut out with a sharp cutter. The contours of the resulting bone are circled again and the same bone is cut out, only with a void inside. Then all the details are painted with paints and the picture is put together.

To place the numbers, you need to cut out excess foam on the bottom strip of the bone contour. The photo shows how to do it. A congratulatory craft can be placed under the Christmas tree, hung on the door at work or at home, put on the festive table.

New Year's foam crafts

For a holiday, decorate a room in a school classroom or a group room in a kindergarten, any office or lobby of a large enterprise, decorate a shop window or one department with foam images of a snowman, sleigh, gifts with bows, Santa Claus deer and his carriage, hang small snowflakes on Christmas tree on the street in front of the house or placed in front of the supermarket.

For stability, the figures can be pricked on rods screwed into a heavy stand. Consider a few simple options for making New Year's crafts from foam.

Snowflakes

In order to cut out a beautiful symmetrical snowflake, you need to be able to draw it, because we don’t want to make a poor-quality and sloppy Christmas tree toy. Therefore, you first need to either draw a diagram on paper using a ruler and a simple pencil, or print a finished template.

Then, using carbon paper, we transfer the drawing to the main material. With this method, it remains possible to correct any irregularities in the image.

Then, with a sharp knife, the pattern is cut out along the contours. To hang a snowflake on one of its rays, you need to make a hole and thread a thread or thin rain.

Snowman from ready-made balls

To decorate a room for the holiday, you can make a snowman from ready-made foam balls. You can buy them in sewing accessories stores.

To keep the balls one on top of the other, they need to be cut a little at the junction, creating a flat surface, and then glued to each other. Further work goes only on attaching decorating details - a hat, a scarf, you can attach hands in mittens, glue eyes and nose from half beads, draw a mouth with paints or a marker. If desired, you can even make a broom from twigs. For sewing small parts, it is best to use felt.

From the text of the article, you already understood that it is very easy to make crafts from such a beautiful and cheap material, you can create both tiny key rings and large garden figures.

Often, after buying large household appliances, there are many pieces of foam left that most people simply throw away.

But, with a little imagination and effort, these faceless white pieces can turn into a real work of art. So, what can be done from foam? This will be discussed in this article.

Home garden decorations

In the country house, various figurines of animals or birds made of polystyrene, which adorn the backyard, look the best. They can be made both volumetric and flat. Anyone will be cheered up by cartoon characters or just flowers that will be installed in the garden or near the house as a decoration.

If the site is equipped with an artificial reservoir, then water lilies or cute frogs at the water's edge will set the right tone for the whole composition.

Bird for decorating a summer house

To decorate trees in the garden, you can make birds from this material. To do this, you need a flat piece of foam, on which the outline of a bird is drawn on a stencil and cut out with a sharp clerical knife. The foam decoration blank is covered with several layers of finishing putty on all sides and dried thoroughly after each application.

After the figure has dried, all irregularities are processed with sandpaper. Next, you can begin to decorate the decoration with facade paint, which is tinted with the desired shades.

Important! The paint will protect the foam from the effects of varnish and will not peel off at the first precipitation.

The dried bird is covered with a layer of varnish. Thus, a unique foam plastic decoration is obtained, which will delight not only the owners, but also the guests of the backyard.

Craft "Mushrooms" to decorate the garden

This type of design is very popular among summer residents. You can make foam mushrooms large and voluminous with eyes or small piles. Any type of foam decoration will look advantageous.

In any case, the foam blank is performed as follows:

  • The hat and leg are cut out separately.
  • The parts are fixed together with glue, putty or self-tapping screws.
  • Mushrooms are covered with acrylic paint of a suitable shade.
  • A layer of varnish is applied to protect the foam from environmental influences.

In this way, you can create any figure, if you work a little and think in advance how it will look. Finished decorations are installed on the ground, tree branches, stumps and anywhere the owner wishes.

Styrofoam interior decoration

Not only crafts for the street can be created from foam. The material is also suitable for home interior design. Often such details are installed in children's rooms, creating entire panels with cartoon characters or the child's favorite stories. It would also be useful to decorate the house for the holidays, for example, for the New Year with the help of a foam Christmas tree or Christmas figurines.

carved lamp

It is not difficult to make such a piece of furniture, but the decoration made of foam plastic looks amazing. They can be supplemented with both a living room and a public space. For work, you will need 4 sheets of foam, a clerical knife, a ruler and a marker, silicone-based glue, a foam cutter, a Christmas garland.

Decoration algorithm:


wall decorations

Styrofoam produces incredibly beautiful wall panels that will look advantageous in any room. The hall and the dining room can be decorated with floral ornaments, the nursery with fairy tale characters, and the bedroom with soothing foam carvings.

It's not difficult to do this, you need to cut out pre-drawn details from a piece of foam, paint them as required by fantasy and the basic design, and attach them to the wall in the correct sequence.

In the children's room, a panel with the name of the baby is often made on the wall as a decoration. To do this, you need to cut out each letter or name completely in the format that was previously conceived and arrange it at your discretion.

Interior details

Ikebana looks great from this material and a plastic bottle. There are practically no costs for such creativity, but the effect of the decoration is stunning. To create, they take a green plastic bottle and cut off the neck from it so that this part can be placed on a flat surface. The entire part of the bottle to the bottom is cut into thin straws and small pieces of foam are strung on each. It is better to take the material that consists of large grains in order to use them for this purpose. The bottom is inserted into the part that was cut off and the interior decoration is placed in the desired location.

On New Year's Eve or Valentine's Day, you can please loved ones with pleasant handmade souvenirs. To do this, a conceived detail is cut out of raw materials, decorated, covered with sparkles. A hole is made in its upper part so that you can thread a golden ribbon into the decoration, which will add solemnity.

Conclusion

Styrofoam is such a pliable material that, if desired, can be turned into a unique decoration with various functional loads. If you set a goal, then you can create something really valuable and beautiful from unnecessary pieces of material in the shortest possible time.

Such products will bring a touch of originality to the landscape of the site or the interior of the house and keep the warmth of the hands of the master who performed them.

Styrofoam is a fairly soft material that lends itself perfectly to needlework. You can create a lot of useful things from it, starting with unique crafts and ending with interior decoration elements. The main value of such material is its cheapness. Thanks to this, it will be possible not to worry if something does not work out, since you can always throw it away and start over.

Initially, foam plastic can be used as room decoration. This material is easy to transform into any shape and decorate with it both the ceiling and other elements of the room. Photos of such foam crafts are widely presented in the article.

Moreover, a lot of beautiful things can be made from polystyrene foam for decorating a house or garden. Involve your children in this process - it is not only exciting and interesting, but also very useful for them. Using foam, you can create chic compositions that perfectly complement the summer cottage.


Styrofoam figurines

Make many different figurines that will decorate your cottage. Show your imagination, they can be made both voluminous and flat, in the form of birds or animals. Figures made in the form of cartoon characters will especially appeal to your guests if they meet them at the entrance to the territory.

Complement your trees with small figurines of birds, moreover, if you decorate them, it will certainly please the eye!

If there is a small pond on your site, then it can also be diversified with figures of frogs or even a crocodile, imagine the admiration of your guests when they see such a picture. What kind of crafts can be made from polystyrene is up to you, but a small manifestation of imagination is necessary.

In addition to all of the above, the garden is decorated with foam mushrooms of various types and sizes, no one forbids making a human-sized mushroom.

Complement real flowers with artificial ones, which will also be made of foam, you can borrow the ideas of flowers that grow in the wild places of our planet.

But a more interesting option would be foam animals, such as wolves or bears. Of course, you will have to make a lot of effort to make a bear, but the result will be worth it! The best solution would be to create figures for the garden in a three-dimensional style.


Decoration materials

To create decorations from foam, you will need:

  • Styrofoam (select the density depending on the desired result)
  • Stationery knife
  • Sandpaper
  • Needle file
  • Putty (to cover street figures)
  • Paints (selected separately for street and home figures)

Do-it-yourself voluminous foam crafts are much more difficult to do than flat ones. You will first have to get used to and get used to working with this material.

Therefore, it is better to study on ordinary flat elements, get your hands on it, and only then move on to more complex works. For example, you can take a ceiling foam and a picture you like, from which a stencil is subsequently made to transfer the picture.

The stencil is cut out with a clerical knife. At first, the edges of your drawing may be uneven due to inability, but the irregularities can be smoothed out with sandpaper. Absolutely any glue is suitable for gluing parts, moreover, you can use liquid nails.

In case you are making a figure for outdoor decoration, then do not use glue that dissolves easily in water. Paints with the same success should be matched to the room or street, as the first rain can wash them away.

What kind of foam do crafts you can find out in the process of creating figures. For different products use a variety of types of foam.


How to make a styrofoam bird

First, using a template, you need to draw a bird on the foam. The next step is to cut out the figure with a sharp knife and cover it with outdoor putty.

Putty should be applied in two layers, but before proceeding with the second, it is important to wait until the first is completely dry. After the second layer has dried, sandpaper over all the bumps that arose in the previous step.

Paint plays not only the role of color, but also protects the foam from the subsequent layer of varnish. After the paint has dried, it is necessary to treat the figure with a layer of varnish, and preferably several, and fix the bird on the branches of the tree.

Styrofoam mushroom

Styrofoam mushrooms are created both very large and small, which will look great in flower beds or under a tree.

It is better to make a hat and a leg separately from each other, and upon completion of decorating the figurine, simply connect them with a self-tapping screw and putty. The mushroom is best painted with acrylic paint, using varnish to complete the work so that the foam does not deteriorate from the weather.

Peacock for giving

Such an elegant bird as a peacock can be made in the same way that we described earlier. Note that the body of the bird must be made voluminous, but the tail can be made from a flat piece of foam.

The carved tail of the peacock must be connected to the body, the whole figure must be covered with a layer of putty, painted as you wish or peeped at the coloring option and covered with several layers of varnish.

If you are creating a figure of a three-dimensional type, but large in size, then first you need to make a frame of the figure, which must then be filled with mounting foam.

Styrofoam is an absolutely environmentally friendly product, so you can make children's crafts from polystyrene foam for the kindergarten from it. It will be interesting and useful for children to play or get acquainted with the world of animals presented in the form of foam plastic figures.

We hope that the presented options for a master class on foam crafts will become your companions when creating your original figures of animals and birds. Borrow ideas or come up with your own to decorate your home or summer cottage.

Photo of foam crafts

Polyfoam has found its application in the decorative field. Due to the fact that its processing does not require expensive equipment, everyone can work with it. The material is cheap, so a lot of money is not required. Each room or area requires decorative elements. Without them, everything looks boring and mundane. The territory is very decorated with crafts made from plastic bottles or from old car tires. But there is an option to create crafts and decorative elements of their polystyrene foam.

This article is devoted to what can be made from foam, how and what is the advantage of using foam. Your attention will be given reviews of polystyrene foam crafts that you can do yourself. So everyone will not only decorate their room, but also please their children.

Benefits of styrofoam for crafts

Despite the fact that this material is mainly used for insulation, foam crafts are very popular. There are reasons for that. Let's start with the fact that this is one of the most common materials. It can not only be bought cheaply. Styrofoam is often used as a transport and packaging material. Therefore, after the purchase of equipment, there remains a sufficient amount of foam plastic ready for use.

Note! It is better to work with fine-grained foam, as it will not crumble much and scatter around the room.

Here are some other advantages of the material:

  1. Light weight, which allows you to transport the material anywhere. Yes, and it is easier to work with it, no brute physical strength, as with wood, is required. For women, this is a big plus.
  2. Future crafts will not suffer from high humidity. She is not afraid of them, so the figurines or structures can be used on the street and even in winter. The material is not afraid of frost.
  3. Despite all the damage, foam crafts can be reconstructed. This does not require a lot of money and effort.
  4. To make the craft stable, you can simply use a heavy stand.
  5. Processing does not require special and expensive materials. Working with foam is easy and fast.

The only thing that is important to consider is the fear of foam solvents and fire. Paints or compounds with acetone or thinner will ruin the material. The same goes for fire. Otherwise, this is a great option for realizing your most secret ideas. And what can they be? Let's look at what you can do with foam plastic with your own hands.

Decorating the cottage with foam crafts

We humans are drawn to beauty. That is why we are pleased with the beautiful facade, large flower beds in front of the main entrance and all kinds of decorations. The trend to decorate the home with figurines and other crafts has been known for a long time. Previously, they were symbolic and served for protection. Today, all kinds of crafts play the role of decorative ornaments. Styrofoam is an excellent material for creating figurines or decorations for the site. The photo below shows an example of how easy it is to make a horse figurine from a single sheet. All you need is a template and a knife.

As you know, a full-fledged landscape design is quite expensive. But to make something out of polystyrene is a simple matter, and not labor-intensive. For those who will perform such work for the first time, we recommend stopping at simple flat figures. And only after everything began to work out, you can proceed to large and voluminous crafts.

If winter is on the nose, then decorating a summer cottage or house with foam snowmen would be an excellent option. It is not difficult to make them, only the backbone of the wire is narrowed, on which foam balls of different diameters are mounted. After that, the snowman is decorated, acquiring a beautiful appearance. Here's what it might look like in real life.

To make a figurine for landscape design, you need to choose a composition or idea and bring it to life. Complexity is taken into account in order to really create a craft, and not waste time and effort in vain. Usually for landscape design figurines and products are used, on the subject of flora and fauna. Animals, birds, plants or fairy-tale characters, all this will decorate the site.

To bring the idea to life, you need to follow this order:

  • decide on a craft;
  • prepare a sheet of foam of a certain size;
  • choose a template;
  • transfer it to the surface of the foam;
  • cut details;
  • if required, then use foam glue to connect the parts;
  • at the end, the craft is decorated. You can paint it with water-based paint.

Here's what you can do with styrofoam, template, glue and paint, following a similar order. All you need to do is cut out the pieces and glue them together. The finished craft is painted in the appropriate color. Armature is used as legs for such a flamingo. The rods have a decent weight, so they hold the structure in strong winds. And for reliability, they are recessed into the ground.

In fact, fantasy in this case can roam. You can create a peacock, penguin, mushroom, swan, stork, etc. Styrofoam is easy to work with, so you can bring the most extraordinary ideas to life.

Styrofoam crafts for kids

For those who have children, it is very important to pay attention to them. They love gifts, so the original craft will be a joy for the baby. In addition, children need attention. Why not take the time to create foam products with them? It is safe to say that they will be very grateful for this. But what kind of crafts can you create?

To make their game not only fun, but also educational, you can make an alphabet out of polystyrene foam. This is one of the easiest crafts to make. You will only need a sheet of foam, a knife, a marker and a letter template. It remains only to mark the surface of the foam, cut out the letters and clean them.

If you have already decided to create a whole foam composition that a child can play with, then you will have to make more efforts. In fact, the principle of work is the same. For example, look at the photo to see a large styrofoam toy. It is cut according to the pattern. It remains only to paint the product on both sides and install it in the house.

Who doesn't like to play house. If you make an effort, then it can also be done with your own hands. It can be either a small craft suitable for playing, or a large house where the child himself will fit. Here is an example of a small house for children to play with.

And if you have a son, he will like a boat made of foam plastic. It can be successfully launched into the water, since polystyrene foam is not afraid of moisture. And the creation process itself is very simple. This can be seen from this photo.

Useful crafts for home

This is another area of ​​​​use of foam. There are many ideas on how to use crafts for the right purposes. From polyurethane foam, you can make a decorative finish or imitation of furniture elements. One option is an artificial fireplace. If you want to make the house cozier, more comfortable and more beautiful, then you can create a fireplace, as in this photo.

Note! This design can also cover wall defects. For example, if wallpaper is glued in that place, a crack or hole has formed.

All you need to work is foam sheets, glue or long wooden knitting needles, a tape measure, a marker, a level, a stationery knife, paint and a foam baseboard as a decoration. To begin with, it is important to determine the dimensions and apply markings on the surface of the plate. Then, with the help of a clerical knife, the details are cut out.

All elements can be connected to each other with glue or pierced with knitting needles. You should get a frame that imitates a fireplace.

Do not be surprised that its edges are so damaged. When cutting, it will crumble. This is not a problem, since next we will decorate the opening with decorative moldings. But, if you don’t like such a cut, you can smooth it out with a lighter. Alternatively, cut with a hot knife. Then the cut will be just perfect.

A foam sheet is laid on top of it. And in order for the fireplace to serve as a shelf for various little things, you can use plywood. Now it's time to glue the baseboards in place to make the foam fireplace more realistic.

The structure can be supplemented with plywood to make it more stable. It remains only to paint the product with water-based paint and install it in place. Some even form an imitation of a brick on the surface. And for volume, you can cut bricks from the same foam and stick them on the surface. It should turn out like this:

Such foam products will be a wonderful decoration for your home. For clarity, watch a video on how to make a foam fireplace with your own hands.

Separately, I would like to note a new technology for creating figures - 3D cutting of foam. Figured 3D objects are made using a special machine. The products are simply amazing. Here is an example of such technology.

Below is a video of how 3D foam cutting is done.

Summing up

Working with foam is not only very simple, but also exciting. If you want to relax, why not do something useful for your home, landscaping, or for the kids. Moreover, it does not need to spend fabulous money. We looked at just some examples of what you can do with your own hands from foam. But this is only a small part. I use imagination and ingenuity, you will add your original ideas to the list.

If you want to truly beautifully decorate your summer cottage, then we recommend that you consider interesting foam crafts, the creation of which does not take much time and effort. Very often, the foam remains in the boxes after the purchase of household appliances, so there should not be any problems with the presence of the material.

Material Properties

Styrofoam is great for making crafts, as it is easy to use, practically does not react with other materials, withstands all weather conditions with proper processing, however, the products must either be fixed in place or weighted so that they are not blown away by the wind, and must also be protected from the effects of benzene and acetone, since these substances destroy the foam.

Preparation for work

What you can do with foam plastic with your own hands, we will consider later in the article, but first it is important to carry out preparatory procedures and make sure that all materials and tools are at hand.

Among them should be the foam itself, as well as a template or sketch according to which the figure will be made, glue, putty, self-tapping screws and related tools, color, paint, mounting foam or cement.


bird making

If you want to decorate the trees located in the summer cottage, then the bird will stand in these places as well as possible. To do this, you need to take a piece of foam and transfer the template to the material. Next, you should cut out the figure according to the template so that it turns out to be flat or voluminous, if there is enough volume of foam.

When the bird is cut out, it is important to cover the product with a finishing putty, which is used for facade work. After applying the first layer, it is important to wait until the figurine dries, and then apply the second layer. After the second layer has dried, it is important to process the craft with fine-grained sandpaper in order to remove all irregularities and roughness. Next, you can move on to coloring.

To do this, it is important to use facade paint with the addition of the desired color to get the desired color. When the paint dries, you can cover the bird with several layers of varnish, but so that each of them dries properly. Everything, now you can install the bird in the right place. Photos of such foam crafts can be viewed in the article or on the Internet, where you can also choose the design you like best.

Mushrooms

Such crafts will stand up perfectly under the trees, in the flower beds and in the most conspicuous places. There is nothing complicated here, but it is recommended to install the mushroom cap separately, as this will not only simplify the manufacturing process, but also make the figure stronger.

The technique, in principle, is no different from the method of making a bird, with the only difference being that the mushroom cap is installed on the leg with putty and a self-tapping screw, which must be screwed through into the leg.

Peacock

For the body, it is recommended to choose a voluminous piece of foam, which is also processed, cut and covered with protective layers. But for the tail, you can use a flat element, which is also important to cut and process. At the final stage, it is important to connect the tail and body with putty, and you can also use self-tapping screws for a more secure fixation.

At the end, the product is also sanded and painted, as well as varnished. Ideas and instructions for making crafts can be borrowed on the Internet, where there are detailed diagrams if something is not clear to you.

Volumetric figures of large sizes

If you want to make a large figure that takes up impressive dimensions, then we recommend that you use mounting foam and a frame so as not to use a lot of foam.


This approach will allow not only to make a large three-dimensional figure, but also to make it strong and reliable from the wind. Doing such crafts from foam with your own hands is always fun and interesting, and later they look very nice on the site.

Detailed master classes on foam crafts will help you understand the manufacturing technology. There is nothing complicated here, but the right technique will help the product stand for many years and not nearly deteriorate.

Photo of foam crafts

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