Easy Grains Art

At home, we've got lots of grains because they just taste great! They are all different colors and also look good. Then I remembered a project we did in primary school: We went outside and collected different natural materials like acorns and chestnuts. Then we glued them onto big sheets of paper and tried to write our names with the stuff we found outside. Back then we were really proud of ourselves for creating such beautiful artwork (but in reality what we had created something that looked like some chestnuts and other stuff randomly thrown on a piece of paper). So I thought: "I could do the same with rice and grains! Maybe I can make it look better than the ugly art we created in primary school"

And that's what I did: I crafted this cute cat using grains and glue.

• grains in different colors
• transparent glue
• thick paper
• pencil
• small brush
• picture frame
• white paint (additionally)

Choose a motive to paint based on the colors of your grains. It shouldn't be too complex or have any small details, because filling in those little areas is painful and takes hours. Be creative! Here are some examples:

• lion/tiger/cat (that's what I chose)
• chicken
• dogs
• cows

Then sketch your design on a thick sheet of paper.

Make sure your glue is thin enough to be applied with a brush. You can mix it with water to make it thinner.

Apply the glue to one small area at a time (I would recommend doing it with a brush as it spreads out the glue evenly). Then place the grains there and add another layer of glue on top of the grains. Start with smaller areas or corners and always do just one color (one type of grains) at the same time.

When you're done, let it sit until the glue is dry.

For the black parts I used black lentils, then brown rice for the light brown parts and popcorn for the fur.

Then turn it over carefully. Did any grains fall off? If some did, glue them to the paper again and cover them in lots of glue to make sure they don't fall off again. Then let that sit and turn it over again. Now, no grains should fall off.

If you created an animal, you can add some white paint to the eyes to make them look more realistic. I added two dots in each eye.

Next, trim your artwork to fit the frame. Lastly, put it in the picture frame.

Congratulations, you're done!