DIY: Mounted Toy Animal Heads

After my Toy Animal Valentine DIY, I had a few leftover animals and didn't know what to do with them. My friend Jess suggested that I made tiny wall mounted animal heads, so I did! The elephant was simple but the unicorn took a little more work. It was well worth the effort if you ask me because, well, unicorns are awesome. 

What you'll need:

• toy animals (found in the dollar section of Target)
• wooden plaques (found at Joann's... the tiny ones are cheap)
• hot glue
• spray paint
• a saw
• sandpaper 
• paint pens (if you choose to make a unicorn)
• a pointy wooden dowel (also if you choose to make a unicorn)

The first thing you're going to need to do, and there's no nice way of saying this, is cut their heads off. I know, this photo looks a little gruesome. Sand the cut edges of the heads until they're smooth.

Next, spray paint your wooden plaques whatever color you like. I chose a natural brown color for the elephant and bright purple for the unicorn. I also added tiny silver specks to the purple plaque by spraying metallic paint just next to it and letting the wind carry some of the paint over. 

If you're making a unicorn, spray paint the horse head white. Once it's dry, use paint pens to paint the mane like a rainbow. For the horn, I used the pointy wooden dowel that comes inside bags of Poly-Fil. I sawed off the pointy part, spray painted it hot pink, and hot glued it to the horse's head.

Finally, once everything is dry, line the back of the heads with hot glue and attach them to the plaques.

Glue or nail a tiny hook to the back and hang them up!