What is it about the moon that makes it so magical? I've always loved looking out my window at night and seeing all the stars and the moon lighting up the sky. This easy DIY moon phase wall decor will bring some of that night sky magic right into your own room!
Helpful tip before we begin: Don’t worry about making this DIY perfect! While these directions might make it seem a little intimidating at first, this project turns out to be really easy once you get started and it’s almost impossible to mess up.
What you’ll need:
- 6 white Styrofoam discs
- Black, white, and grey acrylic paint
- Fine glitter (not chunky)
- Glow-in-the-dark paint or Mod Podge (either will work)
- Sea sponge
- Foam brush
- X-Acto knife
- Double-sided foam tape and washi tape/ painter’s tape
Step 1: Starting with the grey paint, give the entire disc an even coating with the sponge. To make these look as natural as possible, you have to slowly build up the shadows. It helps to pull up a picture of a full moon for reference (here’s the one I used). To darken certain areas, mix a little black and grey paint to create a charcoal grey color and then sponge it on using quick dabbing motions. Following your reference photo, add shadows where they would normally appear on the moon. Continue mixing increasing amounts of black paint with grey paint to build up the shadows. Don’t be afraid to go back and lighten some areas if you feel the need to. Again, don’t worry about making these perfect!! I promise they’ll look great in the end!
Step 2: Now that the shadows are done, it’s time to add some lighter details. With the pointed tip of your foam brush, add some white lines to your moon just like they appear on your reference photo. And don’t worry about making them perfect because the next step is to blend! Clean off most of the dark paint from your sponge brush and then dab the white paint lines while they’re still wet to gently blend them out. Think of it like blending makeup: you don’t want any harsh lines. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you have painted all 6 Styrofoam discs (you should have 6 full moons). Once you are happy with your results, set them aside to dry.
Step 3: This is the fun part (spoiler alert: it involves glitter!!). For this step, you can choose to make your moons either glow-in-the-dark or just plain glittery. If you decide you want glow-in-the-dark, I recommend painting on a thin base coat of clear glow paint and letting it dry before adding the glitter layer. This will ensure that there is enough glow paint on the moons to actually make them glow. Next, mix either your glow paint or Mod Podge with a little bit of glitter to create the glitter layer. For this step, it’s better to add the glitter slowly. You can always add more as you wish, but you also don’t want it to be too sparkly! Once the mixture is evenly blended together, use your foam brush and add a thin layer to your moon. This is the part where everything starts to come together and you get a sneak peek of what the final product is going to look like. Once your moons are sparkly enough set them aside to dry.
Step 4: Now it’s finally time to make the moon phases! By this step you should have 6 completed full moons. However, you’re going to have to pick favorites here, because you’ll want your 4 best looking moons to make up the full moon, half-moons, and the waxing and waning gibbous phases. On that note, your 2 least favorite moons will be your waxing and waning crescents. Keep in mind that your best looking moons should be used for the phases that show the most of it. (So use your best one for the full moon, then your second-best ones for the gibbous phases, and then use the remaining 3 for the half-moon and crescent phases).
Step 5: Once you’ve decided which of your moons will be for each phase, it’s time to get cutting! Since the full moon doesn’t need to be cut, just set it to the side. For the gibbous phases, I found it easiest to place one of your moons on top of the one you want to cut and use it as a guide. Use the moon on top to cover the area of the other moon that you do not want to cut. For the gibbous moon phases, you’ll want to keep a majority of the moon and only cut off a sliver. At this phase, the moon is almost full but not quite, so keep that in mind when deciding how much to cut off. Use a pencil to mark where you want to cut and then use the X-Acto knife to carefully cut off part of your moon. It’s better to cut off too little than too much here, so be patient with this step in order to achieve the best results. Continue cutting and shaping your moon until you’re happy with it. For the half-moon phases, simply cut one of your moons straight down the middle! Follow the same procedure as the gibbous moons for the crescents, except this time you’ll be keeping the crescent that gets cut off of the moon. Make sure this crescent is larger than the sliver that you cut off to make the gibbous moons.
Step 6: Thought we were done with the paints? Sorry...we have to add the finishing touches! Create a charcoal grey color with the black and grey paints and sponge it on to the sides of all your moons. This will add a nice shadow and it’ll look better than the plain white color of the Styrofoam. Make sure to paint the exposed part of the foam that resulted from cutting it. You don’t have to add glitter to the edges unless you really want to. Set your moons aside to dry before moving to the next step.
Step 7: Congratulations! Now you’re officially done with creating the moons. All that’s left to do is hang them up! You can use a variety of methods to hang your moons on your wall, so do what works best for you. However, I chose to use double-sided foam tape. I didn’t want to ruin the paint on my walls though, so I used squares of washi tape as a barrier between the wall and the foam tape. Most washi tape peels right off of walls without taking the paint off, so it’s best to use either that or painter’s tape. Once the washi tape was on the wall, I put the foam tape on top. Make sure everything is aligned to how you want it to be, and then add the moons. Since the Styrofoam is so light, you shouldn’t have a problem getting it to stick. Now step back and admire your work!
I seriously cannot get over how amazing this DIY turned out! It really adds a touch of magic to my room and I’m obsessed! Although a bit time consuming, I feel like every second of this project was worth it. Now you can sleep under the stars... er... moon... every night! I’d love to see how your moon phases turned out! Feel free to send me pictures and leave questions or suggestions down in the comments. Thanks for making this with me; I hope you had as much fun as I did!
XOXO,
Crafty Fashionista