Stuffed Aquarium

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I just realized that I had my own IKEA hack, but hadn’t really thought about it since I made it years ago. When I saw all of these sea creatures in the kids section at IKEA I knew they’d make for a fun picture with the help of a little craft felt.

Materials:
Small Stuffed Sea Creatures
Craft Felt: Light Beige, Dark Beige, Light Green, Dark Green, Light Blue, Grey
Dark Blue Plastic Backing
(you can also use clear and adhere blue paper to the back of it, or even use glass if you are good with cutting glass, I just happened to find dark blue polycarbonate at my hardware store)

Tools:
Hot Glue
Black Marker
Scissors
A cutter for your backing (my piece was the right size when I bought it)

Construction:
1. Cut your backing to size. I managed to find a piece that was just about the size I wanted, but you might not be so lucky. I also found a piece that was just about the right color, although I have no idea why Home Depot had an 18″ square piece of blue polycarbonate, I’ll just assume that the craft gods were with me that day.

2. Cut out the felt shapes. I used light blue felt for the bubbles, greens for the seaweed and beige for the sand. I didn’t use any templates, just sort of free handed it. By overlapping some light and dark colors you can add a little depth. For the castle I doodled it onto a grey felt first with a marker then cut it out.

3. Hot Glue! I just threw this together for fun, so I used hot glue to stick everything to the board. It’s been hanging in my bathroom for five years and hasn’t fallen apart so the hot glue is doing pretty well, but you can certainly use something more archival if you are worried about it lasting.