Cereal Box Beach Mosaic

It's been a while since I've shared a mosaic, which is surprising because I love making mosaics. I find the process very relaxing. Oddly, I don't find beaches, the subject of today's mosaic, relaxing at all. Forests are much more relaxing to me. Anyway, I'd encourage you to give this project a try. 

Cereal Box Beach Mosaic

Materials:

• cereal boxes
• scissors
• glue

Steps:

Cut a base from the inside of a cereal box. Mine is 5.5" x 6". You can make it whatever size you want, but keep in mind that if it is too small, it's very difficult to show details. If it's too large, it will take a lot of time and a lot of cereal boxes to finish. 

Sketch your design on the plain side of the base, then pick your colors. I cut chunks from a variety of cereal boxes to test what colors I thought I'd be using. I went with Rice Krispies Blue for the sky and the darker Crispix Blue for the water. I originally planned for the umbrella to have Raisin Bran Purple in addition to the Golden Grahams Yellow and Apple Jacks Green that I ended up using. I'd planned to use pictures of cereal for the sand, but eventually went with the sand colors of Cranberry Almond Crunch. 

It's easiest to start with the large sections that won't require special cuts - like the first four rows of the sky. Cut strips of blue, then cut those strips into tiles that are squarish. Add glue to a small section (I did one horizontal line at a time, starting at the top) then place the tiles into the glue. 

Continue working downward until you reach the umbrella. Cut angles off the tiles that touch the umbrella so that they neither leave a gap nor take the space of the umbrella. For now, leave empty spaces where the umbrella will go. 

Next, add the dark blue squares for the water. Again, leave gaps for the umbrella and trim tiles as needed to fit the spaces around the umbrella. 

Fill in the black umbrella handle (from the letters in Apple Jacks) and the purple towel next. 

Begin filling in the sand. Leave the space around the beach ball empty. 

Through trial and error, I discovered that the easiest way to do the umbrella and beach ball are to cut triangle tiles to the shapes you need. The last step is to fill in the remaining sand around the beach ball. 

In retrospect, I'm not happy with how I did the sand around the beach ball. It would have looked better if I'd stuck with square tiles, cut to fit around the beach ball vs. the triangular shapes I used. Other than that, I'm happy with my project and eager to try another cereal box mosaic. 

On a side note, you may be wondering why our family of three has such a diverse collection of cereal boxes. Ordinarily, we don't. We each have a few favorites, but when COVID-19 hit, I started using Amazon Pantry (affiliate link) and going to a store only for fresh or frozen items that wouldn't ship well. With free shipping and fast delivery for Prime members, Amazon Pantry was a no-brainer. In the early days of quarantine with people stocking up on dry goods, our favorites weren't always available, so we started branching out. Thus, plenty of colorful options for cereal box crafting!