Halloween Crafts- DIY Specimen Board

Halloween is over, I know. But I still have a couple of crafts I want to show you.

The DIY Specimen board is up first. 

I saw a few of these on Pinterest. You can find may tutorials on how to make one of your own, this is how I made my board.

I got a bag of bugs from the Dollar store. Very cartoon-toy looking. That had to change.

Two quick coats of silver spray paint.

They look like metal. Too cool.

But see how the paint brings out the details in the spiders?

Okay- here is where I lost some photos. Don’t ask. 

 Here is what I did: I had a wood frame in the basement, it is16x20 inches, and I painted it black. 

I then cut a piece of cardboard to fit and taped it in.

I used watercolor and craft paints to wash the cardboard. I wanted it to look old.

I used Green craft paint to brush on some of the details of the bugs, and glued them to the board.

My daughter looked up Latin names for the bugs, and printed them from my computer for the labels. When I cut them out on the paper cutter, I may have lost track which name goes to which bug.  

I am sure they are all on the wrong bugs. Looks cool though. 

I used some simple straight pins to hold the labels to the board, and added extra pins to the bugs too.

I really like how it came out. It was a fun and quick craft.