Chocolate Bar Foil Wrapper Art

I do not know about you, but I eat a lot of chocolate.  That means I have chocolate wrapper waste, aka packaging, lying around with no real purpose. Today’s #createwithcanadianchocoholic uses the foil from chocolate bars to create some fun usable art.

Gold and silver foil wrappers are so pretty. I do tend to love silver and gold.  The foil wrappers come in all sorts of colours depending on the chocolate that you eat.  There can be blues, reds, blacks, browns, spotted, glassine paper, brown bag, or clear cellophane wrappers.

This wrapper is often an important part of keeping the chocolate fresh so that it tastes wonderful when we eat it.

I have many lying around and finally decided to do something with them.

I was not sure what to do, I wanted something simple.  I came up with this idea when I was wanting to redo the canvas art in my office, which had previously been redone.  Reusing is one of my favourite ways to change a room up.  So, I took an orange canvas and painted it brown, then covered it with squares of chocolate wrapper foil held on with mod podge.  This took me a bit of time, but mostly because of the size of the canvas I was working on.

The photos I posted to Instagram had a lot of feedback and questions about how to do it yourself, so here is a blog post for making something similar, but on a small scale.

Here is what you need:

chocolate bar foil or paper wrap/liners, glue and a foam brush, paint and a paint brush (optional), an item (think notebook, box, canvas, or folder), scissors, and some time.

These projects each took 2 days, but that is because I applied a base coat of paint.  If you have an item that doesn’t need a coat of paint first, you can skip the painting step.

Instructions:

Step One: cover your workspace with scrap paper, a brown paper bag, etc., to prevent paint and glue from getting onto your work surface.

Step Two: paint your object with a base layer of paint.

Step Three: let your paint dry overnight.

Step Four: While the object is drying, cut your foil wrappers into squares with scissors.  You can make them any size you like, I just free-handed mine, so they are all sort of the same size.  You can make them smaller if you have a small object or larger if you are covering a whole surface.  I found that nothing will be exactly square as it has folds and creases in it.  I crumpled up some wrappers before cutting to give them a more textured surface.  Once you have these cut up you can set them aside, so they are ready to go tomorrow.

Step Five: Gluing your pieces is easy. 

I used a variety of glues to see if anyone worked better.  My preference and the best results came from the Mod Podge, but regular white glue worked fine too.  I used a sponge brush and painted glue onto a small area of the object I was going to cover.  Then I placed enough foil squares onto that area, pressing down in the corners and letting it sit several moments before going back with the glue and painting a layer of glue on top of the squares.  This seals everything in nicely.  I found that I would do one area, then go back to the previous area, when it was at a tacky stage, to check to see if any corners needed to be pushed down again.  I did find some wrappers tended to curl a bit while others did not.  You will be able to tell if you need to do this or not.  Continue until the whole object is covered.

Step Six: Wait. The glue needs to dry, ideally for 24-48 hours before your piece is ready.

Step Seven: Use your new item and enjoy its shine from all the wrappers you placed on it.

Step Eight: (optional) Use a clear coat product to protect and seal your item.  For my larger canvas I will give it a coat of clear varnish once the weather is warm and I can apply it outside.  This is not needed, but I expect to keep this for a long time so want to give it an extra coating.  I would recommend extra coatings on objects that will be used often, and not so much on items that will be used less.

I hope you enjoyed this craft.  Be sure to tag me so I can see it on IG @canadianchocoholic #createwithcanadianchocoholic or email me with your work.

This project can be so much fun and done in a variety of ways.  I made a folder, a notebook and a box.  All slightly different but using the same process.  You could also make bigger squares, rectangles, or triangles easily and get similar results.  Most importantly when you are creating anything, remember to have fun.