Recycled Samples

A while back I made these: 

My sister in law and her boyfriend thought they were pretty cool and asked how I made them and what they were made of. I told them I'd make them one. Here is the how-to and the end result. 

First step is to have access to, or be creative enough to get some free marmoleum/linoleum samples - really any sort of flooring sample would probably suffice so long as they are all the same dimensions. As an interior designer I mistakenly ordered a box of every sample forbo made - not only that but they sent me 3 samples of each all in a nice file box. There was no way my work had any need for this quantity of samples so I took the gigantic (and heavy, I might add) box of samples home with me. There it sat for about a year and a half. I had no idea what I was going to do with all of these samples and the thought of just throwing them out made me cringe. I'm not a hippie "save the Earth" Eco-person but I try to do my best at keeping this world a greener place, so I recycled them into art!

Next is to pull out the colors you think you'll want and lay them out on a piece of 24x 36 foam core (I had a ton of this leftover from school projects). Granted you can make your art any size you want, I'm partial to larger artwork so that is what I made!  

 After the design is set, grab yourself a tube of liquid nails and a caulking gun. I used the cardboard dividers that separated each color of the linoleum samples as a spreader for the glue and did small sections at a time, starting at the outside of the foam board (it's a straight edge) and working my way until I ran out of room on the board. It's a little hard to see but there is some metal mixed in there - that my friends is a metal laminate sample that was leftover from another project at work. I tucked it under the forbo samples and kept it the same size. Definitely adds a different texture and a little more interest to the overall piece of art, especially when you add more than one.

 Cut off any excess foam core with a sharp blade, you can choose to use a straight edge or just follow along the edge of the forbo samples like I did.

And the finished product! (note: I used the cardboard dividers yet again as the hangers on the back of the foam core, just takes a hole punch and more liquid nails!)