DIY Sea Animals Wall Art

Few things give us as much joy as sharing our love for sea animals! So we’ve made a DIY wall art with whimsical sea animals as the focal point. It’s a timeless, all-ages treat that’s perfect for a kid’s room, classroom, or beach room in your home.

There’s no time too soon to teach kids about ocean animals! For our latest DIY inspiration, we wanted to bring the magic of sea life to the 3-year-old granddaughter of our dear friends.

As a room decoration, it’s got an added bonus of being a constant reminder of the beautiful and wondrous life that makes the ocean its home.

Of course, we’re pairing the gift with our latest children’s book, Zale’s Tales: The Ocean Seeker. It’s filled with more sea creatures galore that will make for a deeper learning experience, all in the form of a hide-and-seek adventure!

So get ready for a sweet DIY. Oh, and if you’re worried about your penmanship, kiss those worries goodbye: we’ve got a special trick for making lettering come out just right.

Before we get started with the full how-to, here’s a map of where we’re headed:

What you’ll need:

supplies for sea animals wall art - wood board, wood animals, chalky paint, paintbrush, glue

supplies for sea animals wall art - printout, scissors, iron, iron-transfer pen

hanging wood plaque
white chalky paint or white craft paint
paintbrush
wooden sea creature cut-outs
- we found them in Michaels near the scrapbooking supplies
tacky glue
- wood glue is pictured, but we ended up using tacky glue so that it dried clear
printout of animal names
- If you make your own, make sure you flip the text so it’s backwards! Want to know how? Click here.
scissors
clothes iron
iron transfer pen

Step 1

Paint the wood board with the white paint. (Tip: You can water it down a little to make the grain show through better.)

Step 2

Once the paint is dry, position all of the sea animals and then glue them down:

Step 3

Cut the printout (click here for the free printable) into the individual sea animal names, and then write over the letters with the iron transfer pen:

sea animals wall art step 3 - write over letters with iron transfer pen

Step 4

**Tip: Lay out all of the names first underneath the animals to space it to allow for enough room.

One at a time, place each sea animal name under the right animal and with the ink facing down. (Make sure it will read correctly before ironing!)

Then use the hot iron to make the ink transfer to the wood board. (See picture below.)

Ours took a minute or so to fully transfer, and you can peek to see if the ink is transferring by holding one side down with your finger. On some (especially ones that I hadn’t shaken the pen), the ink came out lighter, and we found that more ironing time after peeking helped darken it a bit.