French Fruit Wall Art

Author by Amanda Davis on October 26, 2010 Updated on December 6, 2020

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There’s a little story behind this wall art. I was selected as a contestant, along with 11 incredibly talented ladies in the super fun competition, Crafting with the Stars. I was paired up with Amy Anderson of Mod Podge Rocks fame, and together we were to come up with a brand inspired decoupage knock off project. We both had a few different ideas, but I decided that the apple and pear wall art from Land of Nod that Amy found could be transformed into some fabulous kitchen wall art. I had originally planned to just put “apple” and “pear” above the fruit, but the amazing Amy suggested writing the words in French. Tres bon!! The French are all about food, so it only made sense to put the words of my kitchen foodie wall art in the language of love. :)

UPDATE: These two French Fruit Wall Art pieces are available in my Etsy shop here.

As for my inspiration… (thank you Amy!)

These two pieces of art from Land of Nod are adorable, but they are

1) huge, 26″ x 26″
2) really more geared toward a child’s playroom or bedroom
3) a whopping $119 each!

Umm.. no.

Instead, I decided to use the fruit alone as my inspiration, sticking with the wooden canvas, but adding in a bit of French country primitive charm. I used crackle medium, several different types of scrapbook papers in vintage hues, and I cut the sweet French words out of brown card stock using my Silhouette cutting machine. Everything was attached with Mod Podge and I finished it off with a burlap and twine hanger.

I just want to say a huge thank you to Amy of Mod Podge Rocks for being my partner in this venture, for being a great sounding board, and for several of her marvelous ideas that made this project a success. I am happy to say that we have advanced to Round 2 and are excited about coming up with the next project!

Here’s the full tutorial, including fruit patterns, if you would like to make your own!

French Fruit Wall Art

What you need

2 pieces of 12″ x 12″ x 3/4″ plywood, available at Michael’s
Crackle medium (I used DecoArt Weathered Wood)
Acrylic paint: dark brown and antique white
Various scrapbook papers in shades of red, yellow, green and brown
Scissors
Mod Podge matte finish
Brown cardstock
Burlap
Twine
Hot glue
2 thumbtacks
Scrap cardboard
Apple pattern
Pear pattern
Silhouette pattern (or use the font “harrison” in Word)

What you do

Print the fruit patterns. Use the patterns to cut pieces out of scrapbook paper.

Paint the plywood brown, paint the sides as well. Allow to dry. When the brown paint is dry, brush on a coat of crackle medium. This will need to dry for a good 30-40 minutes. You don’t want it to dry completely, but almost. ;)

Load up your brush with antique white paint. You want a good amount of paint on your brush, but it shouldn’t be dripping. Brush on top of crackle medium using single strokes, try not to paint over areas you have already painted. You can quickly touch something up right away, but don’t wait too long.

If you have a cutting machine, use that and the “harrison” font to cut the words “pomme” and “poire” from brown cardstock. If you don’t have a cutting machine, you could use a sharp craft knife or maybe paint the words on to the board.

Position the fruit pieces and the words on the board to make sure you have them where you want them. I found the center of the board with a rule and started there, placing the middle of the word in the center and positioning the rest of the word afterward.

Add the letter first using a little Mod Podge. After the letters are in place, start adding the fruit pieces with Mod Podge.

Once all the pieces are in place, add a good coat of Mod Podge over the entire project.

Let them dry completely.

To add hangers, cut a piece of burlap into a 12-14″ strip, fray the edges by pulling off a couple side strands. Position the fruit art on your work surface facing up, then position your hanger under it, just to figure out how you want it. When you have it the way you want it, tie a piece of twine at the top of the hanger into a bow, trim ends. Use your glue gun to tack the burlap to some pieces of cardboard, and tack the cardboard to the wooden board. Now you can lift the art and turn it over without losing the hanger’s position. Add more hot glue where needed and push thumbtacks into the burlap and cardboard for a little added strength. I’m sure there’s a much better way to do this, but hey, this worked! ;)

There you have it!

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