How to make a Christmas tree from polyurethane foam. How to make New Year's volumetric balls from polystyrene foam, polyurethane foam: step-by-step instructions, description, photo. How you can decorate Christmas tree foam balls and polyurethane foam with your own hands: design ideas, descriptions

As a blank, I again used plastic bottle, which I foamed on all sides, and to give it stability, I inserted this foamed blank into plastic container(you can use an old pan). I secured this foamed blank with polyurethane foam. Then the fun begins; you need to shape the approximate figure with foam. As a sample, I buy a small toy or figurine in the store, and additionally download pictures from the Internet.

Be sure to allow some drying time after each layer. So, gradually, layer by layer, a figure is created. If you missed somewhere, you can always trim it, cut off the excess with a sharp stationery knife. If something still doesn’t work out, this applies to both large and small parts... we spray the place (from a sprayer, for example) where we want to apply foam, then we foam a small layer (about 4-5 cm), after a minute, we again spray the fresh foam with water. Now is the moment - the main thing is not to miss the moment so that the foam does not have time to dry, and form wet hands intended bend, shape, etc. (I do this without gloves). So you can proceed layer by layer, achieving the desired shape. When the figure takes on its shape, we cut off all unnecessary bumps with a knife; the holes (airs) can be foamed again. There are small air holes, there is no need to foam, then everything will be puttied with tile adhesive.

How to make paws, tail... I take the wire, give it a bend, and also foam it layer by layer using the building method, giving it time to dry. I made the ears of a hare from aluminum tape 7cm wide, which I cut across (like a Christmas tree), set a bend, and foamed it gradually.

Without attaching special effort and material costs, foam crafts will be an excellent decor and decoration for any summer cottage. It is no secret that for many, a dacha is a place where people come to relax from the city noise, rhythm and bustle. Therefore, it is very important that the dacha be exactly the place where a person can truly enjoy life and rest his soul. Often, caring for a summer cottage and decorating it requires considerable Money, patience and time, but with foam everything is different.

In order to make any crafts from polyurethane foam with your own hands, no need to have any special education– Absolutely everyone can cope with this task, it is enough to have good imagination and imagination.

In construction, polyurethane foam is used very often and in large quantities. It is used to seal small cracks and has the ability to expand, filling all the voids.

Important! The hardening of the foam depends on what brand of foam it is, but on average it takes from 15 to 25 minutes.

You can cut off excess parts of finished products only after the foam has completely hardened.

From construction foam you can make any crafts, since foam is an unpretentious material, and when frozen it can withstand any temperature; in addition, crafts made from foam do not undergo any serious changes when they are exposed to precipitation.

The material is light and has no sharp corners, so foam crafts for installation are often made for kindergarten or sites. Such crafts can be either large or small in size, but the weight of the craft will be light.

When working with polyurethane foam, you must use a foam gun, which is placed on the can, and after finishing work, use a gun cleaner

How to work with polyurethane foam?

To work with polyurethane foam, you may need minimum set tools and accessories - several pairs of gloves, preferably rubber - the fact is that the foam has such unpleasant properties, it quickly sticks to the hands, so it is simply impossible to do without gloves. In addition, you will need 2 or 3 knives of different sizes - they are needed after the foam has dried in order to give the products the required shape and for cutting out small details such as eyes, nose, mouth. When working with polyurethane foam, you must use a foam gun, which is placed on the can, and after finishing the work, use a gun cleaner. To paint finished products you will need paints and brushes. In order for foam crafts to last as long as possible, it is recommended to coat them with varnish.

Important! Polyurethane foam is a very light material, so every time before performing any new craft, it is important to take care of its weight, otherwise the structure will not hold.

Therefore, it is necessary to place something heavy inside each structure - it could be a container with sand, a piece of iron, a plastic bottle with water. You can use anything, the main thing is that the thing fits the shape at least a little future crafts(if the finished product is small in size or volume), and was weighty.

It is important to remember that all work performed with polyurethane foam should be carried out only in a well-ventilated area. The temperature should be room temperature. If work is carried out on fresh air, then this needs to be done in good weather, but you can’t work in direct sunlight; you need to move into the shade.

While working, it is important not to forget to shake the can of foam before each use.

Finished products made from polyurethane foam must be coated with paint, but it is important to remember that the content of nitrocellulose is unacceptable, since this substance adversely affects the foam; as a result, the craft softens and the entire structure may lose its shape.

Hedgehog figurine made of polyurethane foam

Crafts made from polyurethane foam

Animal figures are especially popular among crafts made from polyurethane foam. You can place them in any part of the garden, placing a lonely figurine by the pond or on the lawn, or create an entire composition. When making crafts from polyurethane foam for kindergarten, figurines of fairy-tale characters are mainly created:

Hedgehog. This figurine is very easy to make and is ideal for beginners. Any material can be used as a frame, it all depends on the preferences of the master. When the foam has hardened, you need to carefully cut off all excess with a knife and give the product the required form. Hedgehog needles are made from toothpicks, which must first be prepared for work - they need to be painted black, leaving a small distance untouched. The part that needs to be stuck into the figure remains unpainted. If desired, the other end of the toothpick can be painted golden. Before sticking toothpicks into the hedgehog, the figurine must first be painted and allowed to dry. In these photos you can see step by step production crafts made from polyurethane foam like a hedgehog.

Foam goat

Sheep and lamb. A master class on making crafts from polyurethane foam, such as a ram and a sheep, should begin with making a frame. The frame can be made from several plastic bottles connected with tape. In order for the structure to be stable, the bottles that will be used as lower limbs must be filled with sand or water. After the frame is completely ready, you can begin the main work - treating it with polyurethane foam. Foam treatment should be done gradually, in layers. Each applied layer must dry thoroughly (15-20 minutes), and only then can the next one be applied. What the craft will be like after final processing, becomes visible after the first layer. After the final layer has been applied and dried, you need to use a knife to give the figure its final shape, and then paint it.
Goat. These photos show step-by-step instruction on making such a craft with your own hands from polyurethane foam, like a goat. For the body frame you need to use plastic bottles, pre-wrapped with tape or wire. For the leg frame, remnants of metal pipes are used, which must be the same length and thickness. The resulting structure must be securely fastened to the ground, and care must be taken to ensure that the base of the body is securely fastened to the legs. The product is covered with one or two layers of polyurethane foam. In order to make the horns and tail, you can use cuttings of thick branches, securely fasten them and apply another layer of foam to the goat. Before painting the goat you need to apply one thin layer primers. Large buttons can be used to make eyes.

Polyurethane foam bun

Kolobok. This photo shows a craft in the form of a kolobok, made with your own hands using polyurethane foam. A medium-sized plastic ball can be used as a frame. The ball needs to be covered with foam in several layers, not forgetting to dry each layer. The hands of the kolobok are made of plastic straw with wire stretched inside. Hands need to be secured to the kolobok and treated with foam. Small ones are used for the legs wooden blocks, which must also be secured and foam applied to them. The scarf is also made of foam. And you can use cardboard as a frame for the ears on the headscarf. The finished bun needs to be painted, varnished and planted on some stump.
Figure for growing flowers. In order to manufacture original pot for flowers, you can make any craft from foam. But it is important to remember that in the middle part of the figure you need to secure a container for growing flowers - this can be: a deep basin, a tin bucket, a large plastic bottle with a cut off neck.
New Year's crafts. Such foam crafts can be made both at a summer cottage and on the territory of a kindergarten. Christmas ball can be made from a tennis ball; to do this, cover it with a layer of foam and paint it with bright colors.

In order to make a Christmas tree, you must first make a frame. The frame is made from a cone made of cardboard. The foam is applied in several layers to the cone-shaped frame. As it dries, the figurine is shaped into a Christmas tree using a knife and painted in the appropriate color.

A dacha is a place where we relax and enjoy life. But decorations for the garden and yard cost a lot of money. Therefore, some owners make crafts from polyurethane foam, which are in no way inferior to expensive figurines made of plastic, metal and wood.

To decorate your personal plot, you don’t need to complete art courses and have “golden hands”. A small set of tools, a little diligence and abstract thinking will allow you to acquire gnomes, frogs, sheep and Christmas trees from quite affordable materials.

DIY technology for making figures from construction foam

First things first, you need to stock up necessary materials and tools. This will determine how high quality and quickly the manufacturing process goes:

For the frame of the product, plastic bottles filled with sand, boards, metal objects and thick wire. Even an ordinary brick can become the basis for a future mushroom on your site!
Polyurethane foam.
Gun for polyurethane foam.
Gun cleaner.
If you plan to grow flowers in a sculpture, then you need to mount some kind of container in the center of it, such as a bucket, tin can or the same plastic bottle.
Varnish, paint and brushes for them.
Stationery or other knife.

The creation process itself garden figures consists of two successive processes. First, apply foam to the base and let it harden a little. Then we apply it again and so on until we get closer to the shape we need.

After this, the excess protrusions are removed with an ordinary stationery knife, the sculpture acquires its finished shape and can be coated with paint. The entire work can take from an hour to several days, depending on the size of the figure and the thickness of the applied layer. It is advisable to do all this in a separate dry room, where there is no excess dust and children do not run around.. Otherwise, you will have to wash off the extremely sticky substance, which is polyurethane foam, with gasoline or acetone.

Sculptures and garden products

Below are a few examples of different figures that even a beginner can create on their site. The main thing is to strictly follow the sequence of all operations. And in a few hours you will definitely feel like a real creator, from whose hands comes an excellent decoration for your summer cottage!

Details about crafts from tin cans read .

Christmas tree

Making a Christmas tree from polyurethane foam is as easy as shelling pears. To do this, you need to collect twigs and attach them to iron pipe. This can be done with tape or wire.

After this, you need to wet the workpiece with a spray bottle so that the foam “sticks” to the base more firmly.

Green acrylic paint is perfect for creating New Year's mood using such simple things as scraps of sticks, twigs, foam and fishing line.

You will find all the information about paths made from plastic bottle caps.

Ball

The ball is the easiest figure to make. It is recommended to start your creative experiments with it, and only then move on to more complex decorations and sculptures.

Take a paint can and fill it with sand;
Layer by layer we apply polyurethane foam;
Upon reaching required size and more or less spherical in shape, remove excess parts with a knife;
We coat the product with varnish;
We choose paint for our decoration depending on our preferences;
If it is a bun or the head of some animal, we make eyes, a nose and a mustache from buttons, fishing line and wire.

It is possible that you will find the material about .

Ram and ewe

Making a ram and a lamb:

First we make the frame. We take several plastic bottles and fasten them with tape. The result will be something like a “skeleton” of an animal. The lower “limbs” can be filled with sand to make the figure more stable.
Next, you can apply foam. But to save it, it is better to wrap the frame with isolon or other polymer material. The first layer of polyurethane foam - you can already roughly imagine what the end result will be!
We make ears from pieces of leather. You can also make them from plastic bottles by preheating and bending them.
We process the muzzle with a knife, carefully giving it the necessary features.
We coat the product with varnish.
We paint the eyes, mouth and other “features” of our sheep or lamb with paint!

Scheme for making a sheep.

Goat

Step by step how to make a goat:

We make a frame from thick wire, which we wrap around several plastic bottles.
As a frame for legs (bones) it is better to take metal pipes. They can be welded to a pedestal, dug into the ground, or secured with bolts. Your figurine must withstand wind and rain, so take the time to securely secure the base.
Apply one or two layers of polyurethane foam.
We make horns and a tail from wooden sticks or plastic cuts and secure them.
After applying the last layer, we cut off all excess and wrap the product with sickle or fishing line.
Cover the surface with primer and paint. You can choose any color, because it is completely your creation!
Making eyes from buttons.
We place our goat next to a pond, in a clearing, in the company of other decorations, etc.

In total, this sculpture will take one to two weeks to complete, as each layer of foam must harden. As a result, from unnecessary pipes, plastic bottles, wire scraps, other “garbage” and several cans of polyurethane foam, you get an excellent decoration for your summer cottage!

What a plastic border for paths is will tell you.

Crafts for the New Year

Even with nothing on hand other than wire and a can of polyurethane foam, you can create excellent decor for the New Year. Various ornaments, Christmas tree decorations, simple and complex figures - all this is accessible and simple!

For example, you can make a snowflake. We take a wire of such thickness that it can be bent without effort. We make the frame of a future snowflake out of it. Carefully apply one or two layers of foam. Before it hardens, we achieve even and smooth surfaces. If something goes wrong, you can always add a little foam and cut off the protrusions with a regular stationery knife.

The Christmas ball is made even easier. The tennis ball is covered with a layer of foam. After hardening, apply a layer of paint and decorate our New Year's toy in bright and positive colors!

A simplified version of the Christmas tree is made using cardboard or isolon, wound on a rigid base in the form of a cone. Even a child can apply several layers! We level the surface, paint it and place it in a visible place.

How to make a swan from a tire is described.

Basic rules for working with polyurethane foam

Shake the container periodically.
The ideal temperature for work is room temperature.
Polyurethane foam does not like direct sunlight. Therefore, it is necessary to work in the shade and coat the finished product with paint.
The hardening time of the foam varies depending on the manufacturer, temperature and operating speed.

Important points

The paint used to coat the finished product should not contain nitrocellulose. Otherwise, the polyurethane foam will soften and the decoration will lose its shape.
Gloves are required element work. Without them, washing your hands will take much more time than the process of making the craft itself.
Polyurethane foam is very lightweight material. Therefore, heavy objects must be placed inside any product made from it. This could be a jar of sand, a plastic bottle filled with water, an iron base, metal pipes held together with wire, and other massive things.

Video: master class on garden decor

This video shows a master class on how to make crafts from construction foam:

Conclusion

Give it your own summer cottage beauty and originality can be achieved without spending a lot of money. Crafts made from polyurethane foam are easy to make, non-toxic and can have the most different shapes. Starting from simple ball and ending with figures of animals, birds, gnomes and even people!

Instructions for making polystyrene foam balls and polyurethane foam.

To decorate christmas tree, it is not necessary to purchase expensive toys. The fact is that now even inexpensive plastic decorations they cost quite decently. Moreover, such products can be made independently. All you need to do is show a little creativity and spend your time. One of the options for making New Year's balls is to use polyurethane foam or regular polystyrene foam.

How to make New Year's volumetric foam balls with a child: step-by-step instructions, description, photo

The fact is that foam balls in big cities sold in decorative stores and where flower bouquets are sold. But in small towns such products are in short supply; they are simply not delivered there. Therefore, if you do handicrafts and want to make beautiful Christmas tree decorations with your own hands, you will have to make your own ball from polystyrene foam or polyurethane foam. Only then can you make Christmas tree decorations from this base.

Instructions:

To make a foam ball, you will need a block of material slightly larger than the diameter of your ball. Now take the pipe that you have available. The diameter of the pipe depends on what size ball you want. If you plan to make small Christmas tree decorations, then the remains of a container from polyurethane foam will do. If you want larger toys, use long sewer pipes.
It is necessary that the thickness of the bar be slightly greater than the desired diameter of the ball and the diameter of the pipe. Place the pipe on a piece of foam and trace it with a marker. Cut along the marked lines using a utility knife or drywall cutter.
Now take care of the pipe. You need to cut a hole in the pipe so that the half remains. That is, now we need to use sandpaper and glue it inside the pipe. It is necessary that the sandpaper fits tightly to the walls of the pipe. You can glue it using a glue gun or liquid nails.
After you have made the ball maker, place the resulting piece of foam inside and rub it on all sides. This way you will make its surfaces smooth. In order to give round shape your cylinder, rotate it from side to side. You must turn your cylinder into a ball. This blank can be decorated. The decor is made according to your wishes and ideas.

VIDEO: Machine for foam balls

How to make Christmas volumetric balls from polyurethane foam: step-by-step instructions, description, photo

Make New Year's balls possible from polyurethane foam.

Instructions:

To do this, you need to make a package or use a ready-made sour cream cup.
It is better if it is a glass of small volume, but of a sufficiently large diameter. Fill the cup to the top with foam.
Form a slide on top. After the foam has hardened, remove the product from the cup. Cut off the part that will be a semicircle.
Repeat the manipulation, and now glue the two halves of the ball. All irregularities can be smoothed out using sandpaper or a stationery knife.

New Year's volumetric foam balls

How to decorate Christmas tree foam balls and polyurethane foam: design ideas, description, photos

Now you have blanks of polyurethane foam or polystyrene foam balls. You can start decorating them. For decoration you can use sparkles, cones, acorns, lace, various paints, as well as broken old Christmas tree decorations.

Decoration options:

Shine. Use body or nail glitter
Stones. You can buy them at a fabric and accessories store.
Lace. It is best to take elastic
Artificial spruce branches
Artificial flowers
Acrylic paints
Decoupage using napkins

Christmas tree foam balls and from polyurethane foam

Christmas tree foam balls and polyurethane foam Christmas tree foam balls and polyurethane foam

Christmas tree foam balls and polyurethane foam

Ideas for beautiful DIY Christmas balls made from polystyrene foam and polyurethane foam: photo

Below are the most effective options New Year's balls from polyurethane foam and polystyrene foam. Take your favorite idea and bring it to life.

Make christmas balls from scrap materials quite simply. The main thing is desire and a little time.

New Year is just around the corner and, therefore, it's time to prepare new Year gifts and decorations. Who main character V New Year's Eve?

That's right, even children know this. It's Santa Claus! And so I decided to make a figurine of Santa Claus for a child in the garden, so that it would stand on the street, on the playground. I’ll say right away that I made this sculpture last year and it has already successfully passed the test of winter, frost and children, and this year it will delight us with its presence again :)
I knew right away what I would make the figure of Santa Claus from: polyurethane foam. Firstly, it is quite inexpensive (considering the size of Frost - 115 cm), and secondly, it is quite fast, since the foam dries in 15-20 minutes and can be applied next layer, thirdly, products made from polyurethane foam are lightweight and are not afraid of any weather conditions, with one caveat - the foam must be well insulated from sun rays and moisture. Under the influence of direct sunlight, the foam turns yellow and collapses, and if water gets inside the figurine, then in cold weather it crystallizes and the figurine can “tear”. I will tell you below in my master class how to avoid all this and make a figurine that will last for many years.
So, be patient and use a vacuum cleaner, as the work is quite dirty and dusty.
First, I found on the Internet a picture of the Frost we will make. We need general form, we will make our own details.

As a base, I took a plastic bottle that I had on hand, poured sand and stones inside for stability (in fact, I didn’t have to do this, it stands great anyway) and inserted it on top wooden stick from a child's shovel.
The result was the frame of the future figure.

Then we take newspapers and begin to add volume to our workpiece. We fix the newspapers with paper tape.

When we have collected the required volume with newspaper, we cover the entire workpiece with craft paper on top: like this it's easier later will apply foam.
When everything is dry, we take the foam and continue to add volume to our Grandfather. When working with foam, I advise you to use gloves, since the foam is very difficult to wash off the skin and cannot be washed off clothes at all. The floor also needs to be covered with newspapers or film.
When working with foam, I use a special gun (pictured), which allows you to regulate the supply of foam and reduce its consumption. You should apply thin layers of foam: this way they will dry faster and you can apply the next layer.

We continue to apply the foam layer by layer. Try to have as few gaps and voids as possible. If you apply a lot of foam at once, then greatly increasing in volume, it becomes empty inside. And when we then cut off the excess foam, we will have to fill these holes with fresh foam.
At the bottom of the sculpture we glue cardboard and also foam it. Unfortunately, I didn’t film this moment, but I think that everything is clear. If it’s unclear, ask, I’ll be happy to answer.

Having gained the required volume on our Frost, we begin to move on to the details. We outline the face, very approximately, the place of the hat and begin to make the collar of the fur coat. For this we take thick cardboard or, as in my case, a calendar cover, and fix it in place with masking tape. After this, we begin to apply foam to the cardboard collar.

When all areas of the figure are completely filled and look a little like Santa Claus, we take a breadboard or construction knife and begin to cut off all the excess. Knife blades must be sharp to make clean cuts. Foam dulls them very quickly and therefore they need to be changed quite often. If suddenly we cut off too much or didn’t like something, we can always increase the volume again and cut off the excess again. This work is not very fast, but very creative.

We gradually move from the general to the specific. We draw the details, paying special attention to the face of Santa Claus and his beard. Large cavities are filled with foam.

When you are satisfied with the result, you can sand the Frost sculpture a little: the foam sands beautifully.
Then we apply acrylic putty. You can apply it with a brush, but I applied it directly with my hands: it turns out much faster. We applied one layer, dried it, sanded it a little and applied the second layer. It's hard to close all the holes in the foam the first time. It is very important to insulate the foam well from direct impact light and water penetration, as I said above.
We sand the second layer more carefully. We still won’t be able to achieve perfect smoothness, but we don’t need it. After painting, the irregularities on the fur coat and hat look like scribble. The face should be given more attention: fill all the unevenness more thoroughly with putty and sand it well. Using a toothpick, draw hairs and strands on the beard and mustache.

It's time to paint. First, I painted all of Santa Claus with white acrylic paint. Then I glued those places that should remain white masking tape. To color the fur coat and hat, I used auto enamel in a can. I didn’t really like it: it has a fairly strong smell that takes a long time to dissipate and plus it takes a long time to dry. Longer than just acrylic spray paint. I usually paint with Bosco paint, which I like better.
One can of auto enamel was enough for me to cover 2 times.
The only plus of this paint: rich red-cherry color. Another important point: it didn’t fit well on white acrylic paint and went craquelure. Of course, it turned out to be original in the end, but unplanned. This has never happened with Bosco.

This is such a beautiful craquelure.

This is what Frost looks like after painting.

Now we need to embellish it a little. We take a white varnish marker, acrylic paint and a thin brush, or outlines, and begin to apply patterns to Frost’s fur coat.

Then I started painting my face. First I mixed umber + pink + Ivory and applied it to the face. I covered the mustache, beard and edges on the hat and fur coat with pearlescent silver color: it turned out to be real frost. The photo doesn't convey this, unfortunately. Then I applied a little black acrylic, diluted to water, onto the beard and mustache. I wiped off the excess with a dry cloth.

Then I drew the eyes and applied blush to the cheeks. True, I got carried away again and did not photograph the intermediate stages of the work.
When everything was dry, I covered it in several layers with aerosol acrylic varnish, Special attention focusing on the bottom.

Grandfather turned out to be quite weighty and stable and we had to take him to the garden by car :) The children were happy!

This year I plan to make a figurine of a deer and a sleigh so that grandfather can safely travel and deliver gifts to the children.