DIY Sunburst Mirror | Jennifer V Designs | Toledo, OH

When asked by my daughter's preschool teachers for some ideas and help completing a class project to be auctioned at the school's charity auction in the spring, I sent them several ideas and they chose the sunburst mirror project.  The catch was, the 2 and 3 year old children would have to participate in making this.

So, after reading the online tutorial from Isabella & Max Rooms blog, I went about purchasing all of the items needed to create this mirror. I could not find a round mirror with a flat edge ANYWHERE in Toledo, so I had to be creative and made my own mirror using a wooden charger and craft mirror found at Hobby Lobby.  I painted the wooden charger first with spray paint and then I glued the mirror into place.

Once that was complete, I figured out the size I wanted for the largest sticks on the mirror and started cutting all of the sticks to size.  I started with a hack saw, but it was taking quite a while, so I got a pair of heavy duty scissors and started cutting them to size.  It was much quicker, but hard on the hands!

After the sticks were cut to size, I dropped them off in my daughter's classroom for the children to paint them.  My daughter's teachers chose the colors of red, yellow and orange for the mirror.  And they are the ones who came up with the idea to speckle the sticks with paint.  They poured little dabs of paint on a large sheet of paper and the children rolled the sticks in the paint.  I wish I had a picture of them doing it, but I don't.  However, my daughter showed me over and over how they rolled them. When I picked them up, I spray lacquered them to give them a little bit of a sheen (another idea provided by the teachers).

Once they were dry, I began lining up the sticks on the mirror and hot glued the sticks around the mirror.

The speckled sticks were a great idea and I couldn't be more thrilled with how the sunburst mirror turned out.

This was a great class project, as it will appeal to any person, not just the parents of the students that painted it.  I hope it brings lots of money at the West Side Montessori "Best Birthday Bash Ever "Spring Auction.  All the proceeds benefit this fabulous school!