This wall art is perfect for your cubicle wall or other pin-worthy surface. With only the colors of a basic assorted push-pin set, about 6"x7" of space, and an hour or two to waste, you too can have Mario keep you company during your workday.

Step 1: Materials

You will need to buy (have/acquire) about 200 push pins (I bought a 500 tub). 100 will get you well past the head, and with 200 you will have some left over to use to pin things to your wall.

You will also need a picture of Mario, or the video game sprite you wish to create. I got the image from the good ol' internet, and "Zoomed In" in an image editing program. I selected "show grid" and took a screen shot which I cropped and printed. This was my guide.

Since I was using a black and white printer, it was hard to distinguish certain parts, so I recolored some pixels to improve contrast.

Step 2: Action

I started with the face, but start anywhere you want. I didn't want it to look like I had spent time working on this, so I added a row or two of pins each day. This way my boss, who walks by my desk numerous times a day would not assume I had been doing this instead of working. I added pins waiting for things to load on my computer, on lunch breaks, or just when I needed to stop working for a minute.

It was actually fairly difficult to get the spacing right. It is easy to place the pins close together or too far apart. Just keep trying until you get a nice neat row.

Step 3: Finished

I stretched this project out over about 2.5 weeks. And it think it came out great. I've been looking for alternate color push pins to replace some that I used. Brown would be much better than green for the hair (maybe black). And some sort of pinkish color would be better for the skin.