Among all the wonders of nature, there are poison frogs! As beautiful as dangerous, their beautiful skin with a thousand colors, unfortunately, have a very dangerous poison for anyone who touches them... Fascinated by this beautiful strangeness of nature and passionate by Cabinet of Curiosities decors, I thought about a safe and cruelty-free way to represent their beauty in a home decor.

I then came up with the idea of presenting them in one of the most classic forms of this type of decoration, that of naturalized framed insects. Being against animal violence, it seemed wise to use fake materials to represent them and my choice fell on figurines, plastic frogs toy (mainly sold in plastic tubes, where we often find also dinosaurs or animals)! Here is a little tutorial to show you how with a hollow frame, acrylic paint and plastic frogs, we can create this framed poison frogs!

FRENCH VERSION :http://insolitis.com/tuto-grenouilles-encadrees/

Step 1: [ S U P P L I E S ]

(1) HOLLOW FRAME, with or without a glass. ∗
(2) FROGS made of plastic, polymer clay, figurines or toys.
(3) BRUSHES with very thin tips.
(4) PAINT acrylic in many colors.
(5) PAPER white or color of your choice, which will be the background.
(6) ADHESIVE paper, kraft or color of your choice.
(7) LABEL very simple, which will serve as a template.
(8) PEN ink, gel of black or brown color.
(9) GLUE strong and transparent.

Step 2: [ B a S E ]

(1) First, dispose the frogs on the frame to preview the layout.
(2) Choose for each frog, which real frog it should represent.
(3) Then take acrylic paints of different colors and thin tips brushes.
(4) With the widest brush, paint the frogs with the acrylic paints.*

* TIP : Use an article about poison frogs as a reference for the frogs' colors, patterns, and names. Like this one: http://listamaze.com/10-poisonous-frogs-in-the-wo... Or this one : https://tailandfur.com/most-poisonous-frogs-in-th...

Step 3: [ P a I N T I N G ]

(5) Do not hesitate to mix colors as much as you need to get the right colors.
(6) Once dry, with the finest brush, paint the final details such as stains.
(7) Let everything dry and do again your step (1) layout, or rearrange.
(8) Then, make small labels using adhesive paper and write the frogs' names.

Step 4: [ L a Y O U T ]

(9) Then place, without gluing, all the labels below the figurines.
(10) Check that the labels fit into the layout, if not, reduce yourlabels.
(11) Use a white sheet of paper as a background for the frame.*
(12) Then, make a last preview of the frame before gluing everything.

*TIP : I used as background the back of the presentation page of the frame.

Step 5: [ G L U I N G ]

(13) This kind of frame often has one or two bottoms, try to close the frame to see which thickness is best for the frogs' height.
(14) Glue the frogs to the bottom making sure to put enough glue to hold them vertically.
(15) Then stick the labels with the names.
(16) Your frame is finished!