I'm in a pursuit of posting at least one Instructable in each main category until the end of the year!
Since I'm not good with arts and crafts, I didn't know what to do for the Living category, but the Comic Contest gave me an idea...

I looked around the website and I haven't found any instructable featuring onomatopoeias.
So I've decided to post an instructable of how to make onomatopoeia wallpapers for the Comic Book fans out there!

It's really simple and even kids can make it themselves!

Don't forget to vote for me on the Comic Contest!!

Step 1: Materials and Shapes

You won't need any expensive material:

Assorted colors of construction paper
Scissors
Paper glue
Pencil and Eraser
Thick black pen for outline
Masking tape (optional)

The shapes I am drawing in this Instructable are for the "Splat", "Bang" and "Pow" onomatopoeias balloons. I chose these, but you can draw whatever balloons you like. Just look into your favorite comic book or search for images online!

Step 2: Splat (part1)

I started with the "Splat" onomatopoeia (Its the hardest out of the three I've made).

So, basically, we want to make round traces on a blue paper to resemble water. You could also use green to resemble something slimy.

Since my papers are colored on one side only, I flipped it over so the pencil marks would be on the back.
Draw whatever reminds you of spilled water (very round traces), it's ok if you have to re-draw it several times, that's the reason we draw on the back of the paper, just make sure you like the shape.
Keep in mind that you will have to put the word "Splat" or "Splash" on it, so think about the size before start cutting, I just used the whole paper!

It's very hard to neatly cut a big sheet of paper at once, so I divided it in 3 cuts.
On the first cut, I didn't care to make it perfect, just got rid of the exceeding paper. Just keep the scissors on the outside of the traces.
On the second cut, go around fixing everything up, try to cut exactly on the outline you drew.
Most of the times, you will get little edges (picture 7) and that doesn't resemble water at all. So just find them and cut those edges carefully to make it very neat.

Step 3: Splat (part2)

When the blue balloon is done, you will want to add some kind of outer glow to it.

First put the balloon over the white paper to copy the outline, it helps to use masking tape to keep it in place.
Cut the white paper the same way you did with the blue one.
You can cut the inner part of the white balloon and save, because the blue one will cover it anyway (There is a picture of that on the "Pow" step). Use the leftovers to make the letters.

Now, there are many ways you can make the glow: You can slide the blue paper vertically or horizontally (picture 3), or even twist it over the white one (picture 4). I like the twisting effect for this one.

Get the white paper leftovers and write "Splat" with crooked letters, it's interesting to make a thin font for this one, but you can mix it with thicker ones, like the "A" in picture 8.
Just glue everything together and spread the letters too look like they are floating around.

Step 4: Bang

Note that I will use the word "edges" as the thin extremities I made for the "Bang" balloon (I don't know what those are called).

The "Bang" Onomatopoeia balloon is easier to make, even though we will use 4 different colors of paper.

We want it to resemble fire so start with the red paper for the outside color.
I like round traces with a lot of thin edges for this.
Since the round parts on this are larger than the "Splat" ones, you can cut the whole paper once. There won't be many places to trim afterwords.

Draw a similar, but smaller, shape on the yellow paper and cut the same way. It's hard to measure the red paper and make sure the yellow one is smaller, but you can aways trim the yellow shape if it goes beyond the red's outline.

For the white inner "fire" you can use the inner part you cut off from the "Splat" glow. Draw a shape similar to the yellow one, only smaller and with smoother edges.
Cut it and glue it on top of the yellow and both on top of the red paper (picture 3).

I used black for the letters to give it a lot of contrast, you can also use a darker red or brown for this. Try to make the font thicker than the one you made on step 3 and glue it on top of the rest (if you make a little arc, it gives the impression of expansion).

Step 5: Pow

The "Pow" onomatopoeia is the easiest one of the three.
We want to make straight lines with a lot of vertices.
Draw something like picture 2 and 3 (I would say: a bunch of irregular triangles for the outline)

There isn't much standard for the "Pow" balloon (it doesn't have to resemble water or fire), so you can use pretty much any color. I used red, yellow and black for the shadow.
You can use masking tape to stick the red and the black papers together and save some work when cutting.
For this one I slided the "shadow" horizontally, so I was able to cut the inner part of the black paper all the way to th side where it was hidden under the red one (picture 4).

Get the yellow leftovers from the last sign and write "Pow". You can make really thick letters here because this balloon has a lot of space. Mine actually came out pretty small and don't make a lot of impact!
You can also spread the letters around to look like something is breaking.

Step 6: Done

After I finished and hung them to take pictures, I realized that the "Splat" and the "Pow" didn't stand out like they should, so I got the thick black pen and drew an outline to the words. It should've been thicker but it helped a lot!

You can make any onomatopoeia out of construction paper, just think of what the word should resemble and start drawing.
Just like Splat resemble something liquid and bang resemble fire (explosion) you could make wavy letters for a "Boing" sign or a cloudy balloon for a "Poof" onomatopoeia. A lightning for "Swoosh" or a really shattered balloon for a "Screeeeech" onomatopoeia!

I hope you enjoyed.
Any questions, leave a comment!

Arthur