News Flash

Our ENTIRE product is either Reusable or Recyclable!!

This is what we are made of:

Cardboard Box - 100% recyclable & reusable*

Pattern Paper - 100% recyclable & reusable*

Directions & Color Guide - 100% Recyclable & reusable*

Wax-based Transfer Paper& reusable*

Poly tubing sleeve - 100% Recyclable #4 & reusable*

3 staples - (zinc plated steel wire) 100% Recyclable

Turn our boxes into something wonderful!

Out on the Town - Slice up your square tube and turn it into a town with buildings, streets and cars.

 

Pencil Town - Create pencil holders out of each end of the tube. Cut to length, trim the box to create a roof and then paint the outside. Make it into a village by painting windows and doors or simply paint them with stripes, stars, dots, flowers or whatever you like!

 

Roll the Dice! - Cut down the box to create two cubes, paint the dots on all six sides and you will have a giant die or two.

The Show Must Go On! - Create a puppet show. Copy characters from your favorite book or just make up your own. Glue the characters to wooden skewers, create a background with several different layers and cut a slot in the top so you can move the characters around. You could even add a bit of lighting with little twinkle lights.

Power Up! - Cut holes in each end of the box, decorate the outside and create a box to hide all of your cords and power strips.

 

Let the Games Begin! - Create your own games

 

Keep an eye out - Make a periscope.

 

Get Creative with Our Plastic Sleeves

Fill them up with Christmas balls,

Slide rolled up posters inside of them,

Fill them with candy or snacks.

Fill them with popcorn for your next family outing!

 

Our Murals - please reuse them!!

Yes! You can retrace them over and over again. So don't be shy, take elements from the mural and place them around the room.

Give your mural to a friend so they can have a mural on their wall too. 

Donate the mural to a church group, daycare center or any other deserving group.

You can even use them as wrapping paper.

Let kids color them in.

 

The Transfer Paper

This can be re-usused over and over again if you are gentle with it. Use it again to retrace the mural or use it to copy some other images. 

Our Color Guide

Cut out the image and frame it as a small piece of art.

Cut out the image and create a big greeting card out of it. 

 

The 3 Staples

Yep, we are stumped on this one too ... but you can recycle them so all is good.

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking for a fun activity for your next fundraiser?

https://elephantsonthewall.com/collections/outer-space/products/space-tours-wall-mural

Raise awareness AND money all at the same time and do what CHOC (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) did at a recent event during their 12 hour dance marathon. While some dancers were dancing their socks off, others took a break and helped out by painting a mural. They chose our "Space Tours" mural which gave everyone that chance to shoot for the moon!! And since it was an easy Paint-by-Number mural from Elephants on the Wall - just about anyone could do it!

What a great way to bring people together, brighten up a wall, and/or make a bold and creative statement. Murals can be painted by kids (maybe with the help of some adult painters). Wouldn’t that be fun knowing you helped paint that mural in your own school? 

Talk to YOUR school or organization NOW and join in the fun. Choose from one of our existing murals or have a Custom Mural done for a bit more.

"HootaThon is Temple University's annual 12 hour dance marathon, a part of the Children's Miracle Network. Every year, dancers spend 12 straight hours raising funds for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), specifically the Child life department. CHOP was the first children's hospital in our nation, and is recognized globally for being a leader in children's healthcare. In 1951, CHOP created the Child Life department, and became the first hospital to recognize the therapeutic value of play.
Child Life is vital to the mental health and well being of the patients at CHOP. It provides services such as pet therapy, art therapy, and patient education to the whole family. At our dance marathon, we are lucky to hear the stories of several miracle families, who share how Child Life impacted their experience at CHOP. Child life is funded entirely on philanthropic donations, and at HootaThon we strive to raise as much as we can. In our first year, we were able to raise 60,000$ for Child Life. At our most recent dance marathon, 5 years later, we raised over 465,000$ for the kids. At HootaThon, we hope to continue to grow and further assist Child Life in its mission to let hospitalized children have a childhood."
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2018 Color of the Year

Sherwin Williams has announced their

2018 Color of the Year 

Now it's your turn to give it a try. 

To help you out a bit, here are some examples of how you could use this gorgeous blue in some of our murals.

As with all of our murals - we give you color suggestions, but it's up to you to make the final decisions!
BRIGHT & BOLD
Here is an easy one.  - just paint the background with Sherwin William's Oceanside blue and paint our mural in a nice bright white. 
SOFT & SUBTLE 
For a more subtle effect try painting the wall AND the mural in the exact same color, but make sure you use a gloss version of it for the mural and keep the wall in a flat sheen. 
MOODY & MYSTERIOUS
Here we changed the color of the bushes and left everything else the same as the original color from the mural. By painting the adjacent walls and ceiling it makes it feel like you are IN the mural rather than looking at picture. Adjust the color of the floor or the color of the pathway to match (using a light color) and it will look like the floor is part of the pathway!
FUN & FANCIFUL
with our Buccaneer Mural
Paint the background Oceanside Blue and then choose a slightly lighter version of the Oceanside blue and substitute it for the blues in the mural. Leave the rest of the colors the same as shown in the color guide.
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We're ALL EARS!

Tell us what YOU would like to see 
as our next mural design!
We are ALL EARS!
A Camping Themed Mural? Music? Foxes? Aliens? Something funny? Something Serene? Flowers? A Cartoon City? Wacky animals? Tire Treads? Subtle Silhouettes? Dr. Suess-ish? Something from your favorite book?
You name it. We want to hear YOUR ideas!
Make suggestions below.
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Elephant Joke of the Day - Tuesday, Aug. 28th 2017

 

 

How do you raise a baby elephant?

With a fork lift - of course!
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Herbie's Garage - The Disney Back Story

THE BACK STORY to this very special mural. 
This particular mural was designed for a recent car-themed fundraising event for the Ryman Arts Organization that was started in honor of Herbie Ryman.
Who is Herbie Ryman?
Herbie Ryman was the very talented illustrator that Walt Disney came to on a Friday and asked him to do an illustration for him. Herbie said, "Sure, let's talk next week". Walt said "No, I need it by Monday". So they spent the next 48 hours together - Walt telling Herbie all of his ideas and Herbie putting them all together in beautiful illustration. This illustration was the very first image of the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Walt took that very illustration to the bank (literally) that Monday to ask for funding for his soon-to-be theme park we have all come to know and love - Disneyland!!
The rest is history.
The Ryman Arts Organization continues to this day providing free art classes, mentoring and scholarships for a select and very talented group of mostly low income high school students at Otis College of Art and Design and California State Fullerton.
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Create an Easy Circus Tent Ceiling

Creating a circus tent ceiling mural is really rather easy. Now you can give your kids a fun, colorful room and make their room the envy of the neighborhood!

Step 1. On your ceiling draw a line or snap a chalk line from corner to corner to create your center point
Step 2. Take a 12" diameter paper plate and cut it in half to create a half circle for your scalloped edge. You can also trace a 12" diameter circle onto a piece of cardboard and cut that in half.
Step 3. Place the paper plate agains the top of the wall in the corner with the flat edge up against the ceiling. Trace around the bottom of the plate to create a scallop. Slide the plate to the right until the left side meets up with the right side of the previously traced scallop. Continue sliding and tracing until you have a scalloped edge all the way across the wall. Repeat on remaining walls. 
 
Alternate Method: Tie one end of a piece of string to a nail. Tie the other end to a pencil making sure the distance between the two is 12". Place the pencil at the very top of the wall in the corner of the room. Place the nail to the right of the pencil up against ceiling and pull it taut giving you the 12" distance. Then, while holding the nail firmly in place draw the scallop with the pencil while keeping the string taut. Continue across the wall.
Step 4. Draw a pencil line from the intersection of the scallop to the center point on your ceiling. Continue all the way around the room. Then you can choose a couple of colors and paint every other stripe/scallop a different color. 
Murphey's Law - hopefully your walls are in 12" increments - such as 10' x 12' or 11' x 13'. If they are - you lucked out big time and will have a perfectly striped circus tent!
If your walls are something like 1'-6" or 12'-3" you will have to adjust the size of the scallops on each wall so you don't end up with a super skinny or super wide stripe. You can add a tiny bit more or lest in the corners of the room and then add "curtains" in the corners to camouflage the difference. You could add real curtains or you could use our Just Curtains Wall Mural to keep the hand-painted wall mural effect going. 
NOTE: If you would prefer different colors - that's easy!
There are only five colors in this mural. Three for the curtains and two for the bows. For the curtains you need a base color for the curtains, a lighter shade of that color for the highlights, and a darker shade for the shadows. For the bows you need a base color and a darker shade for the shadows. That's it!
For this and many other creative ideas go to:
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Beautiful Blue Ponds

I just have to share this with you. This is one of my favorite and most successful outdoor projects! 

We wanted a nice waterfall/water feature in our backyard, so I got an estimate to put in several ponds with waterfalls going from one to another and then one on the other side of the bridge. They said it would cost us $14,000. YIKES! That was definitely not going to be happening. So I got creative. Off to the store I went and got:

  • 4 blue plastic wading pools (about $8 ea). (Toys R Us) 
  • Thirteen 9" x 12" Retaining wall blocks for ea. pond (Home Depot)
  • About 12 Flat Concrete step stones for each pond (Home Depot)
  • 4 small pond pumps (about $20 ea) (Home Depot)
  • Aluminum tubing to create an extension for the pumps. (cut to length at Osh.)
  • Plants - we used Vinca's*
  • Access to an electrical outlet

Our original plan was to have the water fall from pond to pond, but after trying several different ways, it never worked out well. So, we ended up simply creating a fountain in each pond - which worked out even better and created more water noise!!

Start by digging a level, shallow hole big enough to fit the wading pool into. Surrounded it with the concrete blocks making sure they are level too. Make sure the wading pool is slightly below the concrete blocks. Lay the pavers on top around the edge to hide the concrete blocks and the edge of the pool. Fill the ponds with water, add the pump, plug it in and presto! Your very own pond/fountain!

Total cost.... $400!  

Things I learned along the way...

  • Water does NOT make noise when it falls onto rocks. It DOES, however make lots of noise if it falls into water.
  • It would be great to adhere the pavers to the concrete blocks, but then you can't remove the pool for cleaning. Darn. So be careful if you step onto those pavers!
  • Speaking of cleaning... the best way to clean the ponds is to empty the pond by tilting the pump so the water squirts outside of the pond until the water gets too low for the pump to work. Then you will have to scoop out as much of the remaining the water as possible by hand - I used a plastic container with a flat edge. Then move the pavers away from the edge - just enough to remove the wading pool itself. Clean the wading pool, set back in and you are good to go! When they get a bit nasty looking just get some new wading pools! At $8 each ($4 when they are on sale) you can buy a couple of extras for future use. : )
  • *Although the vincas look great, when they get bigger they get leggy and the petals fall into the pond and create a mess. Maybe keep them trimmed, or move them away from the pond a little bit. NOTE: Our vince's began popping up in lots of other places in the garden a bit later.... 
  • You can buy a Fountain Nozzle kit, which gives you variety of different heads, but they kept falling over because they were top heavy. The suction cups on the bottom of the pump don't always work well. That's why I went to OSH and bought an aluminum tube and had it cut to about 8" lengths. It worked perfectly.

 

 

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Pantone's 2017 Color of the Year "Greenery"

Yep, once again Pantone has come out with their color of the year.  This time it is "Greenery". According to Pantone - "Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew."

So go ahead renew your zest for life and paint that mural you have always wanted to do. Remember, with our murals, you can change any and all of the colors to whatever you want.

Now check out some of our murals that use that color and ones that could look really zesty in it! The first one that comes to mind is this Forest Friends mural - the have an accent wall that looks a lot like "Greenery" and then they incorporated it into the mural itself. They did such an amazing job. It is in the playroom, but I think any adult would have just as much fun as the kids in this room.

 

Here is another of our favorites. The background isn't quite the full "Greenery" color, but a softer version of it - and doesn't it look fantastic as a backdrop to our Barnyard Friends and Barnyard Doorhugger?

 

Then, of course, with any of our silhouette/1-3 color murals, our Bamboo, Safari, Paisley, Damask and many others are easy to add your own colors to. This Paisley mural, although not quite using Greenery as the color will show you how easy it is to pick a color scheme to use in your mural. 

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Take your next coloring project to the next level!

Coloring books are fun and easy, and even quite therapeutic, but who is going to see your hard work in a dinky little coloring book? Why not show off your talent?

We say - Go BIG and go HOME and paint a GIANT Paint-by-Number wall mural where your hard work and creativity can be enjoyed by all. And what's a better place to start than with your kids room wall decor - then you can work up to doing your bedroom.

We've got you covered. Most of our murals are designed to fit onto an 8' tall wall with a variety of designs and varying widths from 1' wide up to 18' wide.

Change the mood in a room and set the scene for your little pirate with our Ahoy Ye Matey! mural. Go really big with our Forest Friends wall mural - all 18 feet of it! Make a wild statement with our Zebra Stripes or a bold statement with our Paisley MuralOr you can make it soft, subtle & sophisticated, like our Bamboo Silhouette or add a bit of humor with our Shark Doorhugger!

 

And it's SO easy!Just TAPE the pattern to the wall, mindlessly TRACE the design, remove the  pattern & carbon paper, and then PAINT inside the lines like a giant coloring book.

No decisions or talent required! We also provide a color guide so you don't have to make any decisions whatsoever, but feel free to choose your own colors for a perfect match. If you are feeling super creative, you can also separate or repeat the mural and/or the elements as many times as you like to get even more bang for your buck! 

Kudos to YOU! Once you are finished, stand back and take in all the compliments. Here are a few comments from our customers:

"I've had several comments from friends that think it looks professionaly done as well, they just don't realize how easy it actually was thanks to Elephants on the Wall!!"

"Everyone thinks it was done professionally."

"Everyone that has entered our kids room has commented on the mural.  Usually they ask how much we paid to have it done and when we tell them that we actually did it ourselves, nobody believes us."

"Very easy and what a huge impact it makes. Everyone always compliments us on the mural as soon as they walk into the space!"

"We received so many 'ooohs' and 'awwws' over the finished product."

"Everyone has commented that it looks like a professional job and I think that is thanks to your easy-to-use murals!"

"We have received tons of compliments and our daughter LOVES her new room!"

"My mother, grandmother, cousin and I painted this and it was amazing to watch it transform! We had a blast and it turned out amazing! Definitely my favorite room in the house!!"

 

HAPPY PAINTING!  : )

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How young is too young to paint our murals?

Well, that is rather subjective on many fronts. Most of our murals are painted by the parents, but kids can do them too. We suggest that kids over 8 years of age will probably do the best, maybe even up to 10 years old. It pretty much depends upon the child and his level of talent, patience, and hand/eye coordination. 

I once asked my daughter-in-law what the talent level of our 4 year old twins was. She thought for a moment and said "Well, let's say they are in their abstract stage." Beautifully put. So I would say proceed with caution.

If you do let younger kids try to paint these or at least "help" paint these. I usually suggest the one of the parents paint the outlines and let the little ones paint inside the areas - that is probably safest.

BUT.... I had one customer call me to tell me about how her mural was coming along. She said her 5 year old daughter was just dying to help and kept asking her mom if she could paint over and over again. The mom finally gave in and let her daughter paint some areas. I asked the mom how it looked and she said "Well, I'll just send you a picture". She sent me a picture of the mural with the little girl standing in front of it. To be honest, I couldn't tell one way or another if the mural was perfect or not, but the picture of the little girl standing in front of her mural with the BIGGEST smile on her face said everything. She was SO darned proud of painting the mural - you know what... it really didn't matter if the mural was perfect. She was just beaming with pride!

 

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Latest Trend in Colors

 

 

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Coloring Is Good For You!!!

Ever since I started this business 11 years ago, I have found that when I actually got to paint one of my murals it was really relaxing and quite therapeutic. I used to joke with people that once you got painting, you could solve all of your problems and the world's problems. It seems to let the frivolous stuff fall to the  wayside, while you could calmly deal with any problems you might have. Although I am no psychologist, it turns out I was actually onto something!

According to Ben Michaelis, a psychologist, he says that “There is a long history of people coloring for mental health reasons. Carl Jung used to try to get his patients to color in mandalas at the turn of the last century, as a way of getting people to focus and allow the subconscious to let go. Now we know it has a lot of other stress-busting qualities as well.” 

As it turns out, Ben & Carl and I aren't the only ones who have picked up on this phenomenon. Currently the new trend is coloring books for adults. As a matter of fact, some of the top selling books on Amazon are adult coloring books!! 

Who woulda thunk?!?!

So go BIG and pick up that brush and get started on a mural and solving all of the worlds problems today!

See more at: http://www.the-open-mind.com/according-to-psychologists-coloring-is-the-best-alternative-to-meditation/#sthash.5i5CCl07.dpuf

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3rd Annual World Elephant Day

Today, we are helping to celebrate the 3rd annual World Elephant Day. Founded by Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation in 2012, the day is dedicated to bringing awareness to the preservation and protection of elephants. Today it is supported by more than 65 wildlife organizations and has been promoted by celebrities like Yao Ming, Stephen Fry, Alec Baldwin, and William Shatner, who lent his voice to narrate "Return to the Forest," a film documenting the reintroduction of captive elephants to their natural habitat. It was released on the very first World Elephant Day three years ago. http://bit.ly/1ElyfnD
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The Possibilities are Endless...

The great thing about Elephants on the Wall Paint-by-Number wall murals is that they are super versatile! Do you see one of our murals that you love but it's not in the right color? No Problem! Just change the colors. Find some inspiration like bedding, a picture, a rug etc. then use those colors in your mural. Here are some great examples of our Paisley Mural and some fun color combinations...

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Go Social with Baby Names!

GUEST BLOG from Belly Ballot:

New Trend in Parenting: Go Social with Baby Names!

Soon-to-be parents have been facing this tough decision for centuries – what are we going to name our child? Historically, there was a tendency to name the offspring after family ancestors, so the first names would carry on in the family genealogy. Whereas there is still some inspiration in the names of our forefathers, it seems that there is just a little bit more in a name now than it once used to be.

Choosing the right name is tricky – you want something modern, but not completely unconventional; a name that goes well with the last name, sounds elegant but has casual nicknames. And I won’t even go into the excruciating details of trying to please everyone around with the name, be it your parents, grandparents or in-laws. If you want your baby name to start with the letter “J” for instance, go for it.

In the digital age, when Internet has become a global village and social media are popular means of communication, there’s no longer need for a plethora of books written about baby names. Belly Ballot is a social media baby naming website which makes baby naming more open to outside opinions and definitely more fun. All you need is an Internet connection to reach out to your family, friends or even complete strangers (if that is your wish) via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and give all these people a chance to become a part of the decision process. Not only can you find out what everyone’s opinion is about the potential names you’ve chosen for your baby, but the process can also generate new names and ideas you would originally never think of yourself!

On top of all the fun interacting with your social media friends, soon-to-be moms who sign up and create their ballots always have a chance to win an amazing weekly prize for themselves or their babies. Social baby naming could seem somewhat unusual at first, but it’s only a natural step further in social parenting. Moms and soon-to-be moms already shop for things online, research information on the internet and share pictures of their children on Facebook or Instagram. As social beings, we love to use technology to our advantage and ultimately, that’s what social baby naming is all about.
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Look what we did while you weren't looking!

We Updated our Website!

The old website had seen better days so we have updated it  and switched platforms.
So if you had us bookmarked you will need to update the url address.
Either click on this link or type in  www.elephantsonthewall.com and book mark this address.
Some of the changes include:
1. A Cleaner, brighter look 
2. Easier navigation
3. We added Customer Reviews 
in the navigation bar so you can quickly see the unedited reviews from all of our past customers.
 4. We have also added the ability to review your next mural directly online! 
 5. It's easier to share us with your friends & family 
on Facebook, Twitter & Pintrest
6. We have added a Blog! 
Now we can keep you posted on tidbits of news, handy tips and a whole lot more.
Feel free to comment on any of our tips or news in the comments section.
We are still tweaking things, and are ALWAYS open for suggestions!
Thanks so much for making Elephants on the Wall such a great success! 
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2015 Popular Design Trends

According to the 2015 Zillow Digs Home Trend Forecast the newest trends include:

"Cowhide: Cowhide is the ideal accent texture for 2015's modern, yet approachable design aesthetic.

Wallpaper: - from digital prints to textured wall coverings. 

Blue Accent Colors: Blue will be the most popular accent color. Pops of indigo blue or deep navy will become a staple in home design this year.

Modern/Mid-Century Modern Elements: Mid-century modern elements will weave their way into the 2015 home décor - from architecture to furniture - and will be on of the biggest up-and-coming design styles for 2015"

So we want to know - what do YOU think about these new trends? 

 

 

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First Post

DON'T GET STUCK WITH STICK-ONS! or 10 Reasons Why... 

Elephants on the Wall murals are SO much better than stick-ons!

1. You can REUSE an EOTW mural as many times as you like.

2. You can REPEAT the whole mural on another wall or repeat parts of it to carry the design all around the room.

3. You can REVERSE the pattern for that perfect fit.

4. You can CHANGE THE COLORS to whatever you like for that perfect match.

5. You get FULL-SIZED murals. Most of our murals are 7-8 feet tall.

6. Our murals work on TEXTURED WALLS - even brick or stucco!

7. Our murals allow for ENDLESS CREATIVITY. Change the colors, repeat the images, break them up, reverse them, you can even add special touches like chalkboard paint, glitter or glow-in-the dark paint.

8. We can even do CUSTOM MURALS for a bit more.

9. They are THERAPEUTIC & RELAXING. We have done the hard part so you can sit back, relax and simply tape, trace and color to your hearts content. Aaaaahhhhh..

10. It's REWARDING - BEYOND BELIEF! This is a project that you will definitely be proud of. And we can pretty much guarantee that your friends and family will agree. Here are some quotes from some of our customers:

”Our friends and family are stunned at how awesome the room looks!”

“I got so many compliments from people who couldn't believe it was a paint-by-numbers mural”.

“We received so many 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' over the finished product.”

“It was really great to paint this, as it brought the family together. Everyone wanted to help, from grandparents to nephews. It turned out great and we love it!

”My son was so excited when he saw it for the first time and is very proud of his "Forest Friends". Everyone who has seen the room absolutely loves it and is totally impressed that it was a trace and paint.”

“My two and a half year old Jake loves his dinosaurs so much that he actually asks me if he can go to bed so he can visit them!  Now that's awesome!!!”

“My 8 year old son was so happy and excited to see the race car/speed way mural on his wall!  Anytime someone comes over, the first thing he does is bring them to his room to show it off!”

We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

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