Create grass & sand

Summer’s here, and it’s time to catch some sun down, either at the beach or in the meadow. Join us as we show you how to bring the shore and the countryside down to size.

Materials required

• Javis landscape mat Spring Green

• Javis Hairy Grass - Spring Mix

• Self-adhesive grass & flowers

• Fine assorted gravel mix

• Large sheet of blue cardboard

• Soft toy stuffing

• Acrylic paints: light green, medium yellow, burnt umber, white and cerulean blue hue

• All-purpose glue

• Gloss varnish

Tools required

• Small brush

• Scissors

1 Mix light green and medium yellow acrylic paint with a little burnt umber. Cut a piece of landscape mat to your required size and stipple with the mixed paint, sprinkling over the top with Javis Hairy Grass in Spring Mix as you go.

2 Take a selection of green grass tufts and, starting in one corner of the landscape mat, stick them together into a larger area of the grass. They don’t have to be all the same shade of green, a bit of variety is good as we’re going to create an area of meadow amongst the long grass.

3 Once you’ve completely covered the area of landscape mat you have allotted for the meadow, use your fingers to blend the grass tufts together, giving it a more cohesive appearance. Add in one or two green bushy tufts for extra diversity.

4 Take a selection of flower tufts in around four different colours and cut them into smaller individual pieces. Don’t make each piece exactly the same size, ensuring there’s a good, natural variation. 5 Stick the tiny flower pieces in amongst the grass at varying heights to create a realistic meadow effect.

6 Place the landscape mat on a piece of blue card, large enough to accommodate grass, sand and sea. Add some soft toy stuffing or similar beneath the landscape mat to create a natural roll and glue down the edges. Next, spread some glue over the area you want the sand to cover, allowing a little overlap onto the grass. Make sure that the edge where the sand will meet the water is uneven and wavy. Spread the sand across the glue and allow to dry.

7 Water down some of the paint mixture used to coat the landscape mat in step one and brush it over just one side of some autumnal grass tufts, i.e. the side not facing the wind!