This post is sponsored by Plaid Enterprises.

It’s no secret that we love our painted pasta crafts, but today we’ve put a new spin on a similar idea. Instead of using our go-to pasta noodles, we’re using dried beans, lentils, and seeds! We love how the little oval-shaped beans look just like bricks or stones and the split peas kind of remind us of stucco, don’t you think? Bean art is definitely not a new idea and one we’ve long admired in many of our vintage craft books. Sometimes the finished looks can be a little dated looking though, but with a quick coat of paint we think they’ve turned super fun and modern!

Folk Art’s Multisurface Satin Acrylic Paint is perfect for the job and gets it done with only one coat. We chose these warm fall colors so that we can display these mini houses on our window sill for now, but we’ll likely move them onto the table for Thanksgiving so that they’re front and center. Gluing the beans down can take a little bit of time, but it is a great craft to work on while having a movie night and keeping cozy this fall.

• Folk Art Multisurface Satin Acrylic Paint
• Paintbrushes 
• Mod Podge and brush
• Kraft paper houses
• Beans, lentils, and peas

Step 1
Apply Mod Podge onto one side of the kraft paper house. Work in sections, so that it doesn’t dry by the time you get to it. Arrange beans onto the Mod Podge – you can do this in neat and tidy rows or whatever you like best! If doing even rows, you may need to do some creative arranging to fit into some of the smaller spots – turn beans sideways, select small beans to fit, you get the idea!

Step 2
Repeat! Do this for all sides of the house and roof, mixing and matching beans, lentils, peas, seeds, etc. We kept these ones all one bean type on each house and roof, but have fun with different designs. You can create foundations, shutters, trims, patterns, whatever you like! We’re betting little ones will have a lot of fun trying out different beans on the houses. Let dry.

Note: it can help to let each side dry, at least partially, before flipping the house on its side to work on the next side. The weight of the beans can sometimes cause them to slip around and fall off, so if this happens, set the house so that the beans are on the top side and let dry before moving onto the next side. 

Step 3
Time to add some color! We went with warm, fall colors in shades of pink, coral, yellow, and orange. It helps to use a variety of brushes to cover more surface area, but smaller ones to get into the little nooks and cranies. Once covered, let dry completely.

Happy crafting!