Hot Dog! Super Easy Mickey Mouse Wall Art

A few months ago I discovered some awesome Mickey Mouse prints in the new Disney collection from Ethan Allen. Sadly, at $150-300 a piece (or more!), they cost more than I wanted to spend. Plus, they looked way too easy to make myself.

So I did.

You can too. Today’s post shares how to make super easy Mickey Mouse wall art.

First, let’s look through some of the Ethan Allen Disney styles for inspiration. Then I’ll share ideas on how to modify them. There are so many fun options, choosing your favorites will probably be the hardest part!

How about one of these simple Mickey and Minnie silhouettes? Aren’t they cute? I love how this large grouping of classic prints looks modern and fun.

Here’s a closer look at one of the most popular Mickey images. Maybe you recognize him from a zillion t-shirts, watches and coffee mugs? It’s still one of my favorites.

Here’s an interesting twist on the same print. I’m sharing it because it could inspire you to take an image you like and look at it a different way. This is still the classic Mickey profile, but this time they reversed the image and the colors and zoomed in on his oversized shoes.

Or, if you want something a little more abstract, consider one of these artistic prints. This time the colors are bold but the shape is softened. The effect is still fun, but sophisticated too.

Here’s another example with the same iconic shape. This time the colors follow Mickey’s classic attire.

Are you starting to see why I thought I could make these myself? Most of the Ethan Allen Disney styles are super cute, but they look pretty simple to replicate too.

I printed these last two options to get started. My original plan was to use the prints as patterns and then recreate the wall art from something else like card stock, paint or tissue paper. That last option sounds a little ridiculous now that I see it in writing. I was picturing some kind of three-dimensional effect that probably would have turned into a mess. Maybe I’ll try that another day.

I’ve been known to overcomplicate things.

Fortunately, I didn’t today. I just copied the image, resized it to fit a standard piece of paper and sent it to my home printer. When it was done printing, the quality was good enough to frame without any further modifications. So I did. What do you think? I already had the frame, so it was easy to display too.

The first option was so easy, I started playing around with other ideas. First, I took my favorite Mickey profile shot from above and pasted it into Power Point. I’ve spent a significant chunk of my life modifying Power Point slides (can we please rework slide #247 again?), so I’m really comfortable using it. Obviously, you have tons of other applications available too. Once I had Mickey on a slide, I reduced the dimensions, added a few friends, arranged them in a rectangle and turned one of them red.

There may have been some other experimental steps in between. Once I had a design I liked, that already fit the frame I had in place, I printed it and hung it on my wall. Simple and fun, just like the Ethan Allen ideas, but way less expensive and customized to my preferences.

My next idea was to use the same Mickey image again, but zoom in and split him apart (Sorry Mickey!) like some of the Ethan Allen prints. Still using Power Point, I then applied various “filters” to each segment of Mickey to give them a subtle change in texture. Then I added a heart, using the standard “insert shape” option and colored it red.

Here’s a look at the result. I love the effect of the different filters. I purposely kept him black and white with a small pop of red to fit in with the other prints, but you could consider different colors.

Since I already had one more small frame on my wall to fill, I went back to Power Point and started designing again. This time I used Mickey’s iconic head shape. Similar to the print above, I just replicated the image, arranged them in a rectangle and replaced one of them with a red heart. (Surprised? smitten with Mickey!)

I liked how this one turned out too. You can see subtle lines in the images where my temperamental printer was starting to rebel, but I didn’t mind the effect. I did take it as a sign that I should stop printing though.

Here’s a view of all four images hanging on the wall together. Aren’t they fun? Feeling inspired yet?

Since I blitzed through those images so quickly I had time to try one more idea. It’s not quite as easy as the ones shown above, but it’s pretty close.

This time I traced a copy of the abstract Mickey art work onto a piece of printer paper and colored in the image with oil pastels. I used oil pastels because I just rediscovered them in my house this week and wanted an excuse to use them. Obviously you could use paint, markers or whatever else you have on hand.

I switched up the colors a bit because I wasn’t feeling the green (Who knows why? Don’t tell Kermit.) Personalizing your artwork is part of the fun. Then I hung the image on my fridge. It blends in nicely with my kids’ creations that were already there, but I don’t mind. I enjoyed the creative break and it was just what I needed to ramp up for another busy week.

So what do you think? Feeling inspired? Wall art doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. Find something you like and give it a go. If you can put your own twist on it, even better.

Add a little (wall art) magic to your world!