Thursday, October 19, 2023

Upcycled Plastic Cup Vase

Hello! Have I got an easy all season craft for you using plastic cups! Once you're done with drinking out of them, here's a resourceful way to reuse them and celebrate any season or occasion! Just rinse out, dry, and use them to create a lovely vase! Perfect for the upcoming entertaining season!

Welcome to this months' Creative Craft Hop hosted by Sara @Birdz of a Feather! So glad Sara's back! But Donna @Modern on Monticello did an amazing job filling in these past three months for Sara! If you're coming over from Cecilia's @My Thrift Store Addiction, wasn't her whimsical chandelier centerpiece adorable!

Upcycled plastic cup vase is all about reusing before recycling! And making a vase is so easy and simple to do!

Materials:

Plastic Cups - 16oz or larger
X-acto craft knife/sharp scissors
Quick dry multi-purpose glue (Fabri-Tac)
Plastic storage container bottom
Velvet wired cord 20+yds

Start with two clean plastic cups. These cups are 16oz.

Use an x-acto knife to cut out an . . .

opening in the center of the bottom of both cups! Basically that's so you won't have to shorten or cut off the stems of real flower or foilage - just in case.

Then glue the two bottoms together.

The bottom opening of the plastic cup "vase" needs to be closed, so I'm using the bottom of a clear plastic container to cut out a round closure and . . .

glue it onto the bottom opening (which is on top in the picture below).

Once the bottom closure is dry, cut off excess plastic. And check for openings you might have made while cutting, and add additional glue to seal.

Then begin adding the velvet wired cording by coiling it around into a circle and gluing in place to the center of the bottom plastic.

Continue coiling the cord and gluing in place as you cover the plastic cups.

Coiling from the bottom . . .

up towards the center . . .

and then around to the top, gluing in place as you coil.

Here is the finished vase wrapped in wired velvet cording. The vase looks beautiful as is, but I wanted to decoupage borders of leaves on the top and bottom of the vase for the fall season.

I printed out a fall border design on rice paper but as I tried to decoupage it on the vase, it just wouldn't stick. Then I tried other papers to see if they would stick.

This leaf was actually a napkin that I cut out. It looks good on the front of the vase, but once I applied mod podge, it wouldn't stick either and ended up stuck on plastic film instead of the vase. It was a hot mess! Luckily I was able to wash all the mod podge off and let the vase dry overnight.

I so wanted to put some sort of decoration on the vase. I didn't want to use any type of stones, beads or glitter. Then I remembered making fall leaves using an oak template. Some of you may remember this oak leaf template that I used to make a clay leaf dish. and also leaves for my paper mache pumpkin centerpiece. I reduced the size in Word, printed it, and then cut it out. You can also free-hand a leaf design, if you want. I still had all the supplies to make a few leaves.

To make the leaves, you will also need:

Clear film sheet
Purple Burlap Ribbon 5.5"wide
Twine
Tacky Glue/Fabric Glue (quick grab)
Parchment paper
Scissors
Floral Stem Wire

Then place a clear film sheet on top of the template (so it wouldn't stick as much) and the burlap on top of that. Begin tracing the leaf around on the burlap in small increments with a quick grab, tacky glue. Quickly place the jute twine down on top of the glue, following the outline. Use the pointed nose of pliers to press the twine down onto the burlap to prevent too much glue getting on fingers.

Once the twine is in place, cover the leaf with a sheet of parchment paper and press down around the twine outline to smooth out with fingers for better adhesion to the burlap, and then remove.

Let dry!

Once the glue is dry, time to cut out the leaf following the leaf outline.

Glue on a strip of floral stem wire (I painted mine to match the burlap) to the back of the leaves to make them bendable for dimension.

Perfect to place on the vase!

You know I love my purple hues!

A recycled plastic cup vase is a unique and creative way of decorating and a great way to put a personal touch to your decor!

Up next, is Niki @Life as a Leo Wife, sharing her adorable Halloween Candleholder!

Be sure to visit all the creative crafters listed below and be amazed!

Winter Wine Glasses Jenna @ The Painted Apron

Candy Corn With Pom Poms Ann @The Apple Street Cottage

Fall Wreath Using Fabric and Burlap Allyson @Southern Sunflower

5 Easy Steps to Make a Thanksgiving Wreath Carol @Blue Sky at Home

Wickedly Whimsical Salvaged Chandelier Centerpiece Cecilia @My Thrift Store Addiction

Upcycled Plastic Cup Vase Gail @Purple Hues and Me

DIY Dollar Tree Halloween Candleholder Niki @Life As a Leo Wife

How to Make a Scrap Robot Sara @Birdz of a Feather

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

DIY Paper Mache Pumpkin Centerpiece

When it comes to hosting fall gatherings and parties with family and friends it's a known tradition to create a table centerpiece for the occasion! We all love to dress up a table with a dramatic centerpiece especially for entertaining! It's a given! And this time of year it's usually done using pumpkins. Carving a pumpkin has been a time honored tradition for centuries! But the tradition has evolved into more modern ways to decorate - especially using faux pumpkins - where you don't have to worry about making a gooey mess, pests or decay. So today, I'm showing you how to swap out your traditional vase for a more creative designed vase for a more unique fall centerpiece! Perfect for this month's theme on Tradition for our monthly Sustainable Craft Challenge that's hosted by Julie @Sum of their Stories!

This challenge is all about sustainable crafting! Each month is themed and all projects must have some sort of a sustainable element to them. This could be an upcycling or recycling element, or something that reduces waste, uses leftovers, etc.

How you decorate a pumpkin is virtually unlimited. There are so many ways! For a unique fall centerpiece, rather than settle for a traditional vase, tap into your creativity and make one out of an unfinished paper mache pumpkin - a tall one at that! Then draw a decorative scallop design around the top, and follow the lines using a craft knife, cutting off the top. A bold move would be to enhance the pumpkin by painting it a metallic gold! Sounds cool, doesn't it! But there's so much more to creating a lovely fall centerpiece! So let's get started!

Materials:

Paper Mache Pumpkin - 14.5" tall
Top (or a small round object to draw on scallop design)
Pencil
Craft knife
Rustoleum Metallic Gold spray paint
Velvet ribbon 2.5"wide
Scissors
Aileene's Tacky Glue
Leaf template
Floral stem wire
StarBond Instant Adhesive
Parchment paper
Small rocks/or glass
Velvet pumpkin stems
Fall Florals

Pumpkin decorations make beautiful fall centerpieces! Luckily, I had everything I needed in my stash! The paper mache pumpkin was left over from a few years ago. I had gotten two from FactoryDirectCraft - one I decorated here, but I had no idea what I would do with the second one, until now!

Begin by using a top from a small container to draw scallop shapes around the pumpkin to remove the pumpkin top.

Use a craft (x-acto) knife to carefully cut the top out . . .

creating a cool opening for the vase with a decorative look for the top.

Once the top was removed, spray painted both pieces (outside) using a metallic gold color. - sorry, I completely forgot to take a picture. It was extremely hot outside and I didn't want to be out there for long.

While the paint was drying I cut up ribbon strips following the design of the velvet ribbon. Once the pumpkin was dry, I applied tacky glue to the crevices of the pumpkin - one at a time - and . . .

laid a strip of ribbon on top of the glue, starting at the bottom up to the top, while smoothing the strip down along the pumpkin.

Continue applying tacky glue in the pumpkin crevices and laying down the ribbon strips - nine in all - until . . .

all the pumpkin crevices are cover with strips of velvet and glitter ribbon for a decorative look! Unexpected and quite charming, gluing strips of sparkly gold & purple velvet ribbon is a unique way to decorate a pumpkin vase centerpiece.

To compliment the ribbon strips and the small velvet pumpkin stems used in the vase, make velvet leaves out of the ribbon using a leaf template found online,

Laying the template on top of the velvet ribbon and . . .

cutting the leaf out.

Doesn't this look so cool for a leaf! The design and colors!

Now make several more!

Add Starbond Instant Adhesive, a quick dry glue, along the middle back of the leaf to add stem wire to make the leaves flexible - shaping as you like!

Cover with parchment paper to smooth the stem wire down onto the adhesive. Let dry.

Then shape to your liking!

Here I added three leaves to a stem wire and covered the wire with cutoff ribbon edges.

Have fun adding fall florals to create a lovely centerpiece!

This fall centerpiece idea trades traditional orange, yellow and reds tone for purple, burgundy and gold hues for a dramatic bold look! And of course, I had to tie a bow ribbon to the top!