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Are you looking for a unique and inventive decoration for your home that uses random, everyday objects? Try this do-it-yourself project.
For just $9.78 you can transform plastic spoons into a mirror that resembles a Chrysanthemum flower. You can make this as small or as large as you want depending on how many spoons you choose to buy.
You will need
Purchased:
• Plastic Spoons - 50 cents a box at Cub Foods (minimum of 10 boxes of 24 spoons needed)
• Metal pizza tray - $1 at Dollar Tree
• Teal acrylic paint - 79 cents at Meijer
• White spray paint - 99 cents at Lowe’s
• 7-inch mirror - $2 at Hobby Lobby
Items I already had around the house:
• Gorilla Glue
• White acrylic paint
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Paint brush
Directions
1. Remove all of your spoons from their boxes and break apart the handle from the spoon. I initially used a pair of scissors for this, but found that just breaking them by hand was quicker and gave me the same result. It is OK if the edges are jagged, they will be hidden. However, I did try to set aside those with the smoothest edges to use on my final row (about 20 to 25 spoons in total).
2. Remove all tags from your pizza tray and lay out your tray and all of the spoons (minus the handles) on a flat surface. Spray paint everything with your white paint. This doesn’t have to be a thick coat. It just adds texture to the surface so paint will stick later.
3. Take your Gorilla Glue and adhere your mirror to the center of your pizza tray. Let dry.
4. Starting with the outside edge of your tray, take your hot glue gun and adhere the spoons to the edge allowing each one to just touch one another. Be generous with your glue. It will give more strength to each spoon with the more glue you use.
5. Once all spoons are secure, mix your teal paint with white to create a very pale blue. With each row around, we will be making the paint darker. We want the outside edge to be the lightest.
6. Use your paintbrush and apply two coats of your paint to each spoon. Make sure and paint the edges as well. The back side of the spoon will not show so you can leave those unpainted. Let the paint dry between the two coats.
7. Once that row is completely painted and dry, glue in your second row of spoons.
8. Add some more of the teal paint to the teal and white mixture you used to paint your first row. This will make your paint the same hue, but a little darker.
9. Like the first row, paint the second row of spoons with the newly mixed paint color. Let dry and apply a second coat. Continue this process with each layer of spoons until you are at the last row.
10. Before gluing the final row of spoons around your mirror, mix your darkest teal and white paint mixture. By this point. You should have mainly teal and far less white. Add this directly to the base of the pizza tray, around the mirror where your final row will be glued down. This will hide any white paint from showing when your mirror is hung up.
11. To ensure no paint gets on my mirror, for the final row of spoons, I painted each one before gluing it to the mirror. This way they are dry and ready to go before I attach them to the piece.
12. Once the paint dries, glue your spoons down so that the edges of your spoons are flushed against the side of the mirror. Let the entire piece dry and viola, you have a decorative mirror made from everyday household items.
Tip: If you want to make your flower larger, simple take the handles of your spoons and glue them around the entire rim of the pizza tray. This will add a few more inches and you could get at least two to three more rows of spoons into the overall piece.
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