Recycled Paper Mache Vase

Materials needed:
• empty plastic container (I used my old Mod Podge bottle)
• newspaper
• white glue
• water
• paint
• hot glue (optional
• googly eyes (optional)



This idea came from my Ready Made Magazine this month. They made paper mache vases out of old plastic containers. I of course wanted to make my own so I decided to make a monstar case.

To start this project I cleaned out my Mod Podge container getting all the gunk out and taking the label off and using some Goo Gone to get rid of the sticky parts. Once it was washed and dried I made a bowl of 50/50 white glue and water mixture and tore my news paper into strips. Then I dipped the newspaper stripes into the glue/water mixture and placed the strips around covering the whole area. Once completely covered I let it dry.

Once it was dry I got my stripes of newspaper and bunched it up to make a nose. Then I used small stripes of the glue/water covered news paper and placed it over the nose until it was well connected to the bottle. I did this for the mouth and the nose and mouth on the other side (it's a 2 headed monstar). Then I let it dry for a long time (the bunched up part takes longer to dry but you want it completely dry before painting to avoid mildew).

Once it was dry I painted a white base coat of acrylic all over and then once that was dry I painted the vase how I wanted it and then when that was dry painted a layer of Mod Podge. When all of that was dry I hot glued googly eyes on it.

You really can have as much fun as you want with this. Paint it one color or paint a picture, add embellishments like ribbon, glitter, jewels, wire, shells, whatever really.