St. Patrick's Day Bucket O' Gold Candy

Once in a while I find an interesting item to repurpose and this week I came across 2 fish bowls on Freecycle. I grabbed them up, knowing that I wanted one of them to repurpose into a decoration for St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve been wanting to create a center piece that would make my children excited with the anticipation of a big, magical St. Patrick’s Day Bucket O’ Gold Candy right there on their own table. (Who isn’t excited by a big ol’ bucket of candy?!)

Are you familiar with Freecycle? It’s a community of people who share for free items they no longer need. The goal is to keep unwanted items out of the landfill and find them a new purpose. I enjoy window shopping through Freecycle and jumped on the offer of 2 free fish bowls last week. You should be able to find your own fish bowl or round vase to repurpose at a yard sale or thrift shop if you don’t use Freecycle. You may already have the rest of the supplies on hand.

Supplies

(some of mine were supplied by Plaid Crafts)

Fish bowl or round vase

Green multi-surface paint

Black multi-surface paint

Yellow card stock paper

Painter’s tape or masking tape

Double stick tape

Tape off the area for the belt on the bowl. I used the width of the sponge brush to mark my belt with painter’s tape.

I painted the black belt first and let that dry well. Then I painted the rest of the bowl with the green paint. I found that the green paint went on streaky (see on the right side?). To eliminate the streakiness, I first added the paint with a normal brushstroke motion and then I went back over it with a pouncing motion (see the difference in the paint on the left?).

I let the paint dry overnight. The next day, I simply cut a buckle from a piece of yellow card stock and used double stick tape to add it to the belt.