I Dabble In Paper Mâché

One of my favorite magazines is the DIY Magazine by Better Homes and Gardens! I've made quite a few DIY projects with inspiration from it!

For example, I made these concrete planters you see on my front porch:

I also made some clay butterflies for our master bedroom {Which by the way, is the biggest way people get to Nuestra Vida Dulce! Who would've thought butterflies are where it's at?} :

And, I also tried my hand at some paint swatch art for the guest room:

If you've been reading NVD for awhile, you are well aware that I love me a good DIY! My latest DIY mag inspiration project uses something I'm very familiar with: paper maché! I've been a paper maché "artist" for years now--perfecting the always popular end-of-the-school-year piñata. Oh, the life of a Spanish teacher!

This time I used it to make a homemade flower vase out of a ketchup bottle. No joke. It's cute, I promise.

I started out with a basic rinsed out bottle with the top cut off, some newspaper {that I would later tear into strips} for the "shell", and scrapbook letters for my "S" monogram.

I mixed my paper maché with flour and water and applied the strips of newspaper to cover 1 layer of the bottle. I had already centered my "S" and paper machéd around it.

I let the bottle dry upside down over night and then used some white spray paint I had lying around to add a cohesive finish to it.

After the paint dried, I added some water and a few stems of my new mums and the little vase is sitting pretty on our counter.

The magazine did a pewter-esque finish to their vase, but I went with white. I'm sure any color would be fun!

The empty ketchup bottle was the first thing I thought to use, but there are many other shapes that you could use that wouldn't be as obvious. : )

xoxo