C is for Crafts: Watermelon Suncatchers
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My kids love a good creative project so I am always thinking about how to reuse and re-purpose things into craft activities. I also was inspired by all the empty strawberry containers we were accumulating earlier this summer and I could not bear to put them all into the recycling bin. I just knew that they had projects in their future. I have endured some eye rolling and head shaking from my husband, but I have a lovely little collection of these boxes in my craft closet now. I have several ideas of how to use them. The first project was making Strawberry Box Greenhouses. The second use for recycled strawberry containers was to make these darling watermelon suncatchers. You will love how simple this project is!
Supplies
1 lid from a plastic strawberry container (or other piece of recycled clear plastic)
Instructions
Wash out your recycled strawberry box and dry it off gently. Using your scissors carefully cut the lid off of the container. Cut three triangular “wedges” out of the lid using the curved edges to make the watermelon rind. Trim off any rough or sharp edges or corners.
Tear the pink (or red if you prefer) and green tissue paper into small pieces.
Using your paint brush, coat the flat triangular surface of the wedge of plastic with Mod Podge. Cover the triangle thoroughly with pieces of pink tissue paper adding more Mod Podge as necessary. Try to keep a clean edge along the top where the plastic begins to curve. We let tissue paper hang over the other edges as it was easy to trim them away with our scissors when we were finished. Once the surface is completely covered with pink tissue paper, carefully adhere the green tissue paper into the top curve of the plastic to create the rind. Give the entire thing a generous coat of Mod Podge to seal the tissue paper in place. Let dry thoroughly.
Once your watermelon slice is dry, trim off any tissue paper that is hanging over the edges and clean any residue or finger prints from the plastic. Using your black paint pen, add your seeds by drawing tiny teardrops of black on the plastic side of the suncatcher. Allow the seeds to dry well before hanging.
It is easy to punch a small hole in your suncatcher to hang it with thread or string. I took the easy way and used double stick tape to attach them directly to the glass of the window.
We used one plastic strawberry box lid and made three suncatchers in one sitting. They add a bright pop of color to the windows in our eating area and light up brilliantly in the sunshine.
This was a fun and fast project to make with very little mess or clean up. Watermelon suncatchers are perfect for an easy summer craft activity. I think it would also be fun to make tiny watermelon slices in this manner and hang them in a grouping, almost like a wind chime of sorts. I hope you enjoy this simple little craft and that it will remind you of the warm days of summer well into the fall and winter this year.
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