Time for a plaster craft. This is one of my favorite DIY mediums to work in. I can’t help it, my grandma got me hooked on plaster crafting when I was a little girl. Every Easter I remember those fun times I had visiting grandma’s house with her plaster studio out back, full of molds and all kinds of fun things to paint.
My grandma would remind my dad to load up a box of things for me to take home and paint. I would have so many projects to paint. Even as a little girl I was passing my finished art project out to the neighbors. I used a lot of nature in my crafting as a child because I was always out in it. Wish more kids now days would be out there, so much better then seeing it on a cell phone. I loved painting my molds from grandma and sharing them friends and neighbors. Years later when I was an adult I visited one of those neighbors and up above her kitchen wall she still had my childhood plaster of Jesus that I had painted for her one Easter. So sweet, it made me smile. I mean, everyone knows how clumsy little kids art work is and yet this neighbor still kept one of mine.
Anyway, back to this fun little project. You will need a mold. There are cross molds on line to purchase but I didn’t want to wait around for orders so I headed to the dollar store in our neighborhood (we live in walking distance to hospitals, restaurants, all kinds of city buildings) and searched around for something I could use as a mold.
Guess what I found…yep, you guessed it, CHOCOLATE. Yum. I love my chocolate. Funny thing about that is, is that I used to not like chocolate until I was pregnant with my first child, a girl. I also never liked meat, but my baby did. I still am not a meat eater really but my daughter was obsessed with chocolate and meat. I tell her I knew that even before she was born. So I found this chocolate mold, ate the chocolate and kept the plastic container it came in.
I only bought one, which I should have at least bought three but then I probably would have eaten that chocolate as well. The more molds, the more items you can make.
Just mix up your plaster (can be purchased at most craft stores)
Add some twine to hang from.
Make sure you allow your molds to dry overnight or at least a few hours if you live in a hot and dry climate.
Once dry, you can start painting and decorating them.
I glued some tiny faux flowers to one of my crosses.
Hang your crosses on plant picks to give out as gifts for Easter.
Hope you all are having tons of fun decorating your homes for Easter and you get a chance to make some plaster crafts yourself and of course eat lots of chocolate too.
My nailed it moment- I was in a bit of a hurry when I mixed up this quick craft project to post for all of you. I had a door I was working on out in the garden and figured while it dried I could do a little DIY plaster craft. I ended up adding too much water in some of my molds and also stirred a little too fast which caused bubbles. I didn’t take the time to gently shake the bubbles out. You can see in some of the photos holes in my molds, this is not good.
It doesn’t bother me because I think the holes add a certain texture to my mistakes. I just paint over them and call it done. When ever I am pouring molds I always have extra molds out in case I have extra plaster to pour. In this case they were little cottages I plan on doing a post on in the future.
And you guessed it, there are tiny holes in some of those too…oh well. The lesson here, is to never rush. And don’t add a lot of water and be gentle when stirring.