Trash-to-Treasure Strawberry

I wish you could see inside my head. At any given moment, there are dozens of craft ideas swirling around in there. Some of my best ideas come when I'm walking alone to pick up Trevor from school. I don't know if it's a reflection of my age or my status as an over-committed busy mom, but if I don't write my ideas down right away, they're gone within a minute or two. So if you ever see me walking to pick up Trevor, chances are good that you'll see me dig out a scrap of paper from my purse and sketch out an idea as I walk.

Here's one from last week:

I'd just finished making the acorn from a gumball machine container that morning and the thought popped into my head that it would make a cute strawberry as well. As you can see from my sketch, I was planning to paint the container red, add dots of yellow puffy paint, attach a cotton ball to the top to make a more rounded shape, cover that with green felt, then add a pipe cleaner stem. The next morning after dropping Trevor off, I photographed the materials:

It's almost always a mistake for me to photograph the materials first, as the finished product rarely ends up how I thought it would. However, I only had one more gumball machine container, so I had to photograph it before starting the project. Two seconds in, it was apparent that I didn't need the cotton ball to create a more rounded shape. And the felt made a better stem than the pipe cleaner. Since I was able to easily attach the stem to the leaves, I didn't need to drill a hole for the pipe cleaner. But without an unpainted gumball container, I couldn't do a proper materials photo. This will have to do:

Begin by sanding the gumball container so that the paint will stick. (Alternately, you could paint it with gesso first.) When the surface is uniformly rough, paint it red. When it is dry, cut a leaf and a stem from the green felt. Glue to the two together. Add tiny yellow dots to the strawberry. Glue the leaf and stem to the top. 

Here's my finished strawberry.  

It looks a bit like a tomato, but I think it would have been a fun favor at Kylinn and Ellia's strawberry party a few years back. (Click to see the strawberry party baskets and hairclips, strawberry tablecloth holders and strawberry pinata I made for the party.) 

Another fun trash-to-treasure project!