YAH: Clay Pot Pilgrim Hats

I have another Young-at-Heart craft to share with you! My mom asked me if I'd make nut cups for Thanksgiving this year. I was very excited about this and started searching online right away for ideas. I came across some pilgrim hats made out of cups or flower pots. I thought that would be perfect! They can be decoration at first, but when you flip them over they become nut cups! So I bought two different sizes of clay pots. I got the 2-and-a-half inch pots for the adults and kids, and tiny ones for the babies (just because they were so cute). I also got silver glitter craft foam (for the buckle), black poster board (for the brim), and matte black spray paint.

I wanted to cover the holes in the bottom of the pots, so I cut out small circles from the poster board and glued them to the pots.

Then I took them out to the garage and spray painted them. I gave them two coats.

If I only had a few to make, I probably would have just painted them with a brush, but I had to make 20 so this was much faster. Once dry, I got to work on the buckle. I made a template out of poster board. I just made a square and cut out a smaller square from the middle. Then I traced that on the back of the glitter craft foam.

I also made a smaller version for the tiny pots. I used a scissors to cut the big square, but used an X-acto knife to cut out the middle square. This was a big pain in the you-know-what. No matter how carefully I traced and cut, each buckle was a different size/width and not straight at all. After awhile I just cut the big square, then folded the foam piece in half and used the scissors to cut out the smaller square. That was much faster and gave the same results (crooked, all different sizes) so I just stuck with that. Hey, if it's going to turn out the same, why not do it the faster way?

I really had to force myself not to worry about how imperfect they were. It was tough! Anyway, I used mini glue dots cut in half to glue them on the pots. (This was after trying to use craft glue. I didn't like that because the buckles slid around too much and I had to hold them on for a very long time. Glue dots worked like a charm.)

Is it starting to look like a pilgrim hat? Or a witch hat? Then I made a template out of poster board for the brim. I traced a mug for this, but because I'm using them as nut cups I needed another circle to be cut out of the inside. I traced a dixie cup for that.

It overlapped the clay pot rim just a bit, which was nice because then it would cover up the messy paint area.

I used a toothpick to put craft glue on the rim of the pot.

Then I attached the poster board to the rim. I made a smaller version for the tiny pots. I really like how they turned out. I think different colored glitter foam would have been a nice touch, but I didn't want to run back to the store.

Then, when it's time to fill them, flip them over and add dixie cups to the big pots and paper nut cups to the little ones.

I had thought about putting names on them with a metallic sharpie, and then using them as place cards as well, but different people are at Thanksgiving dinner every year and the babies this year won't be babies next year, so I left them plain. Although, using a chalkboard paint and chalk would solve that problem.

BEHIND THE SCENES:
I originally was going to make three different sizes of pilgrim hats. The biggest for the adults, medium for the kids, and tiny for the babies.

Here's what happened right before I took that picture:

Pretty little Duma always looking for food. Anyway, after noticing that my dixie cups fit perfectly in the medium pots, I thought the big ones were way too big. Who needs that many nuts? So I went out and bought more medium pots. Then I was left with two sizes. After spray painting them (first with a glossy finish, which I didn't like, and then two coats of a matte finish), I decided to paint the rims different colors. I got out my acrylic paint, thinking it would cover the black spray paint perfectly.

The first coat was very disappointing.

You could still see the black paint, and the blue and purple paint dried black. I didn't give up yet, though. I thought a second coat would work.

Although it was better, I knew a third coat would be needed. But I also knew I wasn't liking it. The colored rims just didn't seem right to me. So back out to the garage they all went for another coat of spray paint. (That's four coats, if you're keeping track, and a few needed a fifth coat.)
So if I had to do it again, I would skip the colored rims and go with different colored buckles instead. And I think I would use black craft foam instead of poster board to make the brims of the hat a little thicker.

UPDATE:
I ended up making little name cards that fit perfectly on top of the buckles. I used brightly colored card stock and wrote the names with a Sharpie.

**Linking up to Crafty Moms Share!**