What to Do with Those Plastic Frosting Cups
The icing cups make the cutest little grass huts. After cleaned, arrange Spanish moss on the inside of the lid. Now glue characters, palm trees, hammock or other miniatures to the moss. Set aside.
With a craft knife cut out some windows for the hut. Glue clear pieces of glass or plastic on the inside of the cup, over the window openings and add miniature pieces of wood for panes, if desired. Or, just leave them with no window like many grass huts are. Cut a half-oval doorway then use cardboard to make a door, or leave the doorway open.
Use a cone-shaped paper cup, or make your own cone from paper, to use as a roof. Glue Spanish moss, or grass skirt material onto the hut and roof. You can find small novelty grass skirts for this craft at many craft stores or online. Simply wrap and glue the grass skirts around the hut, and cutting out the window and door areas.
Glue the lid of the cup onto the hut. The cup will sit upside-down with the lid at the bottom. When admirers of your work look through the windows they’ll see the miniatures inside – this is a really cute way to do something nice with the icing cups.
You can make a tepee out of the cups, too. Turn the cup upside-down. Cut a triangular shape out of one side. The shape should be large enough to where the point of the triangle reaches about the two-third mark on the cup.
Glue skewers (at least 12″ long) onto the outside of the cup and gather them all together, to form a point at the top where they all meet. Five skewers should do the trick: one on each side of the cut triangle, one on each side of those, and one on the very back. The very back one should be exactly opposite the triangular opening.
Wrap a piece of twine or wire around the area to hold the sticks in place. (Don’t do this until the glue is completely dry). Make sure there is a small opening, long enough to put your index finger into, between the sticks at the top.
Choose Native American designs of cloth to finish your tepee. Wrap the cloth around your tepee-shaped icing cup to get an idea of how long and wide the fabric will need to be cut. Cut to the approximate height and length needed. Now wrap the cloth once again, around the tepee and trim it to be cone-shape and properly sized. Remove and hem the bottom edge.
Use white glue or fabric glue to attach the cloth to the tepee shape. The best way is to start with one end of the cloth beside the doorway opening. Wrap the cloth around the tepee, making sure to place glue along each entire skewer. Smooth the material over the stick and move on to the next one.
Continue on until you have glued the fabric to all the sticks. Gather the cloth at the top, and use sinew or even thread, to secure around the sticks at the top. Make sure the sticks rise above the edge of the cloth. Trim away any loose threads. Cut the cloth around the triangular shape, making the cloth triangular cutout somewhat shorter than the actual doorway on the cup. Now make a tiny cut up at the top of the triangle, on the cloth. This will allow you to fold the cloth inside of the doorway opening to glue. The raw edges of the cloth won’t show now.
It’s fun to recycle ordinary items and these crafts are easy and inexpensive as well. The next time you make a cake, consider making one of these crafts as a gift or just a little something for you to set on your shelves. You can make entire villages, and add minis to the mix to create a large, scenic display. Other things that make great buildings are cracker or cookie boxes, milk cartons, empty cigarette boxes, mailing boxes, and all sorts of plastic canisters. Other crafts that can be made from the cup are baby toys (fill with beads and glue on lid), earring holder (poke holes to hold studs and hang wires around the edge) or bead dispenser (fill with beads and cut a flap on the top of the lid).
