How to Make a Faux Succulent Display From a Sugar Mold

8 Materials
$75
4 Hours
Easy

It happened accidentally when I dropped a tiny little terra-cotta pot into one of the holes of my 12 hole sugar mold, and it fit perfectly! That gave me an idea to turn my sugar mold into a DIY Faux Succulent Display, so I picked up 12 little terra-cotta pots to get started.

This is how my sugar mold has looked for months...lonely...and empty. Until one day i realized that a tiny little terra-cotta pot fit perfectly into the holes!

Links to products I used are on my blog!

Materials Needed:

12- 2.5 inch terra cotta pots

DecoArt Chalky Finish Paint (Primitive)

Jolie Brown Wax

Chip Brush

Calcium Carbonate Powder

Craft Foam

Moss

Faux Succulents

Calcium carbonate powder thickens the paint.

I wanted these pots to have an aged french look to them

so I added some calcium carbonate powder to the paint to make it think and a bit lumpy. I didn't measure when mixing the two products, I just kept adding powder until the paint was the consistency I wanted. It actually looked a bit like mousse!

I only painted the part that shows.

First I painted the top of each pot using DecoArt paint in the color Primitive. This is a wonderful gray color that works so well when using this technique for covering up orange.

My granddaughter helped me with the painting and it was so fun to be able to just slap the thick paint on without trying to make it perfect. By the time we were finished with the first coat we were able to start over on the second coat. Two coats were perfect to cover the orange-ish terra-cotta color and give them a nice textured look.

Once the paint was dry I then applied Jolie brown wax to the painted pots using a chip brush and then rubbing it in with a shop towel or paper towel. In some spots, I added a bit more dark wax until I liked the way it looked.

Next step for this faux succulent display is to stuff each pot with craft foam. This is a messy job but I used a knife to score all along where I wanted to cut it and then was able to snap it off.

I hot glued the largest piece to the bottom of the pot and then stuffed smaller pieces around the edges of it so that it would keep it sturdy and also keep the moss from falling down inside the pot.

Once the pots were all filled with foam I put a bit of hot glue on the top of the foam and then covered it with moss. Many succulents that I see have rocks as the "ground cover" but this girl prefers moss...my project, my rules? LOL!!! I picked this moss up at Michaels but you can also get a very similar product here!


I found faux succulents on Amazon and took a chance because I really don't like fake plants that look fake, but I also don't like to pay an exorbitant amount of money for them either. I hit the jackpot with these babies, I honestly cannot get over how real they look and the price was fantastic. The variety in this particular set of faux succulents is just fabulous because I wanted them to be different shapes, colors, and sizes. This package of faux succulents is PERFECT!!!  There were 15 in all and I paid $24. Wow! The succulents at Michaels were not nearly as life-like as these and were SO EXPENSIVE. I love Amazon!


If the succulent's stem was too long I used wire cutters to snip it to the length I need...then using a pencil I poked a hole in the center of the foam....dropped in some hot glue and stuck the stem of the succulent down in the hole as far as it would go.

Links to products I used are on my blog!

TAH-DAH!!! I love my new faux succulent display, it turned out even better than I had imagined and I'm thrilled to finally have something to display on the IKEA cabinet behind my sofa.


As for the cost of this project...I already had most of the supplies but I did purchase the succulents, pots, craft foam and moss specifically for this DIY so my cost was about $65.


This was truly a very simple DIY project and I only wish I had done it when I first got my sugar mold from www.decorsteals.com. But it's finished now and I can't stop looking at it.

As for the topiaries...super simple as well..I'll be sure to write a post about them very soon.


Please stop by my blog at www.somethingpaintedwhite.com to see other DIY's and tutorials as my husband Dee and I work to add charm and character to our builder-grade home.


Have a great week my friends and Happy DIY'ing!!!!

 


~Cindy~

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