Perfect Faux Prickly Pear Cactus
by
DesertRose
6 Materials
$4
1 Hour
Easy
If you love the easy care and beauty of the western prickly pear, you will love this tutorial to display them in your home. These need no care at all and will not hurt any children or pets that happen to bump them. They need no care because they are faux prickly pear; they are rocks!
Other crafters had displayed cacti out of river rocks, but I wanted some that were painted different shades of green and also that have the prickly part in three dimensions, not painted in a flat paint.
Gather some river rocks to imitate your prickly pear. You will also need some smaller river rocks to set them in a container. I purchased the small ones at the Dollar store for $1 each. I bought two, but I only used one bag.
I mixed several different shades of acrylic paint and found some Mod Podge sealer to put on them so I can use them for a center piece on the patio when we have a BBQ this spring and summer. It was easy to make the greens darker or lighter with more blue or more yellow. Since I had two dishes I found at the Dollar store I painted 2 shades of each green rock to separate in the 2 planter dishes.
I painted one side, let them dry, and turned them over to paint the other side. It did not take but a few minutes for them to dry. I left the bottoms that will go down in the dish without paint so I would have a place to hold on to them.
I used the Texture paste we received as a gift from Hometalk to make the prickles. It was easy using the round tool if I kept it wet between each touch with the paste by stirring it back in the paste container. The paste dries quickly, that is why I had to dip it in the container after applying the paste each time.
After the paste dried I sprayed them with the Mod Podge Sealant spray I had on hand. Then it was simple to "plant" them in the stones. Here is a close up to show the three dimensional needles.
I love how they look on my mantel, but they will go outside as soon as the snow stops the end of May. You can see the slight variety in the green shades of the cacti. The textured paste makes them look so real!
Comments
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5 of 11 comments
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Love cactus and love this idea!
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Thanks for the detailed info on making the 3-D prickly pear cacti . I definitely will be making some of these with the 'prickles'. :)
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They are fun! I plan to do more of them!
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