Tropical themed projects with repurposed dessert cups

Can you feel summer in the air? It’s hot enough! 

Today, I thought I’d share a little project from a previous summer that I like to call Tropical Paradise.

The inspiration for this design came from some unique colored dessert cups I bought at a thrift store. Just like in a previous strawberry-themed project, as soon as I saw these dessert cups, I knew I wanted to do something summer-themed. It took me a while to brainstorm ideas, and I toyed with several potential designs that included drinks and paper cocktail umbrellas. I’d take the cups out of the cabinet, stare at them, try hard to visualize a design, and then put them back in a dark cabinet for an agonizingly long time.

They finally saw the light of day when I saw miniature bamboo mats on my favorite craft site--then the proverbial lightbulb turned on. Once the idea for the base was in place, I settled on a tropical beach design that included sand, shells, tropical flowers, and pineapple slices. The palm fronds (which seemed so perfect for the base) did not want to adhere to the plastic cups, and it took a lot of E6000 glue to keep the two pieces stuck together! But once the glue set and I was sure they were well and truly stuck, I added the shells, faux orchids, and pineapple slice…although I had similar problems getting everything to stick together.

I got the pieces to stay together and moved on to the items inside the cup. Faux orchids and ferns, shells, a drink umbrella (all from FDC), and some sand were carefully arranged in the cup, but I had to work out how to keep the sand—and other decorative elements—from spilling out. I finally decided to use Water Effects (by Woodland Scenics), and that did the trick. It even made my sand look a little wet!

In the end I was happy with this little project. I’d like to make more items with this same tropical theme… someday. But that’s another thrift store trip!

Do you have any tropical DIY projects to share? Feel free to drop a line in the comments below!

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​Related blog posts you may want to read:
Strawberry themed projects with repurposed dessert cups
Repurposed candy dish and cocktail glasses
DIY with faux florals, birds and repurposed thrift store finds