Teacup Jewelry Holder

I stumbled upon this fabulously awesome teacup jewelry holder and decided that it would be fun to make and give as a birthday present to a girl (hi lys!) who collects teacups.

Turns out she has a jewelry box already. Bummer. By the time I had found out, I was mid-way through the project so I decided to finish it and...well I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm sure I'll figure out something.

So here is how I put mine together.

I went to a thrift store and found 10 different shaped teacups and a plate--at $0.49/cup and the plate was only $1.99! I wasn't sure how many I was going to need, so I bought plenty.

I also picked up creamy spraypaint (Rustoleum High Heat in Almond--the only reason I got High Heat was because I liked the color) and Krylon liquid silver leaf pen. I already had E-6000 glue on hand.

I cleaned the cups and plate and then began layering on the spray paint over several hours. I ended up using the entire can and barely had enough. It was perfect. Once the last layer of paint was dry, I decided to fancy up the plate and cups by putting silver leaf on the edges. I used a pen so I could have better control--it was worth the extra $2.

I let the everything dry overnight and then began putting together the sculpture.

The secret to using E-6000 glue is to read the directions on the back. Some people complain about it not "working," but as long as the directions are followed, it works. I've used it on lots of things and I've never had a problem with it. I think the hardest part of the instructions is to NOT touch it for 24 hours. Yeah, that is really hard when you're excited about your project. :)

Overall this project took me 4 days of working on it a few hours a night. The hardest part is that it takes time to dry and the glue takes 24 hours to cure between "layers" of cups.

I did notice that the glue was drippy and so there were lots of drips and strings that I eventually had to cut away. The glue also ruins the spray paint and silver leafing. Lesson learned: Glue it together first--then paint. :)

When it was all done and put together, I thought it was still missing something and it would have been nice to spray it with a clear gloss spray paint so it would have looked more like regular shiny teacups.
I loved how it turned out! Now if I could only find something to do with it. :)

I ended up giving it to Lys, but since she already has a jewlery holder, she said that she'll probably give it to her mom to use. I'm good with that.