I am SO excited about how this faux gumball machine turned out – so good!! It is perfect for a fun way to help with incentives to “choose”, or “chews”, 😉 – – – For example, if you want to focus on service in your family, then kiddos get to add a pom pom every time they CHEWS to do a service for someone else. OR maybe you want to focus on CHEWSing to do their chores. Or being kind. The possibilities are endless! Any way you work it, it’s a fun visual follow-along, and I’ve got a quick tutorial on how to make this DIY Gumball Machine for Incentives.
It’s a simple project that anyone can tackle! At our children’s organization in church this year we have a theme to “Choose The Right” – so as a group, we’re working on making good choices. Each week a class will come up and tell some way that they were able to make a good choice that week, and then they’ll add a pom pom to our gumball machine. We are aiming to have it filled by the end of the year! Another idea is just to fill it with real gumballs as treats – fun!
If you would love to make one too, for a group or for use at home, I’ve got some quick instructions for you – enjoy!
DIY Gumball Machine
You’ll need:
–clay pot with saucer (they come separate, so don’t forget to grab the saucer thing)
–glass bowl
–knob
–washer, wing nut, penny, black vinyl or paper or paint
–red spray paint
–strong glue (e6000)
SIZE
First up, you’ll want to decide what size of glass bowl you need. I picked that out first. Then I carried the glass bowl over to the pots aisle, and tried out different sized pots to see which one looked right with the size of bowl I had chosen. It was just trial and error until I found a combo I liked. I found it all at Michaels.
PAINT
At first I thought I could just use regular brush-on craft paint. But it was dull and wasn’t the look I had pictured. After 2 coats I gave up and grabbed some glossy spraypaint. THAT was the answer – I sprayed a couple of coats and I love the bold color and nice sheen that it provided. Paint the pot and the saucer and the knob.
ASSEMBLY
You’ll need a strong adhesive to hold everything together. I used E6000. NOTE: in the pic below, I had the pot wrong! I messed up the first time around 😉 So you’ll want the pot UPSIDE DOWN. When the pot is upside-down, put glue all along the rim. Place the glass bowl on top of the upside-down pot. Let dry completely. Also glue the knob to the bottom side of the saucer – which will turn it into the lid.
To add gumball machine details, I used a washer, penny, and a wing nut, and glued them on as pictured below. I also hand cut a black opening out of vinyl. If you don’t have a scrap of black vinyl you could paint that part on.
VINYL
If you want to add vinyl, that always makes things fun. You can customize it to whatever incentive you’re working towards. It’s tricky to get the vinyl onto the bowl because of the curve of the bowl, so just work your way around slowly.
I have a FREE cut file for the CHEWS The Right, HERE, if you’re interested in that.
VOILA!
And that’s all there is to it!
Apparently gumball machines have been a theme around here – look, we FINALLY completed the 1000 piece puzzle that we all almost gave up on:
Enjoy making your DIY Faux Gumball Machine!
Such a cute idea!!! My kids would love this!
Joy recently posted…What I’m Reading This Year for Encouragement
Wow! I seriously would never have guessed that this was a clay pot. Did you have to prep the clay at all before your spray painted?
well, I don’t think I would have – but my first try was to use craft paint, so maybe the craft paint prepped the pot? But if I were to do it again, I would go straight to trying the spray paint.
This is so cute! I love how you turned earning incentives for good behavior into something so cute and fun!
This is such an adorable idea!!
Jennifer Sedillo recently posted…Easter Dinner Meal Plan
I used the smaller bowl and saucer. But the lids keep falling off. If you touch it the lids fall. Did I use a to small of a lid or what? How do you keep the lids on?