DIY Styrofoam mushrooms

January 21, 2015

In my previous post about Hudson’s 2nd Birthday Party – a Woodland theme – I mentioned how I made some of the decor like these super cute Styrofoam mushrooms. They are super quick and easy to make and are budget-friendly, too.

Here’s what you’ll need:

(1) Bag of Styrofoam Spheres

(1) Bag (or individually purchased) Styrofoam cones

(1) Bottle of Styrofoam glue – please note, you can use other glue but it doesn’t dry as quick, work as well, or if you use hot-glue, it’ll melt the Styrofoam! But, you can absolutely use a basic craft glue if you don’t want to buy this special one

(1) Tube/Bottle of red paint

(1) Tube/Bottle of white paint

(1) Paint brush

For the spheres, I cut them in half. And since it’s Styrofoam and not super easy to cut (I used a serrated knife) I didn’t worry about cutting them perfectly in half because it adds to the character of the mushrooms.

The next step I forgot to take a picture of – ooops. I used a little spoon and scooped out a little well in the center of the flat-side of the halved sphere. This made it easier for it to rest on the cone when building the mushroom. It also made it easier for the glue to stay in there.
For the cones, I cut the tip off so that it was a flatter surface. Then I put the dollop of glue in the little well and stuck it on top of the cone and pressed firmly down.

I let them dry for half the day (or until they seemed firmly stable). And then began painting. Even though the Styrofoam is already white, I wanted to paint them white also because it would cover up some of the itty bitty holes and look like a more solid white. I painted the tops bright red. The base and the top each got 2 coats so that it was fully covered. Once the mushroom caps were dry (about 2 hours) I went back and painted white dots on them. They weren’t perfectly round and they were scattered all over the cap, not in a perfect pattern.

As you can see, they’re all shapes and sizes. They turned out super cute and looked real from afar! I just placed them all over the tables for decor, but you could easily shove a toothpick or skewer into the bottom and poke them into the ground for outside decorations! That would be super cute, too!!