So I decided I could paint this and use it for my son's room. I painted it black and re-painted the knobs silver. I found a cool aquarium plant, added blue round marbles(they look like gumballs and I got them at the $store. Much cheaper than at Walmart), added a beta fish and here is the finished project.
We put a push button light underneath for some cool lighting.It was so cute we decided to make one for my niece. They are super easy. The first step is to buy a round fish bowl. We found ours at the DI for $3. Walmart usually has them, but they didn't have them in in the size we wanted.
Buy a tera cotta planter with the base. The planter becomes the Gumball machine bottom and the planter base become the top. It is important to take your bowl with you to make sure they fit. Ours cost $2 for the planter and the base.
Paint your terra cotta base and planter the color of you choice. Get a round knob and an oval knob. Paint them if necessary. We used a round knob(2 for $3 at Walmart) for the top and painted it black. The first one we had used a round ball knob which I like better. For the coin slot look we found some oval knobs. (2 for $6 at Walmart) These looked really cute and we didn't have to paint them.
After the paint has dried glue the glass bowl to the bottom of the planter. We used Gorilla glue-it makes a huge mess, so be careful not to use too much so it drips-but it is a strong glue. Glue the round painted knob on the planter base bottom, and glue the oval knob on the middle of the painted planter. Add marbles or stones and the fish. (We chose to use the round marbles because they look like gumballs. We chose a beta rather than a goldfish because they are so pretty.) Here is the finished product, without the coin slot- (Sorry I took the picture BEFORE we added it, and my niece took it home before I could take another)
Buy a tera cotta planter with the base. The planter becomes the Gumball machine bottom and the planter base become the top. It is important to take your bowl with you to make sure they fit. Ours cost $2 for the planter and the base.
Paint your terra cotta base and planter the color of you choice. Get a round knob and an oval knob. Paint them if necessary. We used a round knob(2 for $3 at Walmart) for the top and painted it black. The first one we had used a round ball knob which I like better. For the coin slot look we found some oval knobs. (2 for $6 at Walmart) These looked really cute and we didn't have to paint them.
After the paint has dried glue the glass bowl to the bottom of the planter. We used Gorilla glue-it makes a huge mess, so be careful not to use too much so it drips-but it is a strong glue. Glue the round painted knob on the planter base bottom, and glue the oval knob on the middle of the painted planter. Add marbles or stones and the fish. (We chose to use the round marbles because they look like gumballs. We chose a beta rather than a goldfish because they are so pretty.) Here is the finished product, without the coin slot- (Sorry I took the picture BEFORE we added it, and my niece took it home before I could take another)
Just saw this and LOVE it! We're expecting another baby girl in September and our almost 2-year-old has a 10 gallon fish tank in her room. We wanted to put fish in our second daughter's room as well. I, like you, saw tons of posts on how to make a fishbowl out of a real gumball machine, but those are really expensive. I also saw another tutorial for this, but with candy inside. For some reason the idea to put a fish in didn't click with me. AWESOME IDEA!!! My only question is, how do you change the water without ruining the flower pot or making a HUGE mess?
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