How to Make a St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine

Here is an update on the adorable St. Valentine’s Day Gumball Machine I posted earlier.  The steps for this St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine are essentially the same but the decorations make this machine perfect for the St. Patrick’s Day Holiday Season.  I absolutely love this project and I hope you do too.  As usual, I obtained many of the products I used for this project at my affiliate and local craft store Michaels

What You Need:

• 1 — 4″ Terracotta flower pot
• 1 — 4″ Terracotta saucer
• 2 — 3″ Terracotta saucers
• 1 — 2 1/2″ Terracotta rose pot
• 1 — 4″ Bubble ball
• Green spray paint
• Black spray paint
• Metallic gold paint
• 1 Pipe cleaner
• Scrap of green felt
• scrap of green St. Patrick’s Day fabric
• 1 Shamrock button or finding
• 1 Rhinestone
• 1/2″ Faux leather trim
• 1 Miniature buckle
• Shamrock Ribbon
• Shamrock Pattern

Step 1: St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine

Spray paint all of the terracotta pot pieces green.  I used high gloss spray paint for my project but you can use whatever finish you like.  Let the paint dry according to the product directions.  I let mine dry over night.  Mask of the bottom of the rose pot so that you can spray paint the rim of the rose pot black.  Let the black paint dry.

Step 2: St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine

Once all of the terracotta pots have dried, paint a square on the black part of the rose pot to represent a buckle.  Next, you have a choice.  You can paint a black band around the center of the 4″ flower-pot and again use the gold metallic paint to paint on a buckle or you can do what I did and use some extra trim you have lying around.  I had some 1/2″ faux leather trim and a miniature brass colored belt buckle in my stash of trims.  I put them together to make them look like a belt and glued them onto the base of the pot.

Step 3: St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine

Attach one of the 3″ saucers upside down onto the bottom of the 4″ pot using the e6000. Glue the bubble globe with the open end up onto the saucer.  Next, attach the second 3″ saucer upside down onto the right side of the 4″ saucer.  Finally, glue the rose pot onto the bottom of the 4″ saucer.

Step 4: St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine

Now that the Gumball machine is put together, take a piece of shamrock ribbon and tie it around the neck of the machine where the bubble globe meets 4″ pot.  Next, I used the St. Patrick’s Day Barrett as an embellishment.  Cut out the two shamrock patterns.  Cut the larger shape from the green felt and the smaller shape from the St. Patrick’s Day holiday fabric.  Glue the smaller shape onto the larger shape.  Add a shamrock shaped button and a small rhinestone.  Take a pipe cleaner and fold it in thirds.  Attach the shamrock shape to the pipe cleaner.  Insert the pipe cleaner into the hole of the rose pot to make a jolly addition to what now represents a hat.

Step 5: St. Patrick’s Day Gumball Machine

Add some candy of your choice.  I chose some gold wrapped peanut butter cups to represent the coins in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.