Foam Board Vases

[jalex]

By Carol Duvall

Faux seems to be THE word in crafts these days, so why not make some faux vases? These are "fake" in the sense that they are made of foam board instead of glass or ceramic or metal. They DO, however, hold water for flowers. That's because there is a jar hidden inside.

Materials:

picture of a vase
l/2" foam board
l/4" black foam board*
flexible corrugated cardboard
spray adhesive
glue
craft knife

* If you do not have the black foam board, you can most certainly use the white 1/4" board. The black is easier to cut because it is not covered with paper.

Steps:

Find a picture of a vase that might be usable. Some familiar magazines like National Geographic or The Art World might have them. Some books have wonderful pictures intended for computer users who have scanners, but you do NOT have to have a scanner to make use of these images. Use them in the same way you would any other picture you might find. Take it to your copy shop and have it enlarged. You will need two prints. Our vases were all in black and white, but there's no reason you couldn't use color, as well.
Glue one copy of your picture to a piece of the thick foam board and the other to the thinner black foam board
Spray adhesive works well. Cut out both vases. I prefer to use a standard craft knife (X-Acto) for the small curved areas and one of the larger knives with the wider snap-off blades for the straighter areas. My crafty producer, Linda Watson, prefers to use her wood burner with an X-Acto blade so the foam is melted as you go. To each his or her own. In all cases, be sure to cut straight up and down so the edges do not angle in.
Decide on how wide apart you want the front and back of your vase to be. It must be wide enough to slip a glass or jar between the two. My vases were about 3 1/2" apart. Cut about a dozen strips of the thin foam board 3/4" x 4"
These will be used as separators.
Decide on where you will place the separators and make notches in the foam to accommodate them. Position the separators along the sides and perhaps one along each side of the top. You can use two if it is a very wide top. Be sure to leave room for flowers, and do not place any separator along the bottom. The notches must be the depth of the foam pieces so when the separating pieces are inserted and glued, they will not extend beyond the side edges of the front and back of the vase
Be careful to cut TO the pictures and not through them. Glue separators in place.
Cut a length of flexible corrugated cardboard as wide as the depth of the vase and long enough to cover all the separators on each side. Do not place any on the bottom. Paint cardboard black. I used a wide marker. Glue in place along sides of vase.
Place vase over a jar of water (that's why you left the bottom open) and put in some flowers.
OOPS! As you saw on the show, on all but one of the vases, the illusion was spoiled because I neglected to cut out the top of the vase so the flowers looked like they were behind the vase instead of in it.

The original idea for "faking it" came from Container Decorating by Stewart and Sally Walton.


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