Sometimes I see an item I really like .. until I see the price tag! Know what I mean? But, occasionally it’s an item I know I can make myself on a budget. Or certainly for a heck of a lot cheaper! Like this vase here – It’s quirky and I love the style, but unfortunately it’s just not in my budget. Hobnail vases (or bobble vases as I call them!) are THE in-thing on Pinterest right now.
Anyway, when I saw a second hand vase on Facebook Market Place for only £3, I figured I had nothing to lose. So I decided to try and make my own. I’m pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. Let me show you!
Making your own Hobnail vase is easier than you think
The vase I bought had a small scuff on the back so I started with giving the whole thing two coats of white paint. I used some chalk paint that I still had to hand from previous project, but you just need anything that works on ceramics. Leave to dry in between coats and wait for the whole thing to be dry before moving on to the next step.
I bought a strip of craft stickers for a £1 in a local craft store. The size of the dots were just right for what I wanted to do as I didn’t want to go too big. I also spotted some for a pound in The Range. Or alternatively these ones on Amazon look very similar and are the same size.
Start off with hot gluing 2 dots to the vase – one at the top and one at the bottom. I “eye-balled” what I thought was pretty much straight (See Pic 1) but if you’re a perfectionist you can measure these out. Next, I measured the half way point and added the third one, before going half way again and adding 2 more dots to get one straight line (See pic 2).
I repeated exactly the same process to the back of the vase, as well as to both sides, leaving me with 4 rows of 5 dots.
Next, I added another row of 5 dots at the same height half way in between the space. So you’ve now got 8 rows of 5 dots all around the vase. The below photos was taken at night so it’s not THE best quality (have I told you I’m a late night crafter?).
Filling in the gaps
The next step is filling in the gaps by placing some more dots in the middle of the ones that are already on there. Like this (see the 2 I’ve added so far?). The glue strings are a bit of a pickle, but I tried to get rid of all of them at the end of the process.
I went round the whole vase and hot glued the craft dots in the centre space of the ones that were already there. So you end up with the end result like this:
The photo doesn’t do it justice, but it was looking a LOT better. Give it all a tidy up and get rid of those glue strings before moving on to the next step. Spray paint!! One of my favourite “go to” items for a quick transformation.
Using spray paint to finish your hobnail project
I opted for this spray paint which is suitable for ceramics instead of normal paint. I figured getting inside those ridges would be a bit of a nightmare with a brush!
Going steady and light when using spray paint is key. I have been known to over-spray things as I’m pretty impatient. So, just spray and walk away!! Leave to dry and go back to it later to build up the layers. Trust me, it’s worth it in the end.
This is the spray paint in progress after the first spray.
And here’s the finished result after a few coats.
Would you recognise it from how I bought it?
Just to remind you, this was the before:
And this is how our hobnail vase looks now on our dining room table.
The artificial flowers are from our local garden centre and add a real Spring vibe to our dining table. I’m notoriously bad at keeping flowers and plants alive so these are perfect for me.. !!
All in all this project cost me £3 for the vase, £1 for the dots and £9 for the spray paint (but I still have some left over for another project). Compared to £75 for the original vase I saw online. (As I said, I liked it .. I just wasn’t too keen on the price tag!)
Note – because of attaching these dots with hot glue, I wouldn’t recommend submerging this in water. However, as I’m using artificial flowers I’m not too concerned! If you’re using water and real flowers, make sure you use a waterproof glue and paint!
Want to see another spray paint transformation I did last year? Check out these cute little booties planter or my Market Place owl find.
Would you Pin this for me?
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