Piggy Bank Tutorial

Welcome to this super- duper easy tutorial!  I've been talkin' it up for weeks, but really it's something you could do in about 20 minutes...

While at the Dollar Store a few weeks back, I came across this Dale Earnhardt Jr. Piggy Bank.  I'm not a race fan, but my creative mind (which speaks in my mother's voice) said, "I could do something with this!"  So I picked it up for a buck.  Then I looked through my stash of decorative paper, and found a pleasantly simple piece that I thought would make a nice covering for it.

All you need is a little Mod Podge and some embellishments, and you are ready to go!

Materials:
- piggy bank
- decorative paper
- Mod-Podge
- artist brush
- ribbon or other embellishments

1. Measure your bank (if it's round, you can use a cloth tape to measure)

this is so you know the dimensions to cut your decorative paper

2. Measure and cut your choice of decorative paper to fit the dimensions of your bank

3.  Take your artist brush and brush on a layer of Mod Podge right onto the bank

4.  Place your decorative paper onto the bank and smooth out as many wrinkles as you can- most small wrinkles will disappear with the 2nd and 3rd coat of Mod Podge

5. Once the paper is centered onto the bank, brush on a coat of the Mod Podge on top of the paper, coating the entire thing.  I did two coats; you can let it dry before you move onto the next step, I think it makes things easier.  You can let it dry overnight for the best results (this is when those pesky wrinkles will magically disappear!)

Depending on how it looks, you could stop here.  But I thought my piggy bank looked a little too plain, so I decided to add some embellishments (little extras that give your project that extra "oomph")

6. I decided to use white ribbon on both the top and the bottom of the bank- again, I measured, applied Mod Podge, applied the ribbon, and then sealed it with another coat of Mod Podge

7.  I still thought it looked a little plain, so I decided to put a little bow at the top. You can do this any way you like; I just looped my ribbon and cut another piece to wrap it and used -you guessed it- Mod Podge to seal and affix it.

8.  I felt like it needed one more tiny thing, so I added a little metallic heart right in the center of the bow, and voila- it was done!  Easy, right?

So if you are anything like me, you may have a lot of empty containers sitting around waiting for just the right craft project to come along.  This would also be perfect for an old Oats container or Nuts can.  Just take an exacto knife and carefully cut a slit in the top of the plastic lid big enough for coins to pass through.

We would love it if you tried this and left us a comment or posted pics on your site to show us how it turned out!