Everything...Family Guide: Recycle Art: Paper Mâché Bowls

We are back with another recycle art project. We have been going around our house scavenging for things that can be recycled, reused or re-purposed. It is always fun to go recycling. Here in our city we are lucky enough to get a reward: turn in your recycled bottles and cans to get some spare change. We usually donate that into charities or buy something for the food bank. For this project we used recycled paper that came inside a delivery box. Please be forewarned that paper Mâché projects can be a little bit of a sticky mess but it is always an easy cleanup.

You will need:

Recycled paper
Homemade sticky paste (prepared in advance; ingredients - flour, water, a pot, stove and a whisk)
A Bowl (glass or plastic)
Vaseline or Plastic wrap
Paintbrush

Task:

Firstly, we made our paper Mâché paste by boiling one and a half cup of water on the stove. We turned the stove off and added half a cup of flour to the boiling water by constantly stirring the paste with a whisk. This will keep the mixture from forming lumps of flour. Then we allowed the paste to cool before use. This paste will serve as glue for making the paper Mâché bowl. This part of the activity should be done under the direct supervision of an adult.
Next, we tore strips and pieces of recycled paper. No exact length is necessary but it is important to avoid really small pieces of paper as that would require more time to complete the project. This activity is for a preschooler and little strips of paper will work well with older kids.
Before beginning the activity, we applied a tiny bit of Vaseline to the inner part of the bowl with our hands. This ensures the easy removal of your paper Mâché project once its' done. If you do not want to use Vaseline then it can be done by securely and tightly applying plastic wrap around the inside or outside of the bowl.
Now the fun part began, we applied strips of paper directly on the inside of the Vaseline-applied bowl. We painted that first layer with our paste using a paint brush. Then we applied another paper layer and topped it off with the paste. We applied layers about six times to achieve the desired thickness of the bowl. Upon completion, we applied one final layer of paste with the paint brush.
Now the wait began...we left the bowl overnight or until it dried off completely. This is how we checked for readiness: the flour paste will solidify the paper to form a bowl shape on its own.
When it was done, we carefully removed the paper bowl from the original bowl. I used a butter knife to carefully dislodge the project from the bowl. To make the bowl interesting, we added details with glitter paint. Here is the result after our bowl dried: