Glitter Dinosaurs.

I have a younger sister. She has a thing for dinosaurs. Not Ross Gellar style, more like give her a dinosaur balloon on her birthday and she'll be your best friend. She also loves metallics. And jewelry. And pretty things. And make-up. And the NFL. And cute puppies. And vodka. Sometimes white wine. And definitely anything that is remotely random and funny.

So the whole dinosaur thing. It started with a Christmas ornament. When we were little we each were given a sequin dinosaur ornament - one brontosaurus and one stegosaurus. A few years ago my mom sent me back to Canada with a small collection of my childhood ornaments. Among them was a sequin dinosaur. My sister had an absolute fit. Apparently I took HER dinosaur. "Thief!!" she yelled over and over through text message.

Seriously, it's been like three years and she still talks about it.

Did I mention that she also loves drama? Shoulda been her middle name...

Anyway, do you ever have a quick little craft project in mind and then out of nowhere it snowballs into a completely different bigger project? Somehow you're standing in Michael's with one item in your hand and then you notice something on the shelf, get a brilliant idea and the next thing you know you've gone from Michael's to Target to WalMart and are now elbow deep in glitter. Yeah, that's how this went.

On the up side, I did get the original smaller project done, but for now let's focus on the project that snowballed out of control. The giant glitter dinosaur for my sister.

A quick text message told me that she has a special place in her heart for all dinosaur species but that if she was forced to choose one that it would be the triceratops. I'd love to tell you that I scoured the toy section at Target but the place with the best dinosaur choice just happened to be the local Dollar Store.

I'm hesitant to show you the naked version of the dino because you might not be able to look at the glittered outcome the same, but I like to live on the edge. Just erase your memory right after this:

Scary business.

I considered using glue, but went with a light coat of modge podge for the initial coat.

It should also be noted that two sizes of glitter exist: chucky flakes and small powder-ish. I went with the bigger flakes for this project.

I used a thin fanned paint brush to cover small sections at a time and then sprinkled each section with big gold glitter, letting the excess fall onto newspaper. Pro tip: start with the belly since you'll need to be able to lift it up for this phase. Also, be sure to get in all the armpits and in between each horn.

I let the first layer sit overnight to dry. Once it was completely dry the next day, I used the same brush to put an additional layer of modge podge on. As I went I sprinkled on additional glitter to any area that seemed a bit thin. Then I let that dry for a the night.

The next day I added two more layers of modge podge. It goes on white but dried perfectly clear and created a layer thick enough that won't allow one single flake of glitter to fall off, but still allows the glitter to shimmer and shine.





All told, there were four layers of modge podge and the triceratops is glittery and rock solid.

When I said the whole thing snowballed, what I meant by that was I'm still cleaning up glitter in my kitchen. Also, that the dinosaurs ruled my house for a solid week. And then of course, one dinosaur wasn't enough. I ended up also making a silver stegosaurus and t-rex with another one still to come.

I'm hoping my sister's dinosaur will end up as a great conversation piece in her office. As for my stegosaurus, he's going to eventually live on a floating shelf on my office wall. I think he'll be happy there.

You know what? All I really want is a brontosaurus.

Do you know anyone who could use a glitter dinosaur?