How To Make a DIY Dinosaur Centerpiece

First, open the hula hoop and remove the beads from the inside.

Lay your hoop outside on a big piece of cardboard.

Now grab your spray paint and begin covering your hula hoop with the color. You will have to do several coats to ensure it is covered completely.

Let your hoop stay outside in the sun until it is dry.

How to Make the Base of the Centerpiece

Fill in the holes of the wooden circle decor with all-purpose primer. Then, use your finger to smooth out and remove the excess.

Now you will take four wooden craft cubes and hot glue them to each end of the circle shape: North, South, South, and West.

We are adding these cubes to the circle as little feet to raise the centerpiece off whatever surface it will sit on.

Flip the circle over when the glue is dry.

Pour a little bit of brown acrylic craft paint into a cup. Then, pour an equal amount of water into the same cup. Stir the paint and water together until those things are evenly mixed. We will use this watered-down paint as a knock-off version of stain for the wooden platform.

Lightly and evenly brush the mixture onto the platform. Make sure your painting is in the same direction as the wood grain. Keep going until the entire surface is covered. If you want to seal the paint, you can also do that. I did not choose to do that because I was only going to use this centerpiece for a few hours, but it’s totally up to you.

How To Paint Porous Foam With Acrylic Paint

I tried painting the floral foam black with brown acrylic craft paint, but that did not work out because it was too porous.

Here is how I was able to work around it. First, I painted the entire block with a layer of Mod Podge. Then, after it dried, I mixed equal parts acrylic craft paint and Mod Podge and covered the whole block with that mixture using my sponge brush.

I used my hand dryer to speed up the drying process because I had other things to do.

Attaching the Dinosaur to the Block of Foam

To secure the dinosaur, I tied brown yarn around his ankles, double-knotted it, and then took that same yarn and tied it around the foam block.

I used brown yarn to blend in with the dinosaur and the foam block, but if your dinosaur is green, use green yarn around the ankles and brown yarn around the foam block to camouflage it.

Of course, if you have zip ties or anything else, you can use that, too. I already have yarn in my craft stash, so I chose to use it.

You will want to eyeball it and figure out where the center is. Once your foam block is in the center of the platform, you will glue it in place with hot glue.

Attaching the Hula Hoop to the Centerpiece

You will dig one end of the hula hoop into the center of one side of the foam black. Then repeat the same process on the other side with the other end of the hula hoop.

Use a small digging tool like a pair of scissors to help you finish carving out the hole if necessary. Finally, fill the hole with hot glue.

Now you should be able to push the end of the hula hoop at least a third of the way inside the foam block.

After you get both ends of the hula hoop to fit snugly inside their whole in the foam block, you’re going to take both ends out, fill each hole with hot glue, and place the ends of the hula hoop back inside the foam block.

Hold the hula hoop in place until the glue has dried in the hula hoop doesn’t move.

Decorating the Centerpiece with Leaves and Twine

To fill up some of the negative space, because there’s a lot of negative space in this centerpiece, I wanted it to look like there were branches of vines hanging down. Like the dinosaur was going through the Jurassic jungle, if you will. You’re going to take a long piece of twine. Then you are going to cut it and fold it in two. It does not have to be even because you want each side to have different lengths. You do not want it to be perfectly symmetrical. So, you will take the loop and pull it up above the hula hoop. Then you’re going to take the two ends of the string and run them through the loop around the hula hoop. Pull it gently to tighten it, so you don’t make your hula hoop fall.

Keep going until you fill the top half of the centerpiece.

You don’t want any of the twine to cover up the dinosaur, so take your scissors and cut the vines, exposing the Dino.

Attach 1/4 of your Fern Garland to the top of the centerpiece with hot glue. Then when it dries, use floor wire to wrap around the Garland for added protection.

Move some of the vines out of the way to wrap your Fern Garland around the hula hoop. When you get to the end, glue it in place with hot glue and secure it with floral wire.

Separate each leaf from the firm Bush. Then, take each leaf and hot glue it onto the hula hoop where you want it and reinforce it with floral wire.

Keep going until you have the leaves strategically placed where you want them.

Pro Tips for Making an Amazing DIY Dinosaur Centerpiece

If you accidentally make the hole in your foam block too large, you can fill in the excess with the all-purpose caulk and then let it dry and around your Hulu hoop, which will hold it in place.
Do not use E6000 for this project because I found out the hard way that it eats away at the foam. However, hot glue will work just fine.
So obviously, this dinosaur has a cord. You can either hide the remote by using a bunch of Spanish Moss to cover it up or cut the cable off and remove it from the dinosaur.
If you want to add more decorations to the foam, you can cover it with rocks, faux jungle leaves, or, as I mentioned before, Spanish Moss. There are so many options of what you can do to add a little more to this centerpiece and make it your own.

Don't Be a Stranger...

There you have it! We made A fantastic DIY Dinosaur Centerpiece that will start a conversation at your next birthday party.

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