Lilly Pulitzer Inspired Floral Cooler

Texas is hot. Like-within-five-seconds-of-stepping-outside-I-am-dying-of-dehydration hot. I don't know how much you know about Aggies, but we stand during football games. Let me restate that:

We stand throughout the entire football game. In 100 degrees. Extreme humidity is an added bonus.
But we are the Aggies. The Aggies are we. And we Aggies love football, so we stand. And we bring gallons of water. Literally. It's a necessity. But who says a necessity can't be cute?

Supplies

• Sand paper or sanding sponge 
• 1/2 gallon or 1 gallon cooler
• brushes
• Blue, green, white, pink and red paint
• Modpodge 

**I purchased this half gallon cooler from Walmart for about $4. It was originally black but I knew I was going to paint over the entire thing anyways so that didn't really bother me.

1. Sand your cooler down. This will help your paint stick on the cooler and prevent peeling
2. Paint your light blue background using a larger brush. You might have to do two or three coats depending upon the type of paint you are using and the original color of your cooler. Allow the blue to completely dry before continuing on to the next step
3. Create 3 different shades of pink using your red, pink and white paint (You could also just buy 3 different pre-made shades of pink).
4. With a medium brush paint little crescents with the lightest shade of pink in a cluster. This will be one flower. These strokes can be pretty thick. Repeat these clusters of crescents around the cooler to create as many flowers as you want. Allow crescents to dry.
5.  With another medium brush paint crescents from the medium shade of pink. The crescents can overlap a little with the lighter crescents a little bit to cover the blue background. Allow crescents to dry.
6. Repeat step 5 using the darkest shade of pink.
7. If there is any blue showing through the flower you can go back and paint more crescents to cover it.
8. Using the green paint add leaves to your flowers. I mixed in a little white paint to some of the green and used the lighter shade as an accent to the leaves to give it more depth.

Now your cooler should begin to resemble the above photo

If you are satisfied with your cooler you can leave it as is. I liked my cooler this way but I preferred to give it a more natural or brushy appearance. If you would like a brushier look you can proceed to the next step.

10. Dip your brush into the lightest shade of pink and lightly let it graze the darkest crescents. You are not trying to cover the original crescent but just give it a little more texture.
11. Repeat Step 10 but use the darkest paint color and lightly graze over the lightest crescents.
12. You can repeat these light grazings over opposing colors until you get an effect you like.
13. Once you feel like you've completed your beautiful work of art allow it to fully dry and then coat it with modpodge. This will help seal your cooler and protect it against water damage.


And now ladies you have a beautiful water cooler to help you beat the heat <3