What to Do with Those Plastic Frosting Cups

To save time many people use canned frosting that will allow them to simply open and smooth it onto the cake. Some people save the plastic cans for kids' beverages, some people make pencil holders out of them. Here are other cute crafts that are much more impressive.

The icing cups make the cutest little grass huts. After cleaned, arrange Spanish moss on the inside of the lid. Now glue characters, palm trees, hammock or other miniatures to the moss. Set aside.

With a craft knife cut out some windows for the hut. Glue clear pieces of glass or plastic on the inside of the cup, over the window openings and add miniature pieces of wood for panes, if desired. Or, just leave them with no window like many grass huts are. Cut a half-oval doorway then use cardboard to make a door, or leave the doorway open.

Use a cone-shaped paper cup, or make your own cone from paper, to use as a roof. Glue Spanish moss, or grass skirt material onto the hut and roof. You can find small novelty grass skirts for this craft at many craft stores or online. Simply wrap and glue the grass skirts around the hut, and cutting out the window and door areas.

Glue the lid of the cup onto the hut. The cup will sit upside-down with the lid at the bottom. When admirers of your work look through the windows they'll see the miniatures inside - this is a really cute way to do something nice with the icing cups.

You can make a tepee out of the cups, too. Turn the cup upside-down. Cut a triangular shape out of one side. The shape should be large enough to where the point of the triangle reaches about the two-third mark on the cup.

Glue skewers (at least 12" long) onto the outside of the cup and gather them all together, to form a point at the top where they all meet. Five skewers should do the trick: one on each side of the cut triangle, one on each side of those, and one on the very back. The very back one should be exactly opposite the triangular opening.

Wrap a piece of twine or wire around the area to hold the sticks in place. (Don't do this until the glue is completely dry). Make sure there is a small opening, long enough to put your index finger into, between the sticks at the top.