My Peep Project

So, I finally got around to finishing that Peep Project I teased you all with about a week and a half ago. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should submit the project to craftfail.com or not. The project didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to, but it's still cute as all things Peep are. I'll let you all be the judge of the finished product.

What I used:
1 12pk pink bunny Peeps
1 12pk blue bunny Peeps
1 12pk yellow bunny Peeps
1 12pk purple bunny Peeps
1 small pail
glue gun w/glue sticks
toothpicks

How I made it:

1. Stuck a toothpick in the bottom of each bunny, then poked the other end into a Styrofoam ball. I did this so the Peeps could dry out without getting stuck to each other. (If you have the space I would suggest that you just pull them apart and spread them out on a pan or two, because then you won't run into the problem I had in step 4.)

2. After about a week, I removed the Peeps from the styrofoam ball and gentle tapped any loose sugar off from them. Be sure to GENTLY tap. The on the first one, I tapped a tad too hard and the ear broke right off! (it reattached easily though, so don't worry if it happens to you).

3. Using the edge of a card board box, I lined up the Peeps and sprayed them all with a sealer. (Be sure to follow the directions on the sealer so you don't asphyxiate yourself, or any innocent cats that may allow you to live with them, like I did.) You will probably want to use 2-3 coats. And be sure to get all sides.

4. Once the sealer has dried. Remove the toothpicks from the bottom of the bunnies. This is where I ran into my first true challenge with this project. I should have followed the advice I gave in step 1, but didn't. Because of that I found the toothpicks difficult to remove from the bunny bottoms (some bottoms ended up with large-ish holes). What I ended up doing was pulling the toothpick out a couple of centimeters, cutting the toothpick, the pushing the remaining toothpick back into the bunny until it was flush with the bottom.

5. Layout the pattern you want to have on your bucket.

6. Using the hot glue gun, attach the bunnies to the bucket starting with the bottom row.

7. Enjoy your very own Peep Pail!

Row of bunny heads? I don't think so.

The Verdict: While I think the pail is cute, it didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to. I had imagined that I would  get two full rows of bunnies on the pail with a third row around the top with the heads sticking up over the top edge. But there wasn't enough room at the top for a third row (at least not enough room to expect a solid connection between the bunny and the bucket. I had contemplated doing a row of just the heads around the top, but it's not that easy to neatly cut the heads off from dried out Peeps. Plus I thought it would be a little scary to have a row of Peep heads.

I also ended up having to remove the handle from pail because the bunny ears could support the light weight of it and wanted to bend, which started to crack the sugar.

What I'd do different:

1. Use a square container.
2. Measure better so I don't end up with so many leftover Peeps (because there wasn't a third row I ended up with about 20 extra Peeps).
3. Start around the handle of the container first, so I don't run into the same problems of cracking Peep coating.
4. Use more sealer (I used only one coat because I didn't want to attempt to kill myself again). Once the weather gets a little more friendly I'll probably take the pail outside and put a couple more coats on it.
5. Make sure I hot glue the ears to the pail as well. I've already had one Peep pop off because I picked the project up once and pressed to hard on the ears of that particular Peep.

So what's your verdict? Craft success or craft fail? Let me know in the comments. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings if you vote "Fail", I'm waffling on the decision myself which is why I want/need some feedback.