It’s formal season! This means you may or may not be going to a frat formal. If you aren’t going to a frat formal, feel lucky. You won’t have to put hours and hours of crafty effort into making a cooler for your date. If you are going to a frat formal, odds are that you’re date has asked you to make them a cooler. Don’t worry – I have compiled tips and inspiration from sources like Total Frat Move and Total Sorority Move to help you conquer this daunting task.
There are hundreds of tutorials online for how to prepare your cooler, but, since I got someone else to prepare my cooler for me, I’m going to skip this part. Basically, you want your cooler sanded, primed, and taped so you can be ready to paint it. Here’s a very detailed tutorial I found from Total Sorority Move. When you’re done, it should look something like this:
Now it’s time to decorate (and time for the tips I’ve acquired over my 8 hours of non-stop painting). Now, I consider myself a fairly crafty person but do not fret if you think you have no artistic capabilities! These tips will help even the most unartistic to make a fabulous frat cooler!
1. Buy paint with friends!
Odds are that you have a few friends who are also going to a frat formal. I suggest that you all chip and a buy some paint together because it will be cheaper and you won’t actually be able to finish a bottle if “carribean blue” acrylic paint by yourself.
2. Make stencils!
There are a lot of tutorials out there for how to do this, but here is a simple guide of how to make a stencil for literally anything you want to draw on your cooler:
First, print out your desired design. It is going to be hard to gauge what size you will want so I suggest printing a few different sizes and seeing how they fit on your cooler. Next you want to tape this sheet of paper down to the table and cover it with a 1 piece of tissue paper. Tape the tissue paper down and beign tracing your design. This might be tedious but it’s sooooo worth it. Once you are done, take the tissue paper and place it on your cooler. Tape it down and begin to trace the outline in sharpie. YOU WILL WANT A FINE POINT SHARPIE. I made the mistake of getting a regular sharpie and this went terrible bad when I tried to make intricate designs. Once you’re done tracing, take of the tissue paper to reveal your sharpie design on the cooler. Now you just need to fill it in with paint!
3. Think simply.
Even though it may seem like it from a browse of pinterest frat coolers, you don’t need to paint a masterpiece on the cooler. I chose to put a few simple things that my date likes on each side instead of painting an intriciate scene of his favorite beach. This will be easier on you and odds are it will look just as good.
4. Work in layers
It seems like a very daunting task (and at times it is), but if you split it up into layers and sections, it makes the whole task much simpler.
5. Leave yourself a whole day.
I know it’s hard to find time in your busy schedule to do some artsy and crafts. However, this project will take you a long time (mine took 8 hours). Take a Saturday to relax, but on some good music or a movie you’ve been dying to see, and paint a cooler with some friends.
6. Have fun!
Crafting is fun! Don’t stress out too much about it. In the end, your date will be thankful that you put the time and effort into making something for them no matter how it looks.
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