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How to Make the Perfect Fraternity Formal Cooler in 5 Steps

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar kristia watkins
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Cara Chiaramonte
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UFL chapter.

 

You and your date need something to keep your drinks cold while on formal, right? Years ago, someone had the brilliant idea of customizing coolers to bring to fraternity formals. Girls spend painstaking hours to turn regular Igloo coolers into works of art for their dates, and it can be really stressful. If you’re dreading painting a cooler for your date because of all the work and time required, just think about the look on his face when you hand him that beautiful thing. Painting this masterpiece is time consuming, but knowing the proper steps to take will ensure your artwork isn’t rubbed off after getting dragged onto buses and taken all over the place.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Cooler
  • Sand paper/electric sander or spackling paste
  • Mod Podge
  • Paint
  • Brushes
  • A lot of time

Here’s what to do: 1. The first step is to buy your cooler, which can be found at Wal-Mart or Target. Any color is fine because you’re going to paint over it anyway.

2. You have two options when prepping for painting the cooler: You can either use sandpaper to get rid of the bumps and have a plain surface or use spackling paste and spread it on every side to get an even surface. Unless you have an electric sander, sanding down your cooler is going to be extremely difficult and time consuming.

3. Once your cooler canvas is even, paint a layer of Mod Podge on each side of the cooler, including the top. Mod Podge works as a glue, sealer, and finish for your cooler. You can look up cool designs for coolers on Pinterest or Google while you wait for that to dry. Keep in mind the formal’s theme and your date’s favorite drink, hobbies, music preferences, fraternity symbols, political affiliation, and clothing brands when looking for designs. You can also substitute any part of a label with his name or fraternity letters to make it more personalized.

4. If you’re comfortable with free-handing your designs, sketch them lightly with a pencil. If you want to include an exact image but aren’t confident in your drawing abilities, you can print out an image, such as your date’s fraternity crest, and Mod Podge it onto the cooler. Simply put a layer of Mod Podge on the area you want the image to go on, place the printed image, and paint a second layer of Mod Podge over it to seal it.5. Once you’re done decorating all five sides of the cooler, paint a final layer of Mod Podge on your cooler and you’re done! Now you can get psyched for a fun formal.

Are you stumped on stellar cooler ideas? Lucky for you, collegiettes™,  I’ve picked out a few of my favorite cooler designs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Credits:www.pinterest.com

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Hi! My name is Kristia, but I also go by Kris. I'm from Miami, but now I'm at the University of Florida. I'm a second-year public relations major and a member of Alpha Omicron Pi. Some of my favorite things to do are painting, reading, blogging and finding new music.I'm a cat person. My favorite place in the whole world is Costa Rica. You can check out my personal blog at thehiddenbeats.wordpress.com
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Cara oversees Her Campus Media's community department and serves as strategic lead for the expansion, development and management of all HCM communities, including the Her Campus Chapter Network, InfluenceHer Collective, College Fashionista, Spoon University, Campus Trendsetters, alumni and high school. She works closely with company leadership to develop new community-related sales offerings and the Integrated Marketing team to support all community-focused client marketing programs from end to end. Cara has experience working with high-profile talent, such as Jessica Alba, Andrew Yang, Amber Tamblyn, Aja Naomi King, Troian Bellisario, Jessica Marie Garcia, Nico Tortorella, Nastia Liukin, Rebecca Minkoff, Cecile Richards and Samantha Power, as well as brands like Coca-Cola, L'Oréal Paris, The New York Times, HBO, Uber, H&M and more. Having been a part of the HC family since 2011, Cara served as Campus Correspondent of the HC chapter at the University of Florida where she studied journalism, women’s studies and leadership. A New Yorker turned Floridian, Cara has a Friends quote for any situation. You can usually find her with her friends and family at the beach, a concert or live sports event or binge-watching Grey's Anatomy or Sons of Anarchy. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @thecararose.