Spring Pots

Spring has sprung, so let’s have some fun! We decided to have a little fun this week and paint some clay pots.

In case you haven’t noticed, we paint a lot. It is one of the easiest and most enjoyable experiences for my little one and me. I try to find projects that are easy, fun, and at the end, my tot can be proud of. I learned early on, if the project just looks like paint splashed on the page, she doesn’t get as excited about it. It is part of the reason that I almost always cut out a pattern with vinyl and put it on either canvas or, in this case, terracotta pots so that even if the lines get painted over, the pattern remains, which keeps everyone excited.  

Now, back to the project at hand. Not only is this project affordable, but it also has an added bonus that it could be spread out over multiple days. In this post, I am going to break down each step and what you need to do to paint your own clay pots, too!

First, you are going to need to gather some materials, which are listed below. I consider this to be a fairly inexpensive project. I got my pots and the drainage pans from Walmart and paid about $5.00 total for them. Then I picked up some vinyl from the Dollar Tree, and I already had acrylic paint from previous projects at home. At the end of the day this project cost me about $6.00 total.

Materials:

-Terracotta pots

-Acrylic Paint

-Removable Vinyl or permanent vinyl

Step 1: Paint the base of your pots. I painted the edge and the drainage pan matching colors and then painted the base of my pot a different color. I also painted the base without the assistance of my toddler to make it easier. Depending on the age of your child, they might be able to help out with this step, which would make this day 1 of the project.

Step 2: Let the pot dry.

Step 3: Cut out your design using a Cricut. I decided to use some fairly large flowers with a thin outline to make it easier to paint in the lines.

Step 4: Take your design and then stick it to your pot. Make sure that the vinyl is stuck down really good to the pot. You want to make sure there are no air bubbles or gaps so your paint does not seep through and distort your design.

Step 5: Paint in your design. It is basically like a paint-by-number!

Step 6: Let the pot dry.

Step 7:  Remove the vinyl to reveal the pattern underneath. If you are really good at staying in the lines, you could leave your vinyl on your pot. Since I am not that skilled, I chose to remove mine.

Step 8: Plant a flower and put it out for everyone to enjoy!

As you can see, this project requires a lot of drying time between steps. Since you have to wait for the pot to dry between steps, you could break it down into 3 different days.

Day 1: Paint the base

Day 2: Paint the design

Day 3: Plant the flowers

Overall, this was a great project and I would say that it is definitely toddler-approved. I had so much fun working on it and I am very pleased with the results. Even with my toddler mixing several paints together, the pots came out absolutely stunning! I have researched that you can seal the paint to the pot with a clear acrylic. At this time, we are going to skip this step since terracotta pots are porous and I am interested in seeing if it will help me keep my plants alive just a little while longer. While I can often be seen with paint on my hands, I do not have a natural green thumb for plants.

Try it out and have some fun!