I got a little crafty this week, finally. There is too much craft, art, sewing and creating to do and not a enough time to do it all, that’s what I say! There are some little ideas I have had for years, stored up in the ‘must create’ section of my brain, the part that yearns to be creative, use my hands, leave a trail of cotton in my wake and get paint where it shouldn’t be. But somehow I find it difficult to get around to doing them, I’m ‘busy’ doing other things, I can’t get to the store to buy the supplies or better still I’m at the store and forget what the supplies are that I need – hmmm, that’s a good one. Thank goodness for technology, it’s got me out of a few forgetful creative supply situations, but not always.

My sewing machine is fixed. Did you know that in order for your sewing machine to have health and longevity you must use it more often? Neither did I, but I do now and I have started quite the project. I have spent a reasonable amount of time on it already and all I’ve done is cut out 10cm x 10cm squares. In some areas of my life I am known to be incredibly patient however, cutting out 400 10cm x 10cm squares of pretty fabric is teaching me a thing or two about real patience!

But that is not the craft I want to share with you, it is far more painty and potty than that!

One day this week I squeezed a little craft supply shopping in in between meetings – good for the soul, enhances productivity and gets you thinking about things other than your schedule (or levels, soil and plants in my case!). Thankfully I am sufficiently stocked with pretty coloured paints so all I needed to purchase were the terracotta pots. Oh, here we go! I want to make it clear that by no means have I exceeded any super crafting expectations, I have simply indulged a desire to paint terracotta pots with colours and patterns that I choose, yippee! You and I have seen this done countless numbers of times (thank you Pinterest) and how many of you have thought to yourself “I should do that”? Oh, I see you nodding your head, get out there and get paintingly potty people.

What you’ll need;

Terracotta pot in any size and the matching size saucer (the saucer is optional and relies on the look you want to create) Pot $2.49 Saucer $1.98

Acrylic paint in any colours you choose (or whatever you have in your art box) About $3.00 to $5.00 depending on colour

Paint brush (goes without saying)

Newspaper or plastic to cover your work space

Props to dry upside down pots and saucers on (large vitamin bottles work well!)

And that’s it, this is all you need.

I gave each pot and saucer at least two coats of paint, ideally you’d use some sort of undercoat but I got straight into it with the ‘proper’ paints. Remember that patience thing, well…….. not here. Undercoat will you give you a much better finish but I have sacrificed quality for keeping the craft box to a minimum and besides I intend for the contents of the pot to be the eye catcher.

I allowed each coat to dry before applying the next and once I had my two coats applied and dried I got creative with colours.

I decided to decorate one with a bright green stripe on the bottom of the pot and leave the saucer white and the other with silver polka dots (of course) and have a silver saucer.

When you’re painting your pots don’t forget to paint inside the rim of the pot. You want your pot to look finished once you have a plant in it and exposing the terracotta unintentionally will give it all away.

My favourite is the polka dots!

The next step is to fill the pots with loveliness. And by this I mean anything you want, it doesn’t have to be plants. With Easter just around the corner you can easily turn your ‘master piece’ into an Easter gift and fill it with chocolate eggs, then once your receiver has it they can use it however they choose. You could make a pretty Easter table center piece, fill it with Dodda Vine and pop in a candle (keep an eye on your candle and blow it out before it reaches the Dodda). You could even make it into a nest and fill it with your little found treasures for Autumn, just remember to paint the entire inside of your pot. The lovely thing about a pot that you paint is that you can choose to do whatever you like with it – be creative! If it doesn’t work or you don’t like it paint over it, as my husband says, “it’s not a lifetime commitment”.

So go ahead and get potty, I guarantee you’ll enjoy it, you might even make a mess!

If you get a little potty with your paints I want to see it! Feel free to share your creations over on Serendipity Garden Designs Facebook page.

I still have so many ideas for painting pots but I am happy with my attempt this time round. I kept my costs to a minimum but still managed to create something that I can use in any way that I choose. And at the end of the day it is about creating and expressing ideas, even if they don’t turn out perfectly. Enjoy!

Until next time

Carmel