Snap those old flower pots out of their winter doldrums by giving them a new personality! Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Be the Picasso of flower pot painters!
1. Gather those old clay flower pots from the potting shed or the garage and wash all the dirt and leaves out of them. Let them dry in the sun for several days.If you've bought new ones at the store, just rinse them off with the garden hose and let them dry overnight. (This gets any dust from having been shipped off of them.)If you have plastic pots, turn one upside down and try a dab or two of paint on the bottom, using your smallest brush. Check the next day to see if the acrylic paint is going to adhere to the plastic. There's no sense in painting a beautiful flower pot if the paint beads up or slowly oozes off the pot.
2. Sketch your ideas on a piece of scratch paper first if you want. You can do free-form designs all over the pot, or use a favorite stamp to put a border around the top edge of the flower pot. Turn the stamp one-quarter turn each time you use it, for an interesting and varied repeating pattern. You can also paint the stamp with a light coat of paint , press it to the pot and let the design dry overnight. Then fill in the stamp's outlined shapes with bright colors of paint, using your smallest brush.
3. Take a stencil and use it to make those dull flower pots bright. Overlap the stencil so the patterns touch, or for something a little different, do the stenciling in two stages. First use the stencil in an upright position all around the flower pot. Let it dry overnight. The next day, turn the flower pot upside down and use the stencil again. You'll have an unusual, alternating repeat design which looks really great on the larger pots.
4. Telling yourself you can't paint a flower pot because you can't even draw a straight line? Break out that old toothbrush and splatter-paint the pots! Thin the acrylic paint with a little water if you need to, and then dip the toothbrush into it. Run the bristles of the toothbrush across the edge of the old ruler and let the paint sprinkle itself onto the pot. You can be the next Pollock instead of Picasso!
5. Like stripes? Take the masking tape and press strips of it from the top of the flower pot to the bottom. Paint between the stripes of masking tape and let the paint dry overnight. The next day, gently peel those stripes off and add another series of masking tape strips, forming either a narrow stripe between the others or another one right on top of the first stripe. Use wildly-contrasting paint colors if you want. Let dry again overnight, and then set up those perky flower pots in their new location.
Tags: flower pots, masking tape, acrylic paint, flower pots their, overnight next, pots their, smallest brush