Painted Terra Cotta Pots and Garden Markers

It must be true what they say about April showers because today is a rainy April day. The sun’s been out for the most part of the week, but today has been a rainy Friday. In preparation for the sunny Spring days ahead, we are doing a craft that you can use to display your herbs and flowers. We are going to paint terra cotta pots and make garden/plant markers.

It’s actually a super relaxing and fun craft to do. I’ve painted them at birthday parties and have painted a bunch and used them as party favours (kinda like a basket filled with treats and wrapped in cellophane).

First off you’ll want to go to your local garden center and pick out some terra cotta pots. We chose a few smaller sizes, but you can get really big ones too if that’s what you want. Or you can get a nice variety of sizes.

Then pick some paint (from our many crafting adventures, we had lots of paints and brushes/sponges leftover to use).

Make sure you cover your workspace with some newspaper or an old table cloth as it can be a bit messy at times to paint these. You’ll also want to make sure you have some paper towels on hand, painters tape, and paper plates.

You can just go for it or carefully plan out your design. I will admit I started doing one and then completely changed it after not liking the way it looked. I free handed mine, whereas Nicole taped out her design on the larger pot she painted. I’ve also painted ones with scenes on them

For my little pot, I had a grey theme. I mixed some blues together for the main part and then painted on grey and blue hearts. I did it freestyle so they’re not perfect. I wanted to do a bright and colourful theme for my larger pot so I used pink, orange, purple, and blue and just did a couple of sizes of polka dots on it using circular sponges.

Nicole did a very geometrical purple and white design on her larger pot. After painting the pot completely white, she used painters tape and laid out her design and sponged on the purple. For her little pot, she went with an earthy theme and used paper towel to make it have a spongy effect.

It’s important to let your pots dry for a few days before touching them or taking off any tape. Once they look the way you want them to, you can spray them with a protective coating so they can withstand the elements outside.

Another fun thing we thought we’d do is make little garden markers to go in the pots. They are simple to make and handy to have to mark the flowers and herbs that you plant.

For these you will need larger wooden sticks, paint, felts, and 3D sticky letters.

First of all, paint the sticks. You can make them match the pots or do whatever design you want. After they are dry, you use a marker to write on them or you can use 3D sticky letters. We found some bright foamy ones that we decided to try out. Then you can spell out your herbs and flowers. 

Here are our finished products.