Monday, May 09, 2011

Better Late Than Never

So, maybe this is something that you could do for Mother's Day next year, but we thought we'd show you our gift for Jake's mom this year. One of our local garden centers was having a great sale on flowers, so we picked up some begonias for her and decided to diy a clay pot that we had on hand to make it into something special. And since the flowers are so easy to care for (read as: Even Audra's black thumb won't kill them) they'll last all summer instead of just a week or so like a cut flower bouquet would. So, here's part of what we were up to this weekend.We started out with a simple clay pot that we already had on hand.


I used the spray primer on it (the first time I had ever used the spray primer, and I must say that I like it) and covered it with a nice, even and thin coat then let it dry.


Next I went over it with a coat of white spray paint.


You can't tell that much of a difference between the primer and white paint coat in the pictures, but there was a definite difference in real life. Next we decided to add some stripes to the pot to add a little interest. So we got out some trusty Frog Tape and got to cutting. We didn't want the stripes to be too wide, so Jake cut the tape in half to make a thinner stripe.




Unfortunately because of the conical shape of the pot we couldn't just wrap the tape around to make a straight line, so we tore it into small strips and lined them up with one another to make our stripes.


Next we grabbed our handy spray paint (we use a lot of spray paint don't we, oh well) in a teal color and got to painting. This is what it was looking like after the first coat:


And then after the second:


I forgot to take a picture of the next step, but we took the tape off, and with the white and teal stripes it was kind of reminding me of a Dr. Seuss hat, but not to worry, we planned to add some cute little polka dots to it to jazz it up just a little more. So we got these little sponges from the craft store and got to work.


We did one coat with the sponges and then went back over the dots with a small paint brush to get them to be a little bolder. Here's what it was looking like after all the paining was finished.


All that was left was to plant the flowers in it and deliver it (along with a card and a Starbucks gift card that we stuck in among the leaves of the flowers). Here's the final outcome.


Jake's mom seemed to really like it. I think she appreciated the handmade aspect of it as well since she enjoys making things herself (she sews purses, diaper bags, dresses, baby slings and bedding, she's quite the sew-er) as much as we do. So there's a little project that you may be able to put to good use sometime. I'm considering making a simpler version for our own house, maybe just a teal pot though, I'm really loving that color. Anyone else make anything for their mother or mom-in-law this weekend? Please feel free to share!

2 comments:

  1. that is so cute! i love giving handmade gifts!

    ps - i swear i'm not a stalker, but i found you on our humble a{bowe}d. looked around and i started following now!

    pps - where are you in missouri? my parents have a place near shell knob!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Catie, thanks for the encouragement and I'm so glad you found us! We live in the Joplin area, so we're a little less than 2 hours away from Shell Knob. Hope you enjoy the blog and keep coming back!

    ReplyDelete