Painting Clay Pots

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Painting Clay Pots

Painting clay pots for flowers, plants and gardens, and more!

Clay pots (or even plastic pots) are a popular craft item. Use these for yourself or to give with flower gifts, for a house plant, even an outdoor garden. Giving them along with a packet of flower seeds or a plant is always a hit too.

You can make the designs on them from basic to advanced. So these make excellent crafts for the elderly, resulting in a pleasing and satisfying item that can be kept, used as a decoration such as a centerpiece, or given as a gift or give-away. And if your group cannot use breakable clay pots, you can do the same painting process on nice plastic ones.

The easiest way to create your designs is to use a stencil template, such as a star, bird, duck, leaf, polka-dot circle, or heart, for instance. But we’re showing a sample here that can be painted free-hand very simply.

What You Will Need:

Clay pot with tray (any size)
Acrylic paint, your choice of colors (I used Liquitex brand tube paint). Colors I used: white, medium blue, yellow, medium green
3-dimension paint in squirt bottle, formerly known as “puffy paint” (used to make the spiral flower centers and squiggles). Colors I used: white and blue
Water based craft varnish
Small square of sponge, about 1 inch x 1 inch or so
Paint brushes, -- one with a wider round end; and one pointed
Plastic palette knife, if you are going to be mixing colors to make a new color
Plastic picnic plate to use as a palette
Rag
Water container
Paper towels

I first applied a base coat of paint over the whole pot and tray. However, some people prefer to keep the natural terra cotta color of the pot. In this case, you’d skip the instructions for the base coat.

Base Coat

When painting clay pots, I think the easiest way to cover a surface quickly with a base coat is to sponge paint it on. I wanted mine to be light yellow, so I had to mix the paint to make a new shade. But you certainly can use the paint colors straight out of the tube or jar, if you want to. On my plastic paper plate palette, I first squirted a blob of white paint about the size of a half dollar. Then about an inch away I squirted a dab of yellow, about the size of a dime. I wanted to mix the yellow in with the white to get pale yellow. Pick up a small amount of yellow on the palette knife, and mix it into the white. A little at a time, until you get the shade you want.

Using a palette knife is much like using a knife to frost a cake. When you get you shade, you’re ready to slightly dip in your moistened sponge square and start dabbing the paint onto the pot and tray, until it is all covered. Let it dry. Then I also wanted a darker border around the top edges of both the pot and the tray. So I simply painted that on with a brush. Let it dry.

Painting the Design

The Flowers -- On my design, I have one small (on the upper edge) and two large flowers going down the side of the pot. Plus one on the tray. To make them, I first put a small dot of paint to mark where I wanted the center of each flower to be, so I got the spacing right. Then I mixed my light blue paint (in the same manner as above) using white with a few dabs of medium blue mixed in. But again, you can use colors straight, instead of mixing colors with painting clay pots. Dip the larger brush into the paint and make a petal, starting at the far edge of the petal and drawing it in toward the flower center. My flowers have about 8 petals. Then, using the side edge of the brush, dip it in green paint and make a few leaves at each flower. Let it all dry.

The Squiggles -- Using the squirt bottle of 3-dimensional paint, just squiggle on some wiggly lines going down on each side of the flowers. Then take the white paint and create a spiral for the middles. On the tray, I made a simple scallop design. However, if it seems difficult to do, you can always just make a haphazard line of dots going all the way around. They could also be squirted on with 3-D paint. Your design doesn’t have to be all perfect. Painting clay pots is supposed to look fresh and fun!

And voila – you have a lovely, colorful pot that you can use for artificial flowers or a real plant. Or fill it with packets of seeds and give it away as a gift, for someone to grow their own flowers. Or fill it with candy or treats when you give it away. Finishing Coat

When everything is dry, apply a couple coats of water based craft varnish, drying between applications. If you are painting clay pots right onto the original terra cotta surface without first making a colored base coat, then you only need to apply the varnish just over your designs.

I made a couple of strawberry “flowers” on short skewer sticks, with a bit of squirt frosting and sprinkles on top to give away (as shown in sample).

Another great idea is to weigh one down (or make a matching set of two) by putting pebbles in the bottom, filling it with greenery, and then using it as a book end. You can even give it away with a couple books. I've even turned mine upside down and used the hole for a candle holder. (You do have to carve out the bottom of the candle a bit though).

Painting clay pots is a perfect activity for just about any holiday or occasion. For example, a patriotic theme for the 4th of July, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Veteran's Day, or any patriotic occasion. This one was made very simply with star stencils and a little 3-D paint for the squiggles. (See more patriotic themed crafts on our Fun 4thof July Crafts page.

Painting clay pots is a versatile and fun project, great for your elderly activities, for both men and women, and they make very easy craft ideas. Perfect for any season, including as a bright activity for dreary or cold days.

Also check out Easy Crafts and Gifts You Can Make, and find out about lots more easy yet quality craft ideas (including lots more about painting clay pots, and crafts with clay pots) -- for many seasons, reasons, ages and ability levels; plus free templates you can use for a variety of projects.

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