Painted Clay Pots With Elmer’s Painters Paint Markers

This year for Mother’s Day I knew I wanted to do something handmade.  After browsing Pinterest for ideas and finding this from Positively Splendid, I finally decided on a painted clay pot that she could sit on the steps of the deck.  My parents sit on a corner lot and for some reason, we’ve never used the front door.  Everyone just knows to come to the back patio door when they come to visit.  Since there aren’t any house numbers on the back of the house, I thought it would be fun to paint some on a pot using Elmer’s Painters Paint Markers.

Individual Elmer's Painters Paint Markers

I had previously purchased a 5-pack of markers so I only needed to pick up a few colors – black and white.  I was being indecisive on what color I wanted the numbering on the pot to be so in usual Sarah fashion, I bought both of them.  They were only $1.97 each and I knew that I would need them eventually for some project.  The markers come in three different tips (chisel, medium and fine) so I opted for a fine and medium point.  You can see my full shopping experience in my Google+ album.  I suspect I’m not the only one with a cart that looks like mine did.

The fun part about this project was being able to make the painted clay pots with my “little” brother.  I have to tell you how awesome my brother is.  He has lost over 166 lbs and is well on his way to reaching his goal weight of 275 lbs.  He started his weight loss journey weighing over 500 lbs and get this.  He’s lost all his weight without pills, surgery or other fad diets.  But before I digress even more, back to our craft project.

We decided that we would go with blue and green.  The rim of the planter and the botton 1-2″ would be one color and the middle would be the other color.  Using a foam brush that we picked up at Walmart for 53¢, we applied acrylic paint.

Make sure to paint the top rim of the clay pot and a little bit inside so the terracota color doesn’t show when you put in your plants.  If you forget to do this, it won’t be an issue once your plants grow and completely fill your pots.

After painting the stripes, paint the body of the pot.  It took two coats of paint with some touch-ups here and there.  I don’t use acrylic paints that often so I learned that a little goes a long way!  The foam brush works excellent on the pots and leaves minimal streaking.

Because neither my brother or I were confident in our abilities to free hand the numbers and letters on the pots, we made a stencil.  We simply created a Word document with the house numbers and increased the font size to 225.  We then used a razor blade to cut out the letters so we could trace them on the pot.

Tape your stencil onto the pot and start tracing.  I recommend using painter’s tape if you have it.  We only had masking tape so a tiny bit of paint came off when I pulled the tape off.  Make sure you LIGHTLY trace the pattern on the pot if you plan to use a light colored Painters Paint Marker for your numbers/letters.

Finally, using your Painters Paint Marker, trace the outline of the numbers and letters and then fill in the space between!  It took me 3 coats using the white markers only because my pencil lines were too dark.  If I had used the black Painters Paint Marker, it would have only take two coats.  After the planters were completely dry we sprayed them with a clear sealer to protect all of our hard work.

Now my parents have some cute little planters to welcome their guests who come to the back door.  It’s the perfect Mother’s Day present for my mom as my dad will be the one responsible for watering the plants!

For lots of fun inspiration and to hear about the latest products from Elmer’s fan them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.  Search the hashtag #ExpressYourself to find out great project ideas!

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™.  All statements are mine and yours may differ. #CBias #SocialFabric

If you like this project, I’d love a Tweet!

An easy peasy #DIY craft using clay pots & @Elmers Painters Paint Markers bit.ly/J1XeoQ #Cbias #ExpressYourself

— East 9th Street (@East9thStreet) May 11, 2012