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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Flower Pot Garden Urn


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We have a number of home projects going on over here for the holiday weekend and I have been working on cleaning and organizing our patio garden. This year I decided to have less flowers and just focus my attention on an little herb garden. I wanted to plant my garden in a giant ceramic urn but when I shopped around and found that they were hundreds of dollars, I decided to figure out a way to make my own. Big surprise eh?!


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I started by purchasing two large plastic flower pots one BIG- one a little bit smaller as you will see.
I decided on plastic because they are so much lighter than the clay pots.


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I wanted to create a crackled background for my pot so I covered the entire surface in craft glue (this is a cheap way to crackle!) I used a light layer of glue mixed with just a little bit of water.


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While the glue was still wet I painted a LIGHT layer of paint over the top- I used gray deck paint.


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I let it dry completely and then the crackle appeared.


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I went back over it again- same steps but this time I cracked it with white paint.
I wanted layers of different crackle.


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Once all the crackle was dry I started painting my design all over the pot.

note- our patio is completely covered and is not exposed to any elements- not that there are many elements here in San Diego :) but if you are putting your pot outside I would recommend using clay pots with acrylic paint OR plastic pots with an oil based paint for outdoors or made for a plastic surface.


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I was going for a weathered, blue and white sort of Moroccan inspired pot.


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I painted...


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and painted...


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and painted some more (it took a long time) until the entire surface was covered.


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I didn't want the blue to be bright so to create a more weathered, toned down and aged look, I mixed a milky mixture of white paint and water to glaze over the surface to tone down the blue.

You really could do all kinds of things with different colors of glaze to achieve different effects- I didn't because I was running out of patience from painting the pot!


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I painted and glazed the smaller pot and stacked them on top of each other.


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I drilled a hole in the bottom of each pot and inserted a bolt,


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and then the nut- which I screwed all the way down- tightly.


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I planted my herbs and added the urn to the rest of my potted plants on the patio.


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18 comments:

  1. really really beautiful. Your patience paid off :)

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  2. They turned out so pretty. Always thinking.....

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  3. Kittyj9:32 PM

    AWESOME! What more can I say!!!

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  4. Alphabet Pony10:15 PM

    I can't see all of the photos, but what I see looks really beautiful. Wish I had a garden, the balcony is way too small for something like this.

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  5. wow they really do look like they've been around for a long time.

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  6. That turned out great!
    Good inspiration!
    Thanks for sharing!

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  7. good idea and work

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  8. This looks amazing. I love the way you added the whitewash to tone down the brightness of the blue.

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  9. love this! ive book marked this for one of my 'to dos'this summer! thanks!

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  10. Anonymous10:38 AM

    You have the coolest projects!

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  11. Super cool as always! Thank you for the inspiration.

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  12. We have to find a way to 'bloom where we're planted' and you seem to do that well. I love your urn. It would take me a week to get that done!

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  13. Anonymous12:31 PM

    Absolutely goreous! I live the Northwest....the rain would peel the paint off plastic pots here, I think. I have tried acrylic paint on unglazed clay pots. I found out too late that the pot has to be sealed on the inside so the moisture doesn't cause the paint to peel off. Your project is beautiful enough for me to give it another try. Thanks so much, once again for sharing.....

    Susan

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  14. whyducks1:32 PM

    Terrific

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  15. That's beautiful Alisa! I wish I was painting right now. Thanks so much for the project, I'll be linking.

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  16. How lovely!!! i have many plastic boring pots , and i always wanted to make them more cheerful. you gave me the right idea- i will try it and send you feedback!! thank a lot!!!p.s. i will try a mexican motif , although i liked your motif as well

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  17. You are truly inspirational. Love the Urn and hopefully I can produce a similar one. Thank you
    Deirdre

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  18. What a beautiful thing this is and will be - both for the eyes and for the spirit!

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