We love our mothers. What better way to show them than giving them a gift you made or even better, a gift their granddaughter made! These could also just be a nice spring project for you and your little one. This project can be rather messy so go ahead and grab that old T-shirt you're never going to wear and stick it on your little one. The acrylic paint we used for the terracotta pots does NOT come off, which makes it great for an outdoor piece. I'm sure you could use crayola paint if it is going to be kept indoors. You can buy it on Amazon or you could go into any craft store and pick up a small bottle of acrylic paint. They're usually pretty cheap but I had these left over from letters we did in my daughter's room. I set it up when she was napping and then after she woke up I told her I had a big surprise for her. She was so interested in doing it rather than feeling forced to do something. I used some old professional paint brushes I had from high school but any will do. I would also recommend these foam brushes or these thick brushes. My two year old did great with a thicker brush because it covers a lot of area and moves smoothly.
Step 1: Gather Materials
With a toddler it is so much easier to have these things on hand before you start because when you walk away to get something they will either lose focus or grab something when you're not looking. In this case that could very well be paint.
You will need:
Clay pots for painting and planting - I bought ours from Home Depot for .78 cents each.
Acrylic paint unless you choose to use kids finger paints
Newspaper
Water for the brushes
Baby Wipes (makes toddler clean up that much easier)
Table - So they can see the whole thing right in front of them rather than it being on the ground. Like I said previously, I just used a storage container with a paper towel on it.
Patience
Soil - This soil is organic. I like to buy organic as much as possible.
Seeds - We used these Burpee Brand Columbine Flowers. I saw them in the super market and thought they were just perfect.
STEP 2: Get to Painting.
I taped painter's paper down on the floor because we had it but newspaper will do the same job. I used a tub to make it level with where we were sitting but if you are fancier than I, you may have a table that can be used for this sort of thing. In my opinion this made it easier for her to paint the whole thing and probably helped avoid a lot of painting accidents. She had to make sure she painted the bottoms on all the pots. The acrylic paint does not come out of clothes and fabric.
I would recommend not putting all the colors out at once like I did. She would go for the wrong color and a few times I had to paint over the other colors.
- The set up before she came downstairs
Step 3: Allow paint to dry
The acrylic paint on the clay pot actually dries very fast. It's very possible to paint and plant in the same day. It rained the day we painted (and the next few days) and we hadn't bought soil yet. This paint dries really fast so you could move on to step 4 pretty quickly if you choose.
Step 4: Plant the seeds!
As I said previously, I like the organic potting soil, although it's not really a big deal for flowers because you are not eating them, I just already had it for our sweet potatoes. You want to fill the pot mostly to the top leaving about 2 inches. Drop in your seeds! I'll admit I had no idea how I should have done this but I put seeds in each pot, you know... in case some don't sprout. There is a two year old watering these things. Then we put a little more soil on top. And you are finished! Just be sure to water as directed on the packet.
- Our finished product!
You could do whatever you want to these. I was thinking about adding a lace ribbon right under the lip of the pot. You could let your little one just go crazy with painting them.
If you like this article pin it here!
If you want to see more, be sure to subscribe to our page.
If you would like to try a free trial as an Amazon prime member click here.
- Free two day shipping and a discounted fee after your trial period ends.
Check out My Baby Inc here!