Butterfly Flower Pots

So yesterday was mother's day.  Nothing gets me more creative than being able to make something for people I care about, and I love having the kids make something fun for their grandmas.  I was going to have them make a stepping stone with their hand prints on them; however the kit that I bought was plain plaster, and plaster and I don't get along really well.  After messing that up, I decided to go a different route.  I started looking on Pinterest and found someone who used their child's footprints to make a butterfly.  Of course when I tried to click on the tutorial, it didn't work. It seemed simple enough, so we gave it a try.


We started with my daughter painting two terracotta pots a sky blue color.  She painted the terracotta base green.  It took two coats of craft paint.  Next we put the footprints on the pots.  My daughter's feet are bigger than I expected so they barely fit on the 6 inch pot I bought, but we made it work.  I marked the length of her foot on a paper plate, then divided that in thirds.  I put down a color of paint in each section, then spread it out with a brush until she was able to step into the painted area.  Then I positioned her foot on the pot and pressed it down.  The feet should be placed so the outside part of the foot is in the middle (left foot on the right, right foot on the left).  Since we were doing two pots, I had her step back into the paint and place it on the second pot before washing her foot.  Then we switched feet.  I then did my son's footprints the same way on the back side of each pot.


 I painted a simple butterfly body down the center of the two footprints.  I then painted a simple wing pattern around each footprint in black. I filled in the area between my wing and their footprint.  It made the footprint stand out.  My daughter then finger painted some clouds.




For the base, my daughter stuck her fingers in paint and left a few fingerprints in red and yellow.  On one base, she left a bunch in a row.  I then went through and painted ladybug patterns on the red dots and bee patterns on the yellow ones.  I tried to make the ones in a row look like a caterpillar.  Then I used several other shades of green to make the pot base look like grass.

I finished the project by sealing the pots and bases in 3 coats of polyacrylic.  I have never used it on this material or for this type of application before, so we'll see how it holds up.  So far it seems to be fine.  Finally I transplanted the flowering plants that my daughter picked out for her grandmothers into their pots.

Overall, this project came out really well.  The grandmothers were impressed, and hopefully this is a gift that they will enjoy for years to come.