It was a BIG hit! K loved it so much that she asked if we could make her one as well.
I'm not sure if you can tell, but the stem is made from the side of little man's foot. The leaves are obviously his footprints. The flower is made of his handprints, and the brown seeds are his fingerprints. All of this was painted on an aritist's canvas. He was SO proud of it that he was kissing it and exclaiming how beautful it was and how much Nana and Papa would "love" it. So cute!
So this year I needed to come up with a similarly nice gift. I had a harder time, since I was trying to live up to the picture above. I'm not sure if this years gift is that great, but it's pretty cute nonetheless.
Here's the line up:
- Small terra cotta pots
- acrylic paint
- votive candles
- stencils
- sponge paint brushes
- Acrylic coating
First, I removed the stickers from the bottom of the pots. Then I washed them to get all of the dust off. I dried them off and let them sit for a bit.
Next, I had little man start painting. Usually I don't use a mat or paper for us to paint on. He's very good at keeping himself and his area clean. However, since I knew we would be painting the tops and the bottoms, I laid down a paper towel. NOTE: If you have a counter top that does not have an easy wipe off surface, do not use a paper towel. The paint does leak through.
Eventually I started to hold the pots for him, so that all sides would get paint on them. After doing this for him for one pot, he was able to stick his hand in the middle and hold it for himself the other times.
This is the four after the first coat. Everything in me wanted to make them perfect, but it is a gift from Little Man to his grandparents--not from me. I did brush around and smooth out some of the places that had clumps of paint, but I tried to leave it as authentic as possible. (Even if it killed me!)
This is after the second coat.... looking much better! They probably could have used another coat, but little man was sick of having to paint them cream. He wanted to get on with the fun stuff.
My idea was to put one letter of Nana and Papa's last name on each pot. I bought this stencil and used some painters tape that was in the junk drawer to make it easier for little man to focus on what was suppose to be painted. Unfortunately, because the pots were so small and rounded, it was very hard to actually use these stencils. Little man helped a little with two, but I ended up having to do the other two--plus lots of touch ups. That's crafts for you though. You live and learn. Eventually I just cut the last two letters out of the sheet to make it easier to place up flat on the pot. This improved the letters marginally.
I didn't get a great picture of this part of the process, but we used a little round dobber to add dots to the pots. I had purchased some fun stencils that I had planned to use. Unfortunately, after the letter issues, I decided to go with simple.
We painted green and purple dots.
After I let them dry (and while little man was napping), I took them to the garage and sprayed them with the acrylic coat.
Warning: if you spray the coat on your hand, it may be sticky for the rest of the day. Certainly I would never do such a thing, but if have to hold something to spray it--you may or may not have a sticky situation. I let the pots dry for about fifteen minutes and went back to check on them. The spray does change the color a bit, so when I went and checked on them I saw a few spots that need fixing. I let them dry for a few hours and then wrapped them up. Cute huh?
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