Pot Project

As if I haven't got anything else to do with my time, I decided to revamp an old plantpot. It was one I had picked up at my local auction and had peeling blue paint on it. Sorry - I forgot to photograph the "before".
I gave it a rub with a wire brush to remove the old paint, and then a scrub, and about 4 coats of cream masonry paint, and it was ready for a bit of stencilling. This is something you could do to jazz up any plain plant pot. It's really quick and easy.

I rummaged through my stencil collection - I didn't want to go cutting a new stencil this time.
My stencils have been used for many projects over the years. Walls, furniture, fabric, home accessories etc. Some are made from the kind of acetate that you use for overhead projectors and others are recycled out of shiny card used for the cover of sales brochures and other similar types of card. I simply draw my design and cut out with a sharp scalpel. Mind your fingers!

Here are my tools. I have a number of stencil brushes, but also sometimes improvise a little sponge pad out of a six inch nail and a bit of foam. I wrap the foam around the head of the nail and fix either with a sandwich tie, or a an elastic band.

There are various methods to stencilling, but I prefer the repeated stabbing motion method. I place a little paint in a tub - I reuse milk bottle lids for small amounts of paint (and mixing glues and all sorts of other uses). I load my brush, and then on a spare bit of card or paper - or in this case a scrap of wood, I pounce my brush to remove most of the paint, and then I do the same pouncing motion over the stencil, reloading my brush when needed, until the whole area is covered. Then I remove my stencil and tada, a lovely crisp pattern is left (or nearly crisp as it was a bit of a rush job). I use masking tape to hold my stencil to the pot. Low tack masking tape is best, but if you take a bit of high tack stuff and stick it o your clothing a few times first, it loses some of it's tack and then you have just made your own low tack version!

I will post it again once it is planted up.
I hope this inspires you to give some new life to an old pot.