Decoupaging terracotta pots is a fun and easy way to decorate your garden, not to mention it’s pretty cheap to do! Special thanks to Mary from our local Horticultural Society for figuring out all the tips and tricks that make this an easy success!

Supplies:

• Mod Podge: There are two kinds, indoor and outdoor. We used indoor for this because it’s thinner an easier to work with. If your pots are going to be outside and your worried about your decorations wearing off you can either do a full coat of Mod Podge over everything or spray the finished and dried pot with a coat of clear spray paint.
• Flat foam brushes
• Base paint for the terracotta pot. You can do this directly on the terracotta but the decorations may not stand out as well. To help them stand out you can do a base coat of a nice paint that you would want as a background. For this we used Patio Paint, the color was Antique Mum. It made a really nice background!
• Decorations: For this we actually used cut out flowers and things from regular paper napkins that you would find at any grocery store. You can also use wrapping paper, newspaper, family photos, or really anything you think might work!
• Terracotta pots of any size

 

Steps:

1. If you decide to put a base coat of paint on your pot: Paint the outside of your pot (do not need to include the bottom), include a little edge around the inside of your pot so that the water does not get underneath the paint after a time of use. Let pot completely dry before moving on to the next steps.
2. Prepare your decorations: if your using paper napkins, like we did, separate the different plies so that you are down to the one single ply sheet with the flowers or other decorations on them. Cut your decorations out carefully and save. You don’t necessarily need to separate out the different plies (for instance, common paper napkins are usually 3-ply) but it helps make a flatter and smoother final image.
3. Once you have all the decorations you want cut out, paint on a thin layer of mod podge that is about the size of your first decoration.
4. Take your first decoration and lay it over the area you just put a thin coat on. Carefully, working from the center outward, smooth down the napkin piece. Don’t fret if it doesn’t all stick down but you want most of it down and smoothed as much as you can.
5. Once your first decoration is down, paint over it with another coat of mod podge, from the center out, making sure to paint over and smooth down the entire piece. Now you have about 5 seconds to run your finger over the decoration and smooth out any other creases or wrinkles. Don’t worry if you can’t get them all, a few creases adds character!
6. Repeat steps 3 – 5 with all your decoration pieces. Once you have them all where you want them, let it dry for a few minutes until the mod podge becomes tacky.
7. Once everything is a little dry, run a big coat of mod podge over the whole pot.
8. Let the pot dry completely (~24-72 hours); spray paint if you want to protect it, and then ta-da! A beautiful pot to accent your awesome plants!

 

Check out the pictures of our work below and if you decide to try it, be sure to post your results in the comments! Happy and snazzy planting!