As you probably know I LOVE to create and decorate with just about anything I find for the various seasons and holidays. So it should come as no surprise that I'd be looking for different ways to decorate over the years and back in 1999 fell in love with the idea of using painted and stenciled terra-cotta pots.
Whether it's decorating with dolls, floral arrangements, or wood crafts I just love decorating - especially when it comes to decorating my sun-room for the different seasons and holidays.
The reason this is so much fun for me is because I've now limited the seasonal decorations in my home to a couple places in the house. I used to try and decorate every room for every season and holiday, but that was getting to be a OF WORK. And, I just didn't have the time for it. So, I've been limiting the decorations to a few areas - which I'm very happy with.
Well, several years ago I was looking for something different to decorate my sun-room and thought that maybe I should paint some of the terracotta pots I had bought on one of my many shopping trips. And, I had bought a few - well, make that A LOT!
I don't know why I'm always drawn to the terracotta aisle of the craft store, but I am. I just love all the different sizes of the terracotta and love experimenting with different ways to use them. And use them I have.
Whether its terracotta bride and groom wedding shower favors, or baby boy and baby girl terracotta baby shower favors, or a terracotta bunny head for Easter - I just LOVE creating with the terracotta pots. And, I love creating free e-patterns so you can create some of your own.
Right now I have several free e-patterns and free combo e-patterns (shown above and below) that I've designed featuring terracotta type dolls (if you could call something with a terracotta body a doll!)
There's my "It's Me, Ginny" bunny, my "I Do! Terra Jane" bride favor, my "I Do! Terra Joe" groom favor, my "It's a Girl! Terra Head" baby shower favor, my "It's A Boy, Terra Head" baby shower favor, my Walsh caroling family, and my trio of Santa's.
They are all fun and easy to make. The bride and groom e-patterns are part of our "Wedding Shower Favor" group of free e-patterns and the boy and girl are part of our "Baby Shower Favor" group of free e-patterns.
In any event, during one of the Fall seasons I was looking at the standard pot size terracotta pots I had and thought they might make cute decorations for the Fall. I was thinking that I could paint them and stencil them with seasonal decorations.
So, I decided back then that a shopping trip to the craft store (like I need any excuse to go to the craft store! LOL LOL) was in order to buy the paint and some stencils.
Well, it turned out to be a wonderful shopping trip as I found many Provo Craft First Impressions rub-on stencils that I liked and could use for the various seasons and holidays.
Of course, like everything I do, I never do anything in moderation. As a result I had many, many pots to decorate with which meant I had lots of paint and stencils to buy.
To my delight the stencil aisle was filled with all sorts of rub-on stencils that I could use for my pots - and use them all I did.
There were scarecrows and snowmen and flowers and Santa's and ..... Well, just about everything for every season and holiday. There were borders and sayings that I could combine with my pictures. The possibilities were endless.
My mind was thinking of so many possibilities at once that I couldn't keep everything straight. I wasn't sure what I was putting with what. It didn't matter anyway - that was part of the fun.
So, of course, I bought a bunch of the rub-on stencils. I figured if I had any extra's I could always use the stencils on something else. That's what I told hubby when he saw how many I actually had! LOL LOL
In any event, first I decided which pot I was going to use and then decided which stencils I would be using. The stencils would be driving the paint color so I needed to decided on them first. And, of course for that shopping trip, I was drawn to the Fall stencils and Fall colors.
I had originally thought of using some of my painted pots for some of my household plants, but gave up that idea as I would have to change the pots out for each season and I just didn't want or didn't have time for that. So, I decided to use the pots to hold potpourri or ornies appropriate for the season or holiday in question.
The pictures shown above are some of the painted terracotta pots I did for the Fall. In the pictures they're empty, but I fill them with potpourri for the Fall season. My rooms smell great and they're wonderfully decorated for the Fall. I loved creating them so much I decided to create a free e-book so you could make some of your own.
I ended up making a bunch of painted terracotta pots for all four seasons and even had some for the various holidays. When I was done I had a bunch of decorations that I could use and a bunch that I could give as gifts.
Since I also have a passion for silk floral decorations I decided to paint some of the large terra-cotta pots for use with some of my silk floral seasonal decorations (like those shown in the pictures above). I painted them different colors and added stencils for decorations. And, of course, I created free e-books so you could create some of your own.
My mother and I were always looking out for craft projects we could do together to use as decorations for the various holidays and seasons. In the April 1999 issue of Crafts we saw a picture and instructions for a craft project called "Clay Pot Bunny Family" designed by Mary Ayres that had the cutest group of terra-cotta painted bunnies using all different sizes of terra cotta pots.
We loved it and decided to create bunny families of our own to decorate during the upcoming spring season and Easter holiday. We ended up making 3 families (like those shown in the picture above) for ourselves and my sister. The two shown on the bottom of the collage above were made using the tiniest little terra-cotta pots. I love their hats. They're bigger than they are.
My mother and I loved making the bunnies families so much we decided to create some terra-cotta painted snow people families (like those shown in the picture above) for the following winter season. We decided to paint them white, draw designs on the front with colored markers, add old socks for hats with pompom decorations, and add wired ribbons around their necks for scarves. Their noses were made from orange pipe cleaners shaped into cones and glued to their faces.
In 1999 I saw a cute Halloween craft project in the September 1999 issue of Crafts N Things that I thought would make a really cute decoration for Halloween. It was called "Candy Corn Pots and Lollipop Ghosts" and was designed by by Dorothy Egan
that used 5" and 6" terra cotta pots. It was so cute I decided to make them (shown in the picture above) for myself , my mother, my step-daughter and my daughter-in-law. They loved them so painting and decorating those terra-cotta pots was a big success. Aren't they adorable?
In the Spring of 2000 I was looking for something for my step-daughter to make for the upcoming Easter holiday and decided terra-cotta pots with painted wood decorations glued to the front and filled with all sorts of Easter craft decorations like painted eggs, bows, and silk floral would be cute. So, we made two small ones and two large ones (like those shown in the picture above) to decorate our homes during the Easter season.
My favorite terra-cotta pots to use are the little mini pots and I've used many of them in the different craft projects I've done. I saw an article in the Crafts September 1999 issue for making the cutest pincushions using 2 1/2" clay pots. It was called Pin Pal Pincushions and was created by Mary Ayres, So, of course I decided to make a few as gifts, like those shown in the picture above. Tiny little pincushions. Adorable aren't they?
Back in 1999 while were expecting the birth of our 4th grandchild I saw a picture of a baby craft project in one of the crafts magazines I subscribed to for making baby heads sticking out of tiny terra-cotta pots. The baby heads were made of cloth and the terra-cotta pots were painted ecru and had a blue heart for a boy and a pink heart for a girl on the front. I decided to make some.
I thought they were adorable but decided to make mine with wood egg shaped painted heads, pink terra-cotta pots for girls and blue painted terra-cotta posts for boys. I decided to draw a dashed triangle on the fronts of the posts and write "It's A Girl" for the girls and "It's A Boy" for the boys. In the area below the dashed triangle I added the date, time, and weight for when my grandson was born and gave it to my step-daughter as a memento. She loved her trio.
All in all I was pleased with all the decorations I've created over the years. Painted and stenciled terracotta pots for decorating for all seasons and holidays - now that's a good idea.
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