Painting a terracotta pot with fingerprint flowers is a fun and easy DIY project for kids of all ages. Plant the finished painted pot with a seed or small plant, and you’ve got the perfect gift for Mother’s Day, a teacher, a birthday, or just because.
Materials
- Small or medium-sized terracotta pot, the kind found wherever garden supplies are sold. Make sure it’s scrubbed clean of all dirt and completely dry before you start to paint.
- Acrylic paints in various garden colors.
- Shallow cups or a tray to hold paint.
- Foam brushes for painting stems and leaves, if desired.
- A bowl of water or nearby sink and paper towels to clean hands.
- Drop cloth or newspaper to cover your work area.
Directions
1. Cover your work surface with a drop cloth or newspaper. Acrylic paints wash easily off your hands but can stain some surfaces.
2. Choose the colors you want your flowers to be and pour a little of each into separate holders.
3. Put your clean pot on your work surface. Dip a finger in the paint and pressing it lightly to the pot to make your flower design. Remember: Use only one color per finger or wash your hands between applications. You don’t want your colors to run into each other.
- Daisy – The easiest flower to make is a daisy with one color for the center of the flower and another for the petals around the center.
- Lupines or Snapdragons – If you’re feeling adventurous, try making two parallel vertical rows of prints for lupines.
- Poppies – You can blur four or five red fingerprints together with a black center to make poppies.
- Other Flowers – Can you think of other types of flowers you can make with fingerprints? Tip: Use scrap paper to test your designs before applying them to the pot.
4. More advanced artists might want to use brushes to paint stems and leaves on the fingerprint flowers.
5. When the paint is completely dry, fill the pot with soil and plant a seed or transplant a flower from your local garden center.
This kid-friendly project will result in a treasured present that’s both homemade and homegrown. We’d love to see how your flowerpots turn out. Share a picture on Instagram and tag it with #MyGardenLife.
