Terra Cotta Tree

Last month, Little Crafter and I were browsing in Michaels {one of our mutual favorite things to do!} when he spied a little Christmas tree ornament made out of tiny terra cotta flower pots.  What came next?
 “I want to make dat.  I want to do it today, Mommy.” 
Which I totally supported…except that I couldn’t find the right size pots!  Shame on you, Michaels, for putting a fun craft at my child’s eye level and being out of the supplies to make it! 🙂  I have been searching for weeks to no avail, and of course, out of sight is NOT out of mind for a three year old who has it in his head that he wants to make a “twee.”  So, we scrapped the ornament idea and decided to make a larger tree instead.  Here’s how it turned out:
TERRA COTTA TREE
Materials:
3 terra cotta pots in graduated sizes
green paint {we used acrylic indoor/outdoor gloss to make it shiny}
paint brush
craft glue or hot gluegun/glue
glitter
assorted baubles {bells, buttons, foam shapes, pom poms…}
STEP 1: Paint your pots.  Don’t worry about the insides; they won’t show.  Let them dry completely before moving on.
STEP 2: Place glue around inside edge of the two smaller pots and stack to make a tree shape.
STEP 3: Glue decorations on wherever you like.  We used low temp hot glue {I manned the glue gun and he carefully pressed things on} but craft glue would work too; you just might have to be more patient while it dries.
 STEP 4: Use your finger to spread craft glue {or regular Elmer’s} around the rim of each pot and on the very top.  Sprinkle glitter on top of glue.
 There you have it; your very own custom-made Christmas tree!  And it’s totally inexpensive…the pots are less than a dollar a piece and we already had the foam star and buttons.  Special thanks to our friends at Craftprojectideas.com who continue to support our crafting habit by sending us fun supplies like the jingle bells and glitter used in this project.  I have to say, their glitter tubes are awesome to work with…they have shaker style tops that minimize mess, and they come in all kinds of fun colors!
It’s amazing how many things you can make with these cheap little flower pots…coming soon I’ll be showing you our cute snowman candy holder and maybe even a penguin too!  Stay tuned!
And while you’re at it, stop by my guest post at Adventures of a DIY Mom today to see how the Artsy Family celebrates advent!  We have several fun family traditions I’d love to share with you.
PS – For more seasonal inspiration, stop by the {Our} Home for the Holidays ongoing link party…I’m loving all the great ideas you’ve shared there.

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14 Comments

  1. This would be such a fun project to do with my preschoolers! There are so many possibilities for them to decorate with, and I love that they can be so creative with it. Thanks for sharing!

    Also, I wanted to let you know that the page for Walking in Faith has changed. It’s now at http://faithfulmelissa.blogspot.com so if you get a chance pop on over and make sure to join that site at the new address 🙂

    Keep all the fun holiday projects coming–it makes planning for my kiddos so much easier!! 🙂

    -Melissa, Walking in Faith

  2. This is such a great idea! I love those little pots because they are so cheap and this is such a creative way to use them! Thanks for linking up to Strut Your Stuff Saturday! We hope that you will come back tomorrow and share more of you amazing ideas!
    Camille @
    SixSistersStuff

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