The Impatient Crafter : iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts: Mothers Give You Roots Mother's Day Planter and Plant Stake

iLoveToCreate Teen Crafts
‘Mothers Give You Roots’ Mother's Day Planter and Plant Stake
Margot Potter for Avalon Potter
“Mom crafted, teen approved.

Mothers Day is coming fast and it’s time to start thinking of ways to tell mom just how much you love her. Avalon was super busy this past week, so I stepped in to make this project. This is the perfect gift for a mom who loves to garden or one who aspires to having a green thumb. We are giving this to my mother-in-law, shhhh...

I started out with a more colorful plan, but this shade of green is my personal favorite and it just seemed perfect in this monochromatic scheme.

The saying is one of my favorites: “Mothers give you roots.” Which is followed by: “Fathers give you wings. You need both.”

I think that’s a truly lovely thought, don’t you?

I am so utterly smitten with this; I may have to make one for myself! A teen can easily handle all of the steps here and all of the accessories were found in the dollar bins, so it’s a very affordable project too!

Materials
Terra Cotta pot
Terra Cotta pot saucer
Dollar bin wooden heart ornament
Dollar bin gloves (green)
Dollar bin mini-shovel
Dollar bin mini-rake
Dollar store flower seeds
Green raffia ribbon
10 gauge tinned copper wire
30 mm silver tone jump ring
Tulip Fabric Marker (thick tip) neon green
Tulip Fabric Marker (thin tip) black
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Traci Bautista’s Collage Pauge matte finish
Aleene’s Spray Sealer matte finish
Small vine or floral pattern rubber stamp
Crafty Chica little paints green and yellow

Tools
Tulip sponge brushes
Tulip sponge pouncer
Scissors
2 pairs chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Memory wire shears or other heavy duty wire cutters
Dowel

1. Make sure pot and saucer are clean and dry. Mix your paints to make a darker and lighter green. Add a small amount of yellow for the dark green and a larger amount for the lighter. You will need to mix up a fair amount of paint here so the colors remain the same, small plastic drink cups and popsicle sticks work well for this task!

2. Use a foam brush to paint the body and inside of the pot and inside and bottom half of the saucer lighter green. This will probably take 2-3 coats, allow to dry in between. Use another foam brush to paint the edge of the pot and saucer darker green, also using 2-3 coats and allowing to dry.

3. Paint heart ornament on both sides and edges in the light green, 2 coats, and allow to dry.

4. Use a paint pouncer to gently apply a layer of light green paint to top of rubber stamp. Rock the stamp from left to right around edge of pot and saucer, taking your time to avoid overlapping. This is meant to be organic, so no worries if it isn’t perfectly perfect. Allow this to dry. Use pouncer, rubber stamp and darker paint to stamp the surface of the heart ornament on front and back. Allow to dry.

6. Print out: ‘Mothers give you roots.’ Use a green ink and an easy to read font, mine is 18pt. and the font is Abyss.

7. Use green marker to write love around edge of pot working your way around, go over that with the black marker.

8. Working outside and allowing to dry between coats, spray 2 layers of Aleene’s matter sealer on pot and saucer.

9. Use decoupage medium to apply the cut out sentence to one side of your heart. Allow to dry. You can seal this with 1-2 coats of the spray sealer if it’s going to be outside.

10. Use raffia ribbon to tie a multi-loop bow around top of heart ornament. Wrap your gloves and garden tools in raffia making another multi-loop bow.

11. Use round nose pliers to bend a loop on one end of a 2” segment of 10 gauge craft wire. Create a hook by bending wire over a round dowel (I used a metal dowel; you can use a thread spool or whatever you have at hand.) If you want to 'work harden' the wire to make it more stiff, hammer on a bench block with the flat side of a ball peen hammer. Follow by adding texture with the round end. Use jump ring and two pairs of chain nose pliers to attach heart ornament to end of plant stake.

12. To assemble for gifting cut some Styrofoam to fit inside center of pot, cutting out a segment for the gloves and tools. Poke a small hole for plant stake. Add some coordinating tissue paper and insert tools, plant stake and add your seed packet.