by Alexandra King

Created on: June 30, 2009

Terra Cotta pottery is fairly simple to paint. There are so many things a person can do with it. All you need is a few easy-to-find things to make super-cool personalized pottery!

Things you'll need:

- terra cotta pots of any shape or size.

- blue painters tape.

- paper of any kind; you can even use newspaper.

- scissors. If kids are doing this project, they need adult supervision and it's probably better if they have a kid-safe pair, or the adult can do the cutting.

- double sided tape

- circular pattern (anything with a circular shape to draw around, like a bowl or a toilet paper roll)

- pen or pencil

- Acrylic paint of any brand

- paint brush. I recommend a flat brush, but you can use any.

My favorite pattern on Terra Cotta is stripes. They can be big stripes or small stripes, or even different sized stripes. I like the different sized stripes best, and they are the easiest kind of stripes to paint onto a pot because you don't have to be careful.

* First, begin with a clean and primed pot. (You can just paint a base white coat with any type of acrylic paint.) Make sure the inside of the pot is painted with primer, too.

* Once you have primed your pot, you can put down painter's tape (you know, the blue masking tape that you can find in any home-improvement store down the paint aisle) to mark off the lines of one color, or just eye it.

* Paint all the lines you want in one color, then allow the whole thing to dry so that the paint is not sticky to the touch.

* When the paint dries for one color, then tape and paint the next color and allow the piece to dry again. Repeat until the whole pot is painted, and the original base coat is covered.

Another beautiful thing to paint on pots are circles. They're so fun! Try this:

* Begin with a clean and primed pot. Make sure the inside is painted, too. Put this to the side.

* Find something with a circular base and draw around this onto a piece of paper with a pen or pencil. Cut it out carefully. Repeat until you have enough paper circles to make your pattern. Put double-sided tape on one side of each circle and apply it to your pot.

* Paint the background color first, then take off the circle patterns and carefully paint each circle. If you want to overlap the circles, paint the large circle first, then the smaller one.

Make someone happy with a bright present of a beautiful pot for a potted plant; try it today!

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