MOPS Craft- Chalkboard Pots

For our other MOPS meeting in February, we had a speaker come share gardening tips for our group. To go with this topic, I chose to do a potted plant as the craft, with an added twist of having the pots painted in chalkboard paint. However, because of the time to prime and paint the pots, I had to do this myself at home before the meeting. To still make it a craft worth doing, I bought a pot of flowers for each mom and provided the chalk and decorations for the pots.

My inspiration was this picture, which turned out a million times better than my own:

(I got the idea from Pinterest and used the original site, along with others, for directions. However, when I tried to link to it just now, I was warned that there were possible viruses. So I say, just google it or browse Pinterest for further images/directions.)

I really struggled to do this craft within my tiny budget, so I cut some corners. I bought one base for the terracotta pots as an example, but did not buy them for each person, as it would've added nearly $15 to my budget. I also was able to buy 2 pots and get the third free with special coupons from Fred Meyer, which helped cut down on the cost. 

I used the cheapest painter's tape I could find too. First, I taped off the rim of each pot with the painter's tape. 

The employee at Michael's recommended that I seal, prime, and paint each pot, but I ended up buying a black paint that said it was for ceramics, hoping that was good enough to seal and prime it together. I took all 15 pots outside, after being taped, and painted them with the ceramic paint. I coated each pot about 2 times, until all of the pots appeared to be evenly covered. I did notice that you could see where the price stickers had been, but the chalkboard paint later covered this up- no worries!

Once dry, I brought them inside.

Then, my mom helped me to paint each pot with the chalkboard paint, according to the directions:

And, once dry, I removed the painter's tape:

Then, I decorated the rim by gluing hemp around the rim and into a bow:

I bought pre-potted primroses for each mom to put into her new pot. In mine, I had violets. And then I used a chalkboard marker to write on my pot: Roses are red, violets are blue, I love MOPS, because of you!

(My violets were dead by this point! I do NOT have a green thumb!!!)

(I also think my pot failed in comparison to the inspiration because it was missing the bold, white, simple word the inspiration had. I think the small, colored hand-writing on mine makes it look less classy. I also like the original herbs, but found that I could not find pre-potted herbs for everyone in February. While I could've provided seeds and soil, I liked the instant gratification of already-blossomed flowers.)

I then bottled up nearly 2 ounces of the chalkboard paint for each person to take home their own bottle. This way, they could do any touch-ups they needed or do their own chalkboard project at home.

I made up directions for each person to take home, instructing them on how to properly use their chalkboard paint:

And, I made sure to add the inspiration picture, along with this idea as well, on our MOPS facebook page, so that everyone could see the great ways they could use their pots:

(Source)

Total Budget:

Clay Pots- $13.09  ($1.19/ea with a buy 2 get the 3rd free sale)

One Saucer for Display- $0.89

Painter's Tape- $3.29

Primer- $5.99

Chalkboard Paint- $10.09

Sponge Brush- $0.89

Hemp- $1.79

Flowers- $17.04 ($3.99 for the violet and $0.87 for each primrose)

Chalk- $2.00 ($1 per box)

Paint Bottles- $6.90 ($0.69 per bottle)

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Total- $61.59

Per Person- $4.10

Question: What other uses can chalkboard pots serve?