Bohemian Flower Pot - reposted 2018

 

Bohemian Flower Pot

by lshoupupdated on May 19, 20184 Commentson Bohemian Flower Pot

Every spring I get excited about growing things. Fresh leaves. Plants at the grocery store, home repair store, roadside stands and sell everything discount shops.

Every year I get the bug. Buy some plants. Well, that’s about it.

So I am the least likely person you will ever ask to housesit your plants. Or manage your garden while you vacation in far away places. My thumb is dark chocolate brown, if not entirely black.

Yet there are currently no less than nine plants sitting in my window sill, five of which need to be put into real pots, with plenty of soil. They need room to breathe and grow and, maybe just maybe this year, to thrive.

Since I have been a member of Gwen Lafleur’s Artist Tribe I have grown and thrived. How could it be otherwise? I am surrounded by very talented, thriving artists. So I decided to make a planter full of Artist Tribe energy hoping that it will help these babies to thrive as well.

Materials:

one terra cotta flower pot

Gel Medium (I used Golden’s Regular Gel [Gloss])

Acrylic paint (I choose a light turquoise)

Wrapping paper from Gwen’s packages ( she uses this great peacock print tissue paper. It was my first layer)

A variety of beautiful papers from Gwen’s shop. The textures and prints on them are what make it so gorgeous. Here are some I used:

Irresistible India Mixed Media Happy Pack

Hmong Embroidered Stars 

Sari Patch (mine came from the Irresistible India Mixed Media Happy Pack)

Going Global Turkmen Jewelry Parts

Sari Ribbon (I used Tibet Jewels)

Gwen’s Stencil Girl Stencils Ornamental Petals Screen

Permanent Marker – Fine line

Gwen’s Not Afraid to Try Stencil

Baked Texture Embossing Powder from the Altered Page and Emerald Creek – Rocky Road

Glass beads

Instructions:

Pot:

1. 1. Paint pot with a base coat of a color that compliments your papers.
   2. Use gel medium to apply scraps of paper over the pot. Put gel medium on top of the scraps as well.
   3. Add more scraps to compliment the layer you already have. Add as many layers as you want. Add a layer of gel medium over the whole.
   4. Adhere the Sari Patch, the Hmong Embroidered Star and the Turkmen Jewelry Parts with hot glue.

1. On the top rim of the pot, put down 2 or 3 inches of hot glue. Twist sari ribbon and press into hot glue. Continue to twist the sari ribbon and adhere with hot glue. When you come to the end, twist some more and arrange to hide the ends as well as possible. 
2. Hot glue glass beads around the Hmong Embroidered Star and Turkmen Jewelry Parts. 
3. Using Gwen’s Not Afraid to Try stencil pounce paint on the small designs one at a time on the pot. While still wet add Baked Texture embossing powder in Rocky Road.Heat until it melts. 
4. Gwen’s stencil was used on a gelli plate to create some of the paper I used in the collage. As it was printed on tissue paper with a fairly light color, it didn’t show up very well against the other papers. Using a fine tip permanent marker to go over the stencil’s lines is a good way to make it pop. This can be done with any element that seems a little too soft to be seen.
5. Add gel medium over all.

Tray:

1. Paint with the same color acrylic paint as was used for the pot.
2. Add collage paper using gel medium. In this case the feathers looked great to emphasize the round shape of the tray. One of Gwen’s papers has an intricate design that I was able to piece together for the center. If that paper had not appeared in front of me, I would have used the circular section of Gwen’s stencil to make the middle pop. 
3. Add collage paper around the lip of the tray. Seal with more gel medium. 

Wish me good luck with the plants. They are already kind of leggy, but I’ll trim them back and add rich soil and see if I can coax them into growing.

Do you have a green thumb or are you more like me? What’s your favorite plant to grow?