DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Valentine's Day Party Pot

This 4" terra cotta pot can be used to hold napkins and utensils at a Valentine's day party.

You can also make smaller pots as name holders or fill with treats for guests to take home.

At the end of the day, you can continue enjoying this pot by using it for a plant.

The hearts are from the printable template so you won't be forced to try to paint on perfect heart shapes!

Materials:

• 4" terra cotta pot (these cost 89 cents Canadian at Home Depot so it isn't a big expense).  You can substitute ordinary green plastic pots.
• Optional:  terra cotta pot bottom (another 89 cents...  Though you don't really need it if you're just making the pot to hold utensils and such).
• Printer, paper and scissors.
• white glue or mod podge
  • white glue works just fine for affixing the hearts.  But mod podge is water resistant (though not totally water proof), white glue isn't.
  • Having said that, it's also very smelly...  I can just feel the brain cells popping when I use mod podge.  If doing this project with younger kids, just stick with white glue.
  • A parent can always go back in the evening when the kids are asleep and coat the whole project with a coat spray varnish.  My girls are convinced there's a spray varnish fairy out there covering special craft projects with magic varnish in the middle of the night.  They're always so excited to see if their latest project was special enough to warrant the spray varnish fairy's finishing touch.
• red paint. 
  • acrylic paint is the best choice if you want this project to last forever.  But, if you get it on your clothes, the paint lasts forever there too!
  • tempra paint works just fine, but it isn't water proof.
  • the spray varnish trick works over tempra paint!  Make sure you coat the inside of the pot as well as the outside.
  • WHAT I DO:  I "bulk paint" terra cotta pots white or light grey.  I often do this when we're painting the house or the fence...  I just use the same paint or stain I use for the house and fence.  I paint about 20 of them, stick them in the spare room and pull them out as needed.  The white/light grey are easier to cover with tempra paint than the terra cotta color.  When a project is finished, the spray varnish fairy comes along to seal in the outside.

Instructions:

• Paint the pot red.
• Paint the pot holder bottom red if you choose to buy one.
• Set the pot aside to dry (it takes about an hour).
• Print out the template of hearts.
• Cut out the template pieces.  You won't need them all for one pot, but I gave extras.  Younger children should be able to cut these out without too much difficulty as they just need to cut somewhere between the solid line and the dotted line.
• When the pot is dry, add a second coat of red as necessary.  Let dry again.
• When the pot is dry and you're happy with the coverage of the red, glue or mod podge the hearts around the pot in whatever pattern desired.
• Fill the pot with utensils and napkins or with treats for your guests.
• Optional:  After the party, put a plant in it.

Alternative - name tags:

• use 2 inch pots instead of 4"
• Paint as described above.
• Glue a couple of hearts onto the pot.
• Put some red or white playdough or home made clay into the pot
• Write out a card with each person's name and glue it to the end of a popsicle stick.
• stick it into the playdough

Craft Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Hearts Template

Printable version of these instructions