These Nail Polish Marbled Flower Pots are a super cute craft that your kids can create (with your help) to give as gifts for Mother’s Day, other holidays or teachers.
My daughters’ Girl Scout troop decorated these flower pots and I just had to share because they turned out so well and my girls had fun making them.
At first, I was little skeptical when I saw that nail polish was the paint. But this craft is so cool to create. Every pot turns out different. If you are looking for a handmade gift idea, these flower pots will make adorable gifts.
Nail Polish Marbled Flower Pots
Supplies Needed
- nail polish – I found using 3 complementary colors works best, but there are no rules.
- a bucket – this bucket will become stained by nail polish, so use one that you don’t care about. I got my bucket from my grocery store’s bakery department for free. Just ask if they have any 5 gallon buckets that they will be throwing away. My bakery dept was more than happy to give one to me.
- terra cotta pots & saucers- have an extra one to use as your test.
Instructions
1. Fill bucket with water.
2. Slowly and gently pour your first color of nail polish into the bucket. And I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y. If you pour it too fast, the polish sinks rather quickly. You want the polish to stay on the surface.
3. Using gloves, dip a pot into the polish.
4. Place pot on a drying area. I used a microwave rack that has been sitting in my cupboard, unused since we bought the microwave in 2002. The rack is now used for painting projects. The pots dry quickly, but you don’t want to go to the next color until the nail polish is dry.
5. Repeat with your next color. You can use as many colors as you’d like. There are no rules, just be creative.
If you are making more than one pot and using the same colors, dip all the pots & saucers before you continue to your next color. I found dipping one color at a time works best. You’ll need to add more polish between pots, because the color does sink. Also, you might want to dump the water before moving to the next color. I used our utility sink for this project.
6. Once you are done dipping and your pots are completely dry, you can plant your flowers or herbs.
Some Tips:
1. I found it helpful to do a test run with a pot that won’t be a gift to understand the process.
2. For a more marbled effect, pour the polish so you can still see water at the surface, like the white paint above. You can see the difference at the surface from the pink or green paint. When I dipped a pot into the green, the color came out more solid. That’s ok, but if you want the marbled look, make sure you can still see water at the surface when you pour.
3. Nail polish – we used what we had and I bought some new colors. There are so many fun colors now and I bought several on sale for $1.50 each.
