DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Terra Cotta Pot Apple Container

Use this pot to hold candies, erasers or any other goodies you like.  Makes a great gift for teachers!  

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Materials for the Apple Container:

• 1 terra cotta pot (any size)
  • I made a fairly small container (4" pot)
  • big enough to hold candies, but small enough to fit on a desk
• 1 terra cotta saucer (a size smaller than the pot)  
  • It should be just large enough to fit on top of the pot.
• paint brushes or sponge brush
• green leaves (clipped off old silk flowers) OR green fun foam OR green construction paper
• raffia or ribbon.
• tacky craft glue or low temp glue gun (tacky glue is easily used by children)

Paints for the Apple Container:

Acrylic paints work best for this project, though you can use tempra (poster) paints.  Acrylic paint doesn't come out of clothes.  If you get it on something, wash IMMEDIATELY (before it dries)

When the girls were younger, I'd basecoat a bunch of pots with white acrylic paint (and sometimes even leftover gray fence paint *grin*) and then let them paint over top of that with poster paints.  The terra cotta color is tough to cover with poster paints.  By basecoating white, it makes the process go better for them.

• bright red  (or yellow if you want a golden apple).
• black (or dark green) for the chalkboard
• light yellow (or white) for the chalk writing (or use a acrylic white paint pen).
• Optional:  clear acrylic spray varnish

Instructions for the Apple Container:

• Paint the terra cotta pot red.  You can just paint the outside or you can do the inside too (we just did the outside).
• Let dry (if using acrylic paints, the paint will be dry before you're ready for the next step with the pot).
• Paint the bottom of the saucer the same color red.  Again, you can paint the whole thing red if you prefer.
• Paint a black square onto the front of the pot (to look like a chalkboard).  You can use low tack masking tape to tape off the area you'll be painting if you want to be really exact, but we just did it free hand.  I drew a line with black marker and then Tasha (my 8 year old) filled it in.
• Use tacky glue to attach the two leaves to the center of the bottom of the saucer
  OR
• Cut leaf shapes from fun foam or construction paper and glue them on.
• Tie the raffia or ribbon into a bow and glue that on top of the leaves.
• Use a small paintbrush to paint school messages onto the chalkboard.  Some suggestions are ABC's, 123's, I Love School, stick figures, the teacher's name, the child's name or a picture of an apple.  (Depending on what you decide to put on your chalkboard, younger children may need help with this step).
• Fill with candies, paper clips, push pins small erasers to give as gifts to children and place on desk (or give to the teacher as a gift).
• NOTE:  If the hole in the bottom of the pot is too large and lets the candies out the bottom, trace the pot bottom onto a piece of red construction paper or fun foam.  Cut about 1/4 inch inside the circle you traced and slip the circle inside the pot so it blocks the hole.

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