DIY Mother's Day present and craft activity: flower pens in a flower pot (kid-friendly)

Flower pot and flower pens we made for Grammy

Craft your mom a gift that will beautify her desk space and warm her heart. If you’re thinking crafts aren’t your thing, fear not. This craft is perfect for any level; you can be as simple or as artsy as you want.

Not only are flower pens pretty, but they’re practical, too. People are less likely to mistakenly slip a big flower pen into their pockets or purses. But let’s face it. They mostly just look a billion times nicer than a plain old jar of pens on your desk.  That said, what mom wouldn’t enjoy doing up her desk space with a homemade keepsake this Mother’s Day? Here’s how you can make one today.

Supplies:

If you want to paint your flower pot:

• Polyurethane spray paint
• Acrylic paint (Patio Paint works the best) or even acrylic paint pens work nicely—I used both
• Paintbrushes suited for your decorating purposes

Otherwise, buy the following:

• Terracotta flower pot
• Fake flowers with as many flower heads as you want pens
• Green felt (enough to cover the opening of your flower pot)
• Air drying clay
• Superglue and/or glue gun and glue sticks
• At least one ball point pen (the inexpensive kind with a cap and a lid that pops off…you’ll save yourself a step if you can find pen caps that don’t jut down)
• A decent pair of scissors
• Tape if you want to attach additional leaves to the pen

Directions:

Painting your flower pot:

1. Make sure your flower pot is clean and dry.
2. Seal the inside with polyurethane. Since you’re not using the pot for planting real flowers, one coat should suffice. Let it dry.
3. Paint the outside of the flower pot with Patio Paint. Personally, I really like the look of plain terracotta flower pots, but if you’re feeling ambitious, feel free to paint the entire outside of the pot (you won’t see much of the inside) in a light base color. The clay really absorbs the paint, so you may need to buy a bit extra if you choose to paint a large flower pot.  I had my boys make fists (how often does a mom ask that of her boys?) and painted the side of their palms and pinkie fingers. Then I had them make prints in a circular pattern to make flowers. I also used an acrylic paint pen for my writing—it’s just so much easier.
4. Let your painted flower pot dry.
5. Seal the outside of the painted flower pot with at least two coats of the polyurethane. I used three.
6. Let the polyurethane dry.

Turning an ordinary flower pot into an attractive and functional pen holder:

1. Remove the flower heads from your fake flowers.
2. Take your air-drying clay (enough to fill up at least a good 2/3 of your flower pot) and pack it into the bottom of your pot.
3. If you purchased pens with caps that jut down, then you’ll have to remove that part so it doesn’t stick out of the clay. Remove the pen cap from your pen. Using the scissors, snip off the pointy part off the pen cap.
4. Push the pen cap (the part where the pen inserts up) into the air drying clay where you want your flower to stick in, leaving about ¼” sticking out of the top of the clay. Repeat this step for as many pens as you’d like to stick out of your flower pot. If your pen caps have holes in the top, you’ll have to get out the clay that squeezes into the cap; otherwise, your pens won’t fit correctly or you could run the risk of getting wet clay on your pen tips, rendering the pens useless.
5. Taking the green felt, push the felt over the top of the flower pot. You want to get an outline of where you’ll be cutting. You can lightly trace using a marker if you’re careful. Err on the side of a circle that is too large.
6. Cut around the edge of the felt, making a circle.
7. Make sure the circular piece of felt fits well into your flower pot. Don’t glue anything yet. While you’ve got the felt sitting on the pot, take the pen and push it into the hole where the cap is. Now you know where to make the opening in the felt. Use the scissors to make a small hole.
8. Take the top lid of the pen out. You can use the scissors to pry off this plastic nub.
9. If you want to attach any leaves to the pen (I did), use some tape to do so. That way, they’ll stay in place when you start wrapping with the floral tape.
10. Starting at the writing part of the pen, take the floral tape and wrap it around the pen in a spiral, covering the pen. Pulling the tape as you go will help the tape adhere to the pen. If you’re attaching extra leaves to the pen, just wrap around the stem, making sure to cover any parts of the pen with the floral tape. When you reach the top and the pen is entirely covered tightly, you can tear off the excessive floral tape and stick the small remaining bit into the top of the pen, covering it with the plastic nub you just removed until you’re ready to attach the flower head.
11. When you’re ready to attach the flower head, take the plastic nub out again. Dab a bead of glue from your glue gun onto the end of your flower head (pea size is plenty), and then insert the into the end of the pen. Wipe off any excessive glue, and discard the plastic nub.
12. Finally, use the superglue or glue gun to permanently attach the green felt to the clay.
13. Use a wet washcloth or paper towel to wipe off any exposed clay from the inside of your flower pot.
14. If you’ve worked quickly and your clay is still not totally dry, you can slightly reposition your pen(s) at the appropriate angle(s).
15. Some people like to cover the top with Spanish moss, which is a matter of taste. Either way, the green felt looks nice underneath, in case the Spanish moss falls off or has gaps.

Kid-friendly:

• Young kiddos will love painting the flower pot, taking off the flower heads, inserting the flower heads into the pen tops, squishing the clay into the pot, and inserting the pen tops into the flower pot.
• With the exception of working with the glue gun and getting the lids off the pens, bigger kiddos can pretty much do the entire project themselves.

For more info: 

Check out these tips for painting terra cotta flower pots.