DIY Painted Cactus Pot

In today’s art project, I’m going to show you how to use The Big Book of Drawing as inspiration to create your own DIY painted cactus pot.

DIY Painted Cactus Pot

Supplies needed for this art project:

• The Big Book of Drawing
• Small Terracotta Pot
• Acrylic Paints (at least Red/Yellow/Blue/White) and a mixing surface
• Painters Tape or Masking Tape
• Paintbrushes in various sizes
• Pencil
• Mod Podge
• Fine Tip Sharpie in dark brown or black (not pictured)

For the first step, apply a piece of tape around the bottom of the pot about ½ an inch from the bottom.  This will protect this part of the pot from paint and create the “ground” for the drawings.

Time to Draw!

Clip open The Big Book of Drawing to the page that you would like to draw from.  Use a pencil to follow the step-by-step drawing and draw directly on the pot. 

I chose to use the saguaro cactus and the cactus from the potted cactus drawing (without the pot).  I alternated the designs on each side of the pot for a total of 4 cactus drawings. But with over 500 drawings in this book, you can choose to paint whatever you want!

Time to Paint!

Squeeze out the paint you would like to use on a small plate or palette and mix a blue color of your choice to paint the sky.

Use a small brush to paint around the cactus shapes.  Don’t worry if you get some paint into the cactus shapes, it’s very easy to paint over it. Use a large brush to fill in the rest of the top portion of the pot.  Allow the sky to dry before the next step.

Next, mix two different shades of green (or more if you’d like) and paint in the cactus shapes.  You can adjust the shapes of your cactus with paint as necessary.  Allow the cactus to dry.

Let’s Add Some Clouds to Your Cactus Pot!

Use a large paintbrush and some white paint to add some cloud shapes to the top area of the pot.  You can apply the paint loosely and with a bit of a dry brush to add some open texture and fluffiness!  Add some smaller clouds as well to add some perspective.  Allow the clouds to dry.

Details!

Use the fine point Sharpie to add some texture and detail lines to the cactus.  Use the Big Book of Drawing for inspiration on what kind of texture and detail to add.

Next, carefully peel the tape from the bottom of the pot.  

**Note – it’s important to pull the tape down and away from the pot just in case the paint sticks to the tape, you would not want to pull part of the painted design away from the pot.

Add a layer of Mod Podge to the inside of the pot and allow it to dry.  Mod Podge is cloudy white when applied, but dries to a nice shiny gloss.

Once the inside of the pot is dry, add a coat of Mode Podge to the outside and bottom of the pot too.  This will seal the pot and help preserve the painted design.

To help paint the outside of the pot without getting your fingers all sticky, simply slide the pot onto a tapered paintbrush through the drainage hole on the pot (if it’s small enough).  This will allow you to hold the brush and coat the pot with Mod Podge more easily.

Allow the Mod Podge to dry thoroughly.

That’s all there is to it!  Pair your painted pot with a special little cactus for a unique one-of-a-kind cactus planter.

You might also like this painted rock cactus garden craft!