Warm and Wonderful Pots

Every year at Christmas our family has the tradition of not only buying gifts, but also giving homemade gifts for the various members of our family. We thought this would be a nice way for the kids to understand that wonderful gifts are not always store bought. It is also a nice way to get them interested in the spirit of giving rather than just waiting for a present to be handed to them.

This year we found a little creative inspiration in this project from Kristen at Peace, Love, and Crafts, where she wrapped yarn around plain terracotta flower pots - like sweaters for your pots! Thinking this was a great idea, we decided to make this our homemade gift. We made a few changes to her design, and are tickled with the results!

We started with plain flower pots and let the kids (and husband!) paint the insides and tops. Once the paint was dry we then gave the pots a couple coats of polyurethane on all of the surfaces (do this without the kids - poly can give off some nasty fumes). This seals the porous terracotta and will keep moisture from leaching into your yarn. No one wants damp yarn! Yuck!

Once your pot is dry, it is now time to start wrapping it with the yarn of your choice (or in our case, the kids' choice, since they helped pick it out). Start by adding a drop of hot glue to the bottom rim of your pot. Then attach your yarn and wind it around the base. We found that we needed to add hot glue around almost the whole base to keep that first wrapping of yarn stable.

Continue wrapping your yarn around your pot, being careful not to overlap. Again, we found it helpful to add drops of glue now and then as we wrapped to keep the yarn secure.

When you get to the top of your pot, glue the end of your yarn down with more hot glue. Now you are done and ready for some gift-giving!As you can see, we did this with all colors of yarn, using one type for some pots, and multiple types on others for a striped effect. Once the painting and sealing is done, this project is really fast, but it makes a fun and unique gift!