Hanging Planters Hung

The first hanging planters have been hung on the wall! Now to see if the paint lasts...

Milk Bottle Planter project - improvements

 I started working a little while ago to create some colourful hanging planters to go in the community garden I'm working on from recycled milk bottles (see original post here) so I thought I'd give a little update on developments and improvements I've made. I'm currently working with a wildlife and gardening theme - so fruits, veg and animals!

I have been working with acyrilic paints - which probably aren't ideal for painting onto a plastic surface but mostly I'm just working with materials that are easily available to me! Acrylic paint does have a tendency to flake off a little and if they're to stay outside they they need to be varnished to withstand water.

Froggy planter gets the waterproof test!

Finished planters get a few layers of this spray varnish to protect them from the elements

Hedgehog and froggy planters

So far I've done a hedgehog and frog as examples and I'm working on an elephant. 

Can you tell what it is yet...?

The idea is to do this activity with different groups so I've been working on ways to make it as easy and effective as possible. Now I'm going to prime the milk bottles with white acrylic paint to help the coloured layers to adhere better and which should also make it easy to draw a simple design in felt pen before starting to paint.

I'm hoping to make animal planters with the after school gardening club I'm running but I'm saving it for a rainy day activity... Of course I'm hoping that we'll be able to have as much outside time as possible - but when the inevitable rainy session arrives I'll get a chance to try it out as a session!

Softpots

I've had a few days off this week and so I went along to learn how to make a softpot - which is something I've wanted to do for a while. If you walk along Stonegate in York, you could easily miss the entrance to a small alley way, but if it does happen to catch your eye then you will surely not be able to stop yourself going to have a closer look. A sign above the doorway reads "the secret garden", and as you journey down the alley way there is a glittering dazzling feast for the eyes, as the walls a decorated with soft pots galore!

Source: softpots.com via Charlotte on Pinterest

Softpots are quite a simple design and concept. It's basically one of those "does what it says on the tin" jobs. The soft pots are made out of tights, the amazing part is the decoration which makes it into something really special.

Here are our pots midway through the decoration stage:

Festooned with layers of brightly coloured fibres, glitter, ribbons and sequins, once the top of the pot is folded over the glorious psychadelic softpot is complete!

Think I'll have a go at doing this with the after school club!

Milk Bottle Planters project

I love making things out of rubbish! I got the idea of making recycled planters that could be hung around my community garden site, with herbs and other things growing in them.

I got lots of inspiration by looking at similar projects online. This one by artist Hayley Fern is particularly good!

Source: hayleyfernarts.blogspot.co.uk via Charlotte on Pinterest

I'd been asked to do a plant pot painting session so I thought I'd get crafty with some milk bottles. We painted a few but I'd like to quite a lot of planters like this to go at the Secret Garden and around the area.

Here are a couple that I've painted up to look like strawberries, which I hope will be fixed onto a wall to form part of a community mural.