Perhaps you are like me and envy those crafters among us who can take four or five random items, add some hot glue, glitter, ribbon, and paint and voila! Instant fabulousness. I am not one of those. However, I have found that I can develop ideas better if I have something to inspire me, rather than try to come up with one all on my own. Thankfully for people like me, places like Pinterest exist to inspire us. This project was inspired by this post. This post has a number of cute ideas based on flower pots, and I have plans to use another one soon. I will, of course, post it when it's done.
First, here's the picture that got me going:
My mother was a professor of Gnomology* at Frankfurt University when we lived in Germany in the 1970's, and I made this with her in mind. I have a small pot of succulents in my back yard in a small planter that was never going to be their permanent home, and this post inspired me to make the change. So I headed off to Wal-Mart and purchased a large terra cotta plate and five small pots, along with one small aloe vera plant. A visit to one of my local garden centers netted a mushroom house, a pair of courting gnomes (you'll understand when you see them a bit later), and a small bag of smooth river rocks.
First, I hot glued the mushroom house to the top of one of the pots. The back of this house has an opening, and I filled the pot with white rocks to weigh the piece down, otherwise it might topple over in a strong wind.
Then I nestled two pots (numbers two and three) and put one of my existing succulents inside it.
Next, the aloe vera went into pot number four.
Another succulent went into the fifth pot, which I deliberately tipped on its side.
Now, even though I say I don't have a lot of "original" creativity, every now and then, a spark will ignite a small fire. I had one succulent left but no pot to put it in. Plus I wanted to highlight my pair of gnomes somehow. The aloe vera came in a cheap plastic pot and I tried using that for the third succulent and placing it in the center, but that didn't look right. I tried turning it upside down and placing the gnomes on it, but that made them too tall. That's when inspiration said "cut down the height of the pot." So I did! I cut the pot in half, hot gluing the gnomes to the underside of the bottom half, and using the remaining ring (the upper half of the pot) as a planter in the very center for the last succulent.
Add soil to disguise the cut pot under the gnomes, add river rocks and--say it with me now--voila!
Costs:
Terra cotta saucer (12") - $6.47
Terra cotta pot (4") x 5 - $3.85
$0.77 each
Aloe vera plant - $2.98
Mushroom house - $14.99
Courting gnomes - $4.99
River rocks - $2.99
Total cost: $36.27
I already had the three succulents and the necessary soil to plant them (plus the glue gun), so those costs aren't included.
*Not really :) Although she used to know a lot about them, and for a little while actually convinced one of my sister's boyfriends that it was true.
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