By Sandi Genovese
McClatchy-Tribune
When you see how easy it is to convert ordinary flower pots into super storage, it’s just no contest between driving to a store to buy a gift or making something personal.
Garden pots are readily available in several sizes at nurseries as well as craft stores and are easy to paint. I painted my pots with craft paint and a sponge applicator and the paint dried so quickly I was able to paint around the pot and apply a second coat as soon as I got back to my starting point.
There are a couple of options for label creation. You can cut an oval out of self-adhesive chalkboard paper and fasten it to the painted pot, however I chose to cut the letter O out of self-adhesive vinyl to create a stencil. Once I fastened the stencil to the pot I simply painted inside the letter with chalkboard paint.
After the paint dries it’s important to condition the newly painted label by rubbing chalk over the surface. This prevents the label from “memorizing” the first image you write on it. Once the chalkboard surface has been conditioned you can write, erase and re-write as often as you want without leaving any permanent imprint on the label.
The beauty of labeling the pots with chalkboard paint is the ease with which they can be converted from pen holders to storage for everything from golf tees to loose change. You can’t beat painted pots with chalkboard labels.
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