Marbled Pottery Painting – Preschool Craft

This marbled pottery painting preschool craft started off as a “mommy” project- no kids allowed.  Both Bella and Bryson were tucked in bed on their way to sleepy-town.  So I thought.  Bryson must have sensed that I was about to start a project that involved paint and .  The kid loves paint- acrylic paint, water color paints, you name it- he likes it.  He watched as I went through several of the steps (outlined below) and I could see the anticipation in his eyes.  When he finally asked to help, I couldn’t tell him no.  The result?  LOVE.

For this project, I was sent a box of goodies from to get creative with, but needed a project piece so we headed to Walmart.  Imagine my surprise when we got to the craft department and there was nothing there except fabric!  After a little bit of searching, I found the new craft aisles and they are better than ever.  I’m glad to see Walmart bringing back the fabric department, but even more excited about the expanded craft department!  They had a huge selection of wood products to create with and tons of other new items.  I chose some terracotta pots for this project, but will be back for other crafts!

As I mentioned above, this turned into a preschool craft for us.  If your kids are older, they’ll be able to help with the entire craft.  For the younger kids, get them involved during step 03.

Supplies Needed:

• Acrylic Paint (white for primer, 3 different other colors of your choice)
• Terracotta Pot
• Paint Brushes
• Foam Applicator Set
• Mod Podge

Step 01:  Prime the pot by adding a few coats of white acrylic paint.  You don’t have to prime, but the final colors pop against the white and I’m not sure it would look the same on the plain terracotta.  The paint dries very quickly, so you can do one coat right after the other.  By the way, the foam applicator attachment?  AWESOME.  It screws right onto the paint bottle and makes the process so super easy!

Step 02:  Flip the pot upside down.  You’ll want to make sure your work surface is covered and safe from paint drips, even though acrylic paint is a breeze to clean up.  Run your first paint (red here) around the rim of the pot so that it will drip down the sides.  If you find that the paint is too thick, add a tiny bit of water, shake it up, then try again.  Repeat with two other paint colors.

Step 03:  This is where I handed the paintbrush over to Bryson.  After the colors have dripped down the sides, let your preschooler swirl them together.  You can’t mess this up, so just let them have at it.  You’ll have a one-of-a-kind creation!

Step 04:  Allow the pot to dry completely- the paint will be thick so overnight or at least 12 hours is best.

Step 05:  Paint the inside of the pot to give it a finished look.

Step 06:  Once dry, seal with 2 coats of Mod Podge.

That’s it!  I can’t even begin to explain how proud Bryson is of his painted pot.  The morning after we painted, the very first thing he asked me was to see it.  He calls it his “volcano” because of the red.  Gotta love that imagination!

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I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid Crafts and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.