Monster Pots

Turning an old pot into a decorative 'monster pot' is very simple and a great thing for children to have a go at. Pots of almost any size can be turned into any sort of monster you can imagine. I thought there had to be something better to do with old pots rather than just throwing them away!

You will need:  PVA glue, paint, paint brushes, an old newspaper, and a pot you want to decorate.

Mix together some PVA glue with a bit of water roughly in the ratio 2:1. Cover a strip of newspaper in the watery glue and lay it around the pot. Alternatively, use an old paint brush to put glue on the pot. Lay strips of newspaper over this. Don't make it completely flat as this will the monster's skin. To add bumps to the skin, roll a small ball of newspaper and put it under one of the strips. This gives the finished pot a look of warty skin. To the lid of the pot, add 2 balls. These will be the eyes so the bigger the balls you add, the bigger the eyes will be. Be sure to do the lid and the main pot separately. If you do them together, you run the risk of sticking the lid to the pot.

Once the whole pot is covered, leave it to dry completely. The drying time will vary depending on how much glue you used in the previous step and how many layers of paper you had.

Once dry, cover the pot in a layer or two of paint. After that's dry, you can paint in the eyes. Using red gives the eyes an extra creepy feel. To improve the look of the skin, you can use a sponge to dab on bits of paint in a different colour.

You can add detail such a fangs or blood to give your monster extra character. Once it's finished you can store almost anything in it; pencils, beads, jewellery.