Make a Terra-Cotta Pot School Supplies Organizer

Create a beautiful back-to-school organizer with terra-cotta pots and hand-painted flowers.

By: Ruth Meharg

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Back-to-School Organizer

Use a bit of garden inspiration to get ready for the school year by organizing school and craft supplies in terra-cotta pots. Decorate the pots for a beautiful desk display now, then recycle the pots for planting later.

Supplies

To create your school supplies organizer you will need six 4-inch terra-cotta pots and a 12.75-inch terra-cotta saucer. We used chocolate terra-cotta, but you can choose any color you like. You'll also need: acrylic paint / paint brushes / white paper / scissors / wire / a pencil and a strong, multipurpose glue.

Attach The Center

Begin by turning one of the 4-inch pots upside down and centering it in the saucer. Once you've centered the pot, glue it down with multipurpose or ceramic glue. Wipe away any excess.

Tracing The Pots

Once your center is attached, arrange the remaining five pots around it. Trace around the base of each pot with the pencil to mark out the spacing between each of them.

Begin Painting

Once you've marked where the pots go, remove them and paint around the outline with green paint. This will be the beginning of your vines, and will mark where to place the individual pots later.

Adding Vines

Once you have all five circles painted, start adding vines. Paint twisting lines and leaves up the center pot and along the saucer. Add as many as you want, or just do a few to keep it simple. If you're making the organizer with kids, this is a great time for them to get involved.

Painting Flowers

Add flowers and details in a contrasting paint color. We kept our pots simple with green and off-white, but you can make a bolder organizer by using brighter colors.

Painting The Pots

Once your saucer is painted, add vines and flowers to the other five pots. You can use the same colors for all your pots, or color code them for extra organization.

Cutting Shapes

Once your pots are all painted, you can begin working on your centerpiece. You can choose paper that matches your paint colors or paint a white piece of paper the exact same tone and shade. Then begin cutting petal and leaf shapes from your paper; teardrop shapes make great rounded petals, or point both ends of your petals for extra variety.

Making Flowers

Once you have five to seven petals, add a bit of glue to one end of each petal and twist the ends together to make a flower. You want at least a 1/4-inch of twisted petals so you can securely attach your flowers to the centerpiece.

Wire Wrapping

For a subdued centerpiece, glue your flowers directly to the top of the center pot. But if you want to create a bit of height in your centerpiece, twist a short length of wire into a spiral. Wrap the wire with strips of green paper, secured with glue.

Attaching Flowers

Once the wire is wrapped, place your flowers along it. Take strips of green paper and wrap them tightly around the twisted end of the flower, tying it to the wire. Secure with a few dots of glue. Continue adding flowers and leaves until the wire is covered and you are happy with the arrangement.

Attaching The Centerpiece

Glue the base of the spiral to the top of your centerpiece. Arrange the flowers and leaves until you're happy with the finished look.

Finished Organizer!

Once all the glue is dry, your organizer is complete. Fill the pots with your favorite school and craft supplies. When you're ready to use them, simply grab the pots you need. When you're finished, place them back on the saucer for easy, beautiful storage.