Tutorial Tuesday: Galvanized Pots with Chippy Paint and Numbers

I got these three, plain galvanized metal pots at a thrift store for 50 cents each. I was not sure what I was going to do with them at the time. I have a lot of acrylic paints and I bought some crackle finish a while back, so I decided to give it a try.

Here is the tutorial:
First, tape off the inside of the pots and then paint them with a primer that can stick to bare metal such as Bullseye. Next, apply a base coat of acrylic paint in a contrasting color to the final coat. When the base coat dries, apply a medium layer of the crackle finish.

Wait for the crackle finish to dry to a tacky texture (not wet, but not all the way dry) and then apply the final coat. I chose cream for the base color and I mixed some acrylic paints to make an aqua color for the final coat. Then, if you want to add a stripe, tape it off to the desired width. I used cream paint and applied it with a stencil brush so it would not go on to heavy (I wanted the chippy texture to show through).

Next, print a design from the computer. I decided to use numbers to decorate my pots. I printed them, then blew them up on my copier to the desired size.

A while back I had an amazing find on ebay. I bought this vintage stencil book for $3 that has sheets of blank stencil paper. It is much easier to cut then the thick plastic ones from the craft stores. I love it! I have heard you can also use freezer paper from the grocery store. I have never tried this and, to be honest, I do not know what freezer paper is.

Tape the printed image behind the stencil paper or whatever stencil medium you are using and carefully cut it out with a very sharp exacto knife.

Position the stencil on the pot and tape it in place. Use very little paint when stenciling, so that the paint does not drip outside the lines. I get paint on the stencil brush and then tap it on paper, so that most of the paint is off and then apply it to the surface to be stenciled.

Voila! My chippy, numbered pots!

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