Prettier Watering Can

Ever since I saw this picture in Better Homes & Gardens, I have been on the lookout for a cute little watering can to re-do. I figured that with fall season rapidly approaching, some stores would have their gardening items on sale and I might get a good deal. Luckily, I was right.

I found this cute little thing at Joanns last week for 70% off and I snatched it right up.

I immediately removed the little springy sunflower, and then got out my spray paint. I went with Krylon's Catalina Mist, and 3 light coats seemed to do the trick.

The paper that I was using to cover the can was kind of thick and I knew that it would be more difficult to manage covered in Mod Podge, so I needed my paper to be cut pretty precisely to the shape of the can.  I didn't want to waste any scrapbook paper, so I used a Dollar Store flier to cut out a "pattern" for each half of the can. This actually worked perfectly, because the paper was so thin that I just lined it up against the can, ran my fingernail along the edge, and it trimmed the paper right off. I then cut out my scrapbook paper using the pattern as a guide, lined up the scrapbook paper on the can and made a few little adjustments so that it would fit perfectly.

I used just 2 pieces of scrapbook paper to cover the can. They each started at the handle of the watering can and ended at the spout.

I painted a thin coat of Mod Podge on the side of the can, a thin coat on the underside of the scrapbook paper, and then smoothed it onto the can. I went over the paper with a little scraping tool, smoothing out the bubbles and tucking the edges of the paper up under the rim.

The spout was a little bit tricky. I made sure that the first section of scrapbook paper extended about an inch past the spout, and the second section of scrapbook paper stopped just above the middle of the spout. This little bit of overlap ensured that there were no gaps around the spout, and the seams were symmetrical on both sides of the watering can. (Sorry, I'm one of those people that cares about things like that! :)

Now you can relax a little bit, because the hard part is over.

If you can't leave well enough alone want a little bit more detail, you could also cut a thin strip to put down the middle of the handles as well.

Once the paper was dry I covered it with 2 more light coats of Mod Podge to seal it. I only had the matte finish of Mod Podge, so I put a light coat of satin polyurethane on the whole watering can so that the paper and spray paint would have matching shiny finishes.

Well, what do you think? Pretty, huh? And a whole lot cheaper than BH&G's $65 version.

I love this little watering can and am excited that it has made it's way into my Etsy shop! Check it out here if you're interested, or make yourself a customized version!

PS-Did you see that Lemon Tree Creations now has a Flickr account? If you have tried one of our tutorials, we'd love to see your finished product!!! Upload your photos here, at Lemon Tree Creations: Tutorials I Tried.

As always, I'll be sharing this project at these really fun link parties. Check out what everyone has been up to!

See you next week!