🎆JULY: Clay Pot Uncle Sam

Hello everyone!  It feels so good to be back!! It turns out that being an adult is quite a busy job and sometimes you don't always get to do everything that you want to.  It's almost been 6 months since my last post and I am really excited to begin another season of projects.  Although I am a week late, I thought it would be fun to share my Fourth of July project.  As you know, I am quite obsessed with clay pots.  One day, I searched for July 4th clay pot crafts and a post from The Muddy Princess popped up.  It was a cute Uncle Sam clay pot decoration.  I loved this idea and decided to put my own spin on it, making it a full Uncle Sam instead of just his head.  I hope that you enjoy this post and that it can creatively inspire you!!

Items used for this project:

• Red, White, and Blue Ribbon
• 4 small clay pots
• 2 medium clay pots
• 2 medium clay pot bases
• 1 empty regular aluminum can (well cleaned out)
• Black Sharpie
• Durable White String
• 2 Silver Pipe Cleaners
• Small piece of black felt
• White felt
• Red, white, blue, and tan acrylic paint
• Spray paint sealant
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue
• Scissors
• 1 toothpick
• Pencil

The Body

For the body, place the clay pot upside down.  Use masking tape to tape off the bottom trim.  Also use tape to tape off a upside down triangle at the top for the white paint.  Paint the part not taped off red, as shown above.  It is important to remember that when working with clay pots, you often have to paint a few layers in order to hide the orange color of the pot.  Once the red paint has dried, put tape over the top of the red paint.  This will allow you to paint the bottom trim blue and the top triangle white.  Once the blue and white are dry, use a pencil to sketch out the collar and front of the suit.  I even put star buttons on the front.  Awkward confession, I accidentally put the buttons on the wrong side, so I decided to add buttons on the other side, too.  I need to paint over it and just haven't gotten to it.

For the bow tie, I went to Walmart and bought like 2 inch thick red, white, and blue ribbon.  I cut a piece about 5 inches long.  I folded the two ends of the ribbon to the center and glued both ends in the middle.  Then, I used my fingers to pinch the top to the bottom and wrapped a silver pipe cleaner around it.  Make sure to glue the pipe cleaner so that it stays put.  This may not make a ton of sense, but maybe looking at the picture below can help a little.