CHALK PAINTING / DECORATING PLASTIC GARDEN TUBS #1

It has been over three years since I posted anything on my blog. Of course, most of us will remember how a little thing like a virus outbreak in late 2019 early 2020 caused such a big impact on everyone's lives for one reason or another. Anyway, I plan to get back into blogging and share some things that I painted for my garden to keep me occupied for some of that time. There is so much to catch up on. As I decorated many pots and tubs of all shapes and sizes I will need to share them in several posts. 

I use Annie Sloan chalk paint, although there are several other brands on the market. Annie invented the product back in the 90s and it is a breeze to use. I used two coats of chalk paint on each one and often mixed my own colours.  As the projects were for outdoors, I finished off by using Annie Sloan's lacquer. As I like a dull finish but because gloss lacquer is the tougher of the two, I used two coats of gloss ending with one coat of matt. That should protect the pots and tubs from the harshest of weather here on the Pennines of West Yorkshire, UK. Hopefully!

This is a large plastic tub which I painted with my own colour mix (green and white) in this case) of Annie Sloan chalk paint. Then I stuck on it various rub-on transfers as well as paper napkins. The hedgehogs, the fungi, and the bees are created by using one layer of three-ply paper napkins stuck on with Mod Podge. 

I didn't fuss. If there are imperfections (and there are many), I didn't want to add to the stress of it all by worrying about little creases and runs here and there. Napkins are a bit of a fiddly pain to use but SO effective and CHEAP. The rub-ons are easy, you just have to follow easy instructions. There are several brands on the market but I mostly used rub-on transfers by Re-Design , Iron-Orchid Designs rub-on transfers and various cheaper ones which I bought from several sources. 

With plastic pots and tubs there is no need to lacquer the inside of the container, of course, but you do with terracotta (porous) containers. 

 Napkins