How to Make Christmas Bells out of Terracotta Pots

When Christmas arrives, parents generally look for crafts and activities their kids can make at home. The pieces of artwork kids produce during the holiday season are mostly used as decorations or as gifts to get their parents or grandparents. Among those crafts, I have selected an original idea that will allow your children to make Christmas bells out of terracotta pots. I'm pretty sure that their recipients will love and cherish their fantastic homemade Christmas bells for years to come!

If you visit craft sites during the end of year season, you probably noticed that each and every year, new creations are made from unexpected and different materials, whether they're recycled or created with new stuff. The Christmas bells we're about to create are made out from recycled terracotta pots that you can recycle from those you have in the garden and don't use or don't plan to reuse this next spring.

Before starting to make Christmas bells out of terracotta pots, you will need those materials:

First thing to do is to wash and dry the pot so that there's no clay or dirt left on them and allow to have a clean support before applying the paint. If you want, you can paint several different pots different colours so that you can create a series of Christmas bells.

Paint the pot the colour you prefer. I suggest to paint the pot red, green or gold. You don't have to paint the inside of the pot unless you wish your bells to have a perfect aspect. If you use wooden beads, you may paint and/or varnish them as well.

Depending on the quality of the paint, you might have to apply two coats. Let the paint dry before going further.

Once the pot has dried, decorate it. There are two options: if your kids are old and skilled enough, they can paint holly leaves, candy canes or other Christmas related figures.? The other and easiest option is to glue Christmas scrapbooking elements or images you can find in magazines on the pots. Optional: varnish spray can the pots to provide them with a stylish look. Let the pot dry entirely before assembly.

Now, take the cord - if you want to hang the bells outside, make sure the cord is heavy as it may have to face strong winds. However, the cord doesn't have to be too big otherwise it won't fit through the hole in the bottom of the pot and, since you're going to tie knots, the knots can't be larger than the beads.

So, tie a tight knot in one end of the cord, then string a big bead onto the cord and tie another tight knot one inch (or more if you use large pots) higher than the bead (to secure the bead in the inside of the pot). You now have 1 knot, 1 bead, 1 knot.

Pass the free end of the cord through the hole of the pot. In order to hide the pot hole, place a large beads on the piece of cord on top of the pot and tie a tight knot. Make a loop to hang the bell and then cut the remaining cord.

Put the finishing touches on the terracotta Christmas bell using a nice red bow that you glue or attach on top of the bell so that you hide both the knot and the loop.

On condition that you wish to have two terracotta Christmas bells tied together, then I suggest to use a longer cord. Once you made the loop; which you're ensure it is tightly secured, repeat the process in the reversed order: tie a tight knot, then string a bead onto the cord, string the cord through the hole of the second terracotta pot, tie a tight knot, add a bead 1 inch below and tie a last knot; cut the cord.

That's it. Such project can be produced by kids - just make sure an adult cuts the cord if the kids are too young to do so themselves. Terracotta pots may be used for many other types of Christmas projects!