I am a known killer of plants. I’m also on a mission to have more plants in my house. How to find a solution? Paper plants! What is dead may never die?

The flowers I used were made in advance; extras from my wedding reception (yet-to-be, thanks, COVID-19) decor. They were Lia Griffith patterns except for the turquoise flower; that was my own pattern. Links to these patterns and a list of project materials are at the bottom of the page.

I got three of these planters as a Christmas gift. They are round, cute, and modern.

Potsy Planters from Loop & Tie.

I used 1/2″ foam from an old package I had lying around. I put in about 3 layers. Didn’t do any precise cutting or measurement, but 3 seemed to get the top layer at the right height. I did have some height variation between the planters, but I didn’t mind it at all. You can always add another layer of rocks to make them all the same.

In the event that one of my guests started messing with the planter, I wanted to have some contrast against the white rocks that looked like real potting soil/dirt. I did not have brown acrylic paint, but making it is pretty easy. Tap into your inner 4 year old, and mix all of the colors you own! I ended up mixing mainly red, green, and a bit of yellow into a bit of black and you’ve got brown! I added a darker green to the mix to make it less yellowy. Tweak as needed.

Finding the roughest brush I could find helped add to that soil texture. I’d like to think so at least. The brown looks nearly black here, which is what I was going for.
The painted foam layers laying out to dry. I liked the texture that came out with the paint. If I was leaving this surface bare, I would have painted two coats of paint. The sides won’t be seen once they’re in the planters, so I didn’t spend a lot of time on those.

Now for the rocks!

Got these nice white rocks from the dollar store. They’re a bit chalky and leave a lot of dust behind, so be sure to protect your work surface. You could also wash these rocks beforehand to help with dust control. But then you have to wait for them to dry…and jostling the rocks around would create more dust post-wash…impatient Jenny says nevermind.

With my favorite hot glue gun, I started the tedious process of gluing the rocks down in a layer one by one. I stopped a half inch shy of the edge so I could bend the foam back into the planters. This process may have been easier (albeit longer) with a slower drying glue and pouring the rocks over the surface–but I’m impatient. There were times I accidentally let the hot metal tip touch the foam, creating an intense crater. I was able to cover these up with rocks though. What craters? Ain’t no craters here!

I tried to insert the foam layer just under the lip of the planter. As mentioned above, I got varying heights due to my imprecise cuts. I glued some thin floral wire (22 gauge) under the flowers to keep them in place. Unbent paper clips would work find as a substitute.

I anchored the flowers by pushing the wire into the foam. If I didn’t like the position, I could just move them again. The dark “dirt” helped to hide the mistakes :).

Finally, I filled in the planter with a shallow layer of rocks, especially on the exposed “dirt” edges. For the planters with three flowers, I put a few more rocks into the center to help support the triad.

One of the finished planters. Also, really dusty table from the rock residue.

In the end, the succulents tended to look a bit more realistic the closer they were to the “dirt” surface. It made it look like they were growing right out of the dirt. It would be interesting to see how they woud’ve looked if I left an area of exposed “dirt” at the base of each succulent.

Finished planters together! I love them!

Flower Patterns

Lia Griffith Four Succulent Tutorials – PDF, SVG, and tutorials

My paper succulent Cricut pattern

Materials

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