PEICD (PROJECTS EVEN I CAN DO): PAINTED CACTUS DIY

I saw this beautiful image on Pinterest recently and loved how bright the pink rocks looked against the  gold trim and black and white rope of the pot.  However, I have no green thumb.  Seriously.  Even though the post said she potted cacti or succulents, I knew they would die in no time at all.  Plus, I wanted something to add a little pop of color to Roo's bookcase without needing to be taken care of.

So then I thought about painting rocks to look like cacti!  I've been seeing that around Pinterest, too, and it seemed like the perfect blend of something cute and easy to take care of.  (Now, I realized during this project that if my sweet little babe ever gets a hold of one of these things, there will be sand EVERYWHERE.  I did place them high up on the bookshelf, so I'll just pretend that she'll just always be a good little girl and look but not touch these eye catching decorations:)

I'd say I've been working on this project for the past month.  Not consistently, of course, but just a few minutes here or there since it took SO long to paint the rocks (multiple coats of paint are needed to make the colors pop) and extra time to find the exact black and white rope I wanted.

I'm sure I'm just slow, though, and you'll be able to cut down on the project time.

I also added a few of the cacti to this small vase with pink rocks in it to make sure the neon pink is adorably visible.  Then I just glued a fake flower to one of the cacti for another little pop of color.

Here are the supplies you'll need:

--Clay pots
--Rocks (I found a bag at The Dollar Store)
--Sand
--Acrylic paint
--Paint brush
--Pink Aquarium Gravel
--Black and white cord (the cord pictured below is just white and then I was going to draw black stripes on it.  That didn't work out so well.  I finally found some bungee cord I liked at Joann Fabrics).

The steps are pretty easy, and I didn't even take pictures of them.  First, I painted my rocks a solid color.  After multiple coats of paint, I added little decorations to make them look like cacti.  In between drying times with the rocks, I painted the rim of the clay pots gold.  After the pots were dry, I used hot glue to secure the rope around the pots.

Then I dumped in a lot of sand in the pot (make sure to put a barrier in the bottom of the pot before you do this so that the sand doesn't leak out).  Add in your cacti and sprinkle a layer of pink rocks on top and you're done!  You just completed a hassle free garden that you can enjoy for years to come (that is if no toddler destroys it first:)