Fun and Unique DIY Oriental Vase Flower Pots

Growing up in I was surrounded by blue and white oriental pottery. My mother was and is a big collector of it. We lived in Hong Kong then, and blue and white porcelain has been very popular in Chinese culture since the 14th century. That’s where I got the idea for my latest tin can upcycle with these oriental pottery-style DIY flower pots.

One of my favourite ways to upcycle old tin cans is into planters. I have a stack of tin cans in various sizes in my craft cupboard, just waiting to be turned into a fun planter.

This upcycled craft is a fun way to give larger tin cans a faux Ming vase makeover. I have created some blue and white Ming vase images for this project, which you can download below. There is blue and white Chinese vases artwork on the Paintedhive blog that you could also use.

I originally made these vases for the garden, but I’m considering bringing them inside as they will match my Chinoise patchwork cushions.

Blue and White Style Upcycled Tin Can Planters

Blue is my favourite colour, hence the name of this blog! I spotted some blue bedding flowers in a local garden store and thought they would look lovely in these faux Ming DIY flower pots.

The flowers I potted were blue Gentiana scabra and deep purple Senetti.

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What you need to make upcycled tin can blue and white Ming vases

• Large empty food tin cans in various sizes
• Blue spray paint – I used Montanna Gold paint in the colour blue note
• Mod Podge decoupage glue
• Foam brush
• Acrylic Varnish Spray
• Ming vase printouts (see below)

How to make Ming DIY Flower Pots

Step 1: First, remove the labels from the tin cans and spray paint them blue. I used Montana gold blue note spray paint.

Step 2: Download and print out the blue and white vase templates below. These templates were designed to fit my DIY flower pots. However, you might need to adjust the printout size to fit the tin cans you are using. It is best to use lightweight paper for this decoupage.

• Small blue and white vase template
• Medium blue and white vase template
• Large blue and white vase template

Step 3: Next, carefully cut out each of the Chinese blue and white vases from the printouts.

Step 4: Using a foam brush, liberally cover the back of the small vase template with decoupage glue. Then stick the picture to the front of the small tin can. Repeat with the other two templates and tin cans.

Step 5: Next, seal the images on the tin cans. I printed my images on my home computer, an inject printer, so I used an acrylic spray varnish to seal the tin cans. If you use a laser printer to print the images, use the same spray or cover the tin cans in another layer of mod podge (waterproof mod podge for outdoors).

Mod podge on top of inkjet printed images can smudge them. That is why I use an acrylic varnish spray to seal.

Step 6: Finally, all that is left is to plant the flowers. Blue flowers look fabulous in these faux Ming vase DIY flower pots. To help with drainage, I add a good layer of pebbles and broken pots before planting the flowers. As I did with my colourful tin can planters.

Another fun way to make faux vases is to use wallpaper samples like these stitched paper vase sleeves.

If you like these DIY flower pots, try some of my other fun tin can crafts and upcycles.

• Marimekko Decorative Tin Can Planters
• Upcycled Velvet Planters
• Recycled Jeans Planter
• Leather Boho DIY Vase

Also, you can make another fun craft for your garden using three tin cans of various sizes with this songbird tin can wind chime.

There are more fabulous garden craft ideas here and decoupage ideas here.