Wednesday, April 13, 2011

homemade garden markers

we have all seen the cute garden markers people are using to tag their plants with... im especially in love with all the stamped spoons! (you can find a billion of these handmade and sold on etsy.com)
i wanted to try my hand at making my own... currently we are using clothespins that i wrote the name of the plant on, and those are working just fine, i would just like to look at something cuter!
so here is what i did... 
took polymer clay in different colors, my letter stamps and an exacto knife. i kneaded the clay just like dough until it softened up a bit then ran it through my pasta machine to flatten it out. i cut and formed it into the shapes that i wanted, then stamped the name of my plants directly into the clay. i then stuck a small wooden stick in the back and baked it for about 25 minutes on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. when it was cool enough to handle, i used acrylic paint to paint over my stamped letters. let that dry for about 15 minutes, then wipe it clean with a wet cloth to remove the excess paint. simple!
here is how my garden markers turned out...
and here are some that are looking adorable in my garden.
super cute, super cheap, and super easy to make!
i love gardening more than anything else in the world. it makes me so unbelievably happy to see something that i planted take life and GROW! its always a fresh start to my day to walk outside and admire the new growth that formed just over night. it also makes me appreciate all the greatness in my life. yes, all that from a garden. it is just meditative. yesterday my dad started his last round of chemo. 6 months ago i prayed day and night for this outcome, and now it is here. he will have a continued schedule of checkups and scans for years to come, but he is cancer free. cancer free. cancer free. i could say it a million times and it keeps sounding better.
im just so proud of him and completely grateful.
on another note, david and i are working our way through jillian michaels 30 day shred... today is day five and also the first day that i can walk up/down stairs without feeling like my legs are going to give away. but we can both already feel a difference in our bodies, and our endurance in just 5 short days is unbelievable. if you haven't heard of 30 day shred, its a 3 circuit training cycle, and only 20 minutes in length. you do 3 minutes of strength, followed by 2 minutes of cardio and ending with 1 minute of abs. and believe me, its no joke. the first workout was a hot mess... but we did it. then collapsed. and seriously, five days later its so much easier. there are 3 levels, each one done for 10 days. im already dreading the next level, but also excited at the same time. beach bods.... here we come!

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