Labels for the Gardy in the Yardy!!!

Well, I will attempt my very first tutorial!!! (I think some call it tuts, but I think stinky when I say tute! That's actually how I get the G-Kids to eat beans, by promising them stinky tutes!) Oh yeah, so back to my first "How To"...

I'm gonna give ya'll a quick and cheap and easy way to make some really cute garden markers. If you're like me and my husband, we plant it one day and the next day have no idea where in the garden we planted it. We've tried leaving the empty seed packets in the garden, but those pesky gnomes keep taking them!

You're gonna need:

• Some wooden spoons - I bought mine at the Family Dollar Store (4 in a pack for just $1.00)
• Acrylic Paints - I buy whatever is on sale/clearance. In this project I used Apple Barrel (bright yellow and Atom Red).
• Sealer - again anything you have on hand (I used Minwix Polycrylic).
• Misc. Brushes - (for the acrylic paint)
• Foam Brush - (for the sealer)

That's it!!! Shouldn't cost ya even as much as a pack of seeds!

So, the first thing you want to do is take your spoons and paint them the color of your choice. I painted mine yellow as the main color (Did you know yellow attracts bees?... I'll show you something helpful in regards to this piece of info in my next blog.) I painted the "spoon" end, front and back, set them up to dry and then painted the handle part and set them up to dry. (Or did I do it the other way around... not that it really matters unless you want to keep your hands clean of paint, but then you could always wear gloves.)

After the base coat/main color is all dry, then you're ready to paint your designs/names on them. I like being whimsical and silly (is that redundant) so I painted Taters instead of Potatoes, but these are after all your markers so you just feel free to paint them however you'd like! You can use a paint brush to label them or even a Sharpie! The seed packets would come in handy here, so you know exactly what you've planted or are going to plant.

After you get them all decorated and painted, in the same manner as putting on the base coat/main color (spoon end first, dry; handle, dry) just use your foam brush and seal with a good top coat (again, I used Polycrylic). When these are dry, you just take the little labels out and stick them in their appropriate homes in the garden.! Waaahhh Llllaaaahhhh.... wasn't that easy?

They're easy to spot and we just love them. Don't you think a flower pot, some parsley seeds and a nicely painted "parsley" label would make a great gift? Maybe a nice pretty big bow tied around the pot...