DIY Dollar Store Glass Garden Mushrooms

Today I'm taking a little departure from my summer Sewing with Knits series to delve into an easy outdoor craft project: DIY Dollar Store Glass Garden Mushrooms.

Super quick to make and easy on any budget.  It's a great way to add a little decoration and color to the garden:
  

I saw a similar idea in a photo (with no way to track down the original source), but it used cheap styrene plastic bowls and vases.  The concept was cute, but it totally looked like what they were - thin plastic bowls with a fake flower carving designs stuck on cheap plastic bud vases.  Not the most stylin' garden decor.  

Flimsy clear plastic couldn't withstand the sun, wind or rain longterm either.  One good gust of wind and they'd be airborne!  I figured glass would be a much better option for durability and appearance, as well as river rocks inside for extra base weight and aesthetic detailing. Using colored glass also makes them pop against the plants and mulch: 

I got my supplies from the dollar store.  They literally cost me $2.25 apiece.  A much better price than most garden decorations I've seen for sale!

Materials:
- Colored glass vases
- 5 inch glass bowls
- Bag of river rocks
- E6000 glue
- Rubbing alcohol 

Start by using rubbing alcohol and a paper towel to clean the top edges of the vases and insides of the bowls.  This makes things sparkling clean & residue free and insures the glue will hold well.

Add river rocks to each vase until one third full:

Run a line of the glue over the top edge of each vase:

Set an inverted bowl on top of each vase, being careful that it is straight and wait for the glue to dry and cure.

Place them out in the garden and enjoy the added whimsy.

Their durability means they can be hosed off and no garden critters can easily tip them over.  My garden & my wallet are both happy!

Easy Gardening: A Native Plants Fairy Garden

My craft room has been a bit underused recently.  Instead of sewing and indoor things, I've been focused on sorting out my yard.  Most of it is boring & laborious, but I wanted to share the recent part that was a total pleasure: my Native Plants Fairy Garden!  There is something about fairy gardens that is so relaxing and enchanting.  I've been wanting one for a long time and it was surprisingly easy AND will attract fairy friends like butterflies, bees and hummingbirds!



A few years back my husband had bought me this large resin fairy house.  I'd had it in a shady corner surrounded by some meager hostas.  No one ever goes over there and I tended to forget about it.  Now my little house is center stage!

Our yard gets A LOT of sun and has tons of clay soil.  I have a 4 foot square raised bed that has mocked my prior attempts to grow vegetables.  The results have always been pitiful no matter what I've done.  This year I wanted to take a breather from urban farming, but was trying to figure out how to pretty up the space.  Now it's home to native plants and hopefully a few fairies;) 

FYI - If you want to attract the pollinators (aka butterflies, bees & hummingbirds), and have minimal maintenance in your yard, go native.  These are plants that originate in your region. No special soil amending, fertilizing or gardening magic is needed for them to thrive.  If you're like me and despite lots of effort you struggle to get things to grow, this is an ideal way to add beauty and help wildlife at the same time.    

From Top Left Clockwise: Pussytoes, Monarda didyma, Turtlehead, Orange Hyssop Agastache, Bradbury's Monarda.

Since I'm in Michigan I used White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), Pussytoes (Antennaria parvifolia), Monarda didyma and Bradbury's Monarda (Monarda bradburiana).  Not a lot of nurseries carry native plants, so it takes a bit of searching to find them, but they're worth it.  They'll fill out well, flower throughout the summer and add pretty colors to an otherwise blah spot.  I did also add one non-native plant, Orange Hyssop Agastache, because it also attracts the butterflies and birds.   Fairies like to feed those lovely creatures you know! 

I actually had a good portion of the other supplies already.  I moved my little house and added a few accessories like a little fence, stone mushrooms and a mini gazing ball.

I wanted to add a little pond, so I used a terra cotta dish and glued small stones along its edge with some weatherproof silicone.  

I filled it with some clear and blue glass stones I had in my stash and set it into the soil.  Instant permanent sparkling pond!

More small pebbles made a meandering path and larger egg rocks from my front yard made a nice border behind the house.

I also found some moss growing elsewhere in the yard and transplanted it for an added fairy-esque feature.

I'm seriously in love with how my little garden looks and can't wait to see it in full bloom and filled in as things grow.  I also feel confident it will be able to handle the sun & weather.  I've seen a lot of lovely fairy gardens with delicate plants and pretty, yet fragile furnishings, but most of those just won't stand up to the outdoor elements around here.  

On the plus side, I found a few dish garden containers in my basement this week, so I'm eager to do a few smaller fairy gardens with the kids using them.  We can keep those in our enclosed back porch, which means we can craft up some decorations from scratch or use some of the more fragile props and plants I keep seeing.  Inside or not, the more fairies around here, the better!  

Simple & Stylish DIY Garden Markers (On The Cheap).

For me, summer usually means more crafting out of necessity than just what I feel like making.  Today's project is the perfect example of this kind of thing:  Simple & Stylish DIY Garden Markers. 

Using just what I had on hand, and a little patience, I made these simple sticks that add a splash of color & organization to my garden beds:

I've been putting in extra effort in my garden this year.  The past few years results have been pretty underwhelming, so this time around I've been pulling out all the stops: using grow lights on my seedlings, lasagna-style layering the garden beds, making tripod trellises, etc. Heck, I even ordered a giant bag of worm poo as the ideal soil enrichment.  I'm in it to win it this year.  We will grow decent vegetables this summer! 



That being said, labeling my miscellaneous herbs & veggies was stumping me.  Cute garden markers can get pricey when you need a lot of them like I did.  I needed something like 25 markers.  Even the Pinterest-perfect DIY's out there involve procuring lots of materials if you're planning to make more than a handful.  I need them to be able to take the obscene amount of rain & wind too.  I saw lots of chalkboard versions, which just seemed...odd.  Are these people growing plants without water then?!?  Running outside and re-writing them once a week?  That's not gonna work for me.



My atrocious handwriting wouldn't help either.  A rummage through my craft drawers gave me this idea.  Inexpensive, fairly simple and easy to do in big quantities:

Here's how to make 'em.

Materials:
- Jumbo craft sticks (aka tongue depressors)
- Acrylic craft paint & brushes
- Decoupage sealer (make sure it's rated for outdoor use)
- Optional: Vinyl, Transfer Tape & Cutting machine

FYI- I'm not pimping any particular brands or getting paid to rave about any specific supplies.  This is what I happened to have in my stash & just decided to use:

I started by painting my craft sticks.  I did 3 coats on each side, waiting the required time between coats.  I used a piece of freezer paper, shiny side up, underneath.  That worked great to keep things clean and the paint not sticking.  I left the bit at one end unpainted so it would be easy to hold while painting (it's the bit going in the ground so no one will see it anyway).

Side note: The next cutting machine & vinyl bit is optional if you have beautiful handwriting. I do not.  I wasn't about to do a nice paint job and then ruin it by writing my chicken scratch on it.

I used my Cricut Explore to do the vinyl cutting.  I choose a font I already had (Veggieburger), made it bold, and typed up all the herbs & vegetables and sized them to fit my craft sticks.  Then I cut them out from white vinyl remnants from a previous project (perfect example of when hoarding scraps can be useful!).  I weeded out the excess bits.

Next I cut a bit of transfer tape and used it to pull up a single word, then pressed it onto the upper end of a stick.  I rubbed it on with a scraper tool.

I peeled back the tape and repeated it all again with the next plant name and stick.  I was able to use each piece of transfer tape about 3 to 4 times, until it wasn't sticky enough to pull the vinyl off the backing, so it didn't take much tape to do them all.

We've been getting A LOT of rain around here and I didn't want these to get yucked up right away - or for the vinyl to peel - hence the sealer.  I did 3 coats on each side with that.  I ended up only using the Martha Stewart decoupage sealer.  I'd used the Outdoor Mod Podge before, but it always felt tacky to the touch when dry, so I skipped it this time.

The only tough part was waiting a few days for everything to cure before setting them out in the gardens.  This is my herbs, berries & extra plants garden:

Now it's easy to find what's growing at a glance there & in my raised bed:



I'm hoping they'll hold up all season.  We'll see.  If they don't at least the price was right - $0!

How To Make A Multi-Pocket Gardening Apron

Now that it's getting sunny & warm and green things are growing, it's time to get back into the garden. And what better way to get motivated than with a fun little Gardener's Apron to wear!

This gardening apron has two rows of multi-sized pockets, so you can easily tote items of all sizes like hand tools, stakes and seed packets. A simple sash tie means it's nice and adjustable too. It also works great as an apron for crafting & baking and can be flipped to the flat, reverse side as well. Lots of options for whatever you're working on.

Make it in about an hour to wear out in garden the very same day!

Materials:

- Cotton fabric (1/2yd for body & sash, 1/2yd or FQ for each of the pocket layers)

- Double fold bias tape

- Sewing Notions (shears/rotary cutter, pins, marking pen/chalk, iron)

The cute prints I used are from the new How Does Your Garden Grow? collection by Timeless Treasures. I'm seriously in love with this collection's bright colors and fun mini prints. Perfect for a gardening themed project!

Assembly

Start by cutting the following pieces:

Apron body - two rectangles 17 inches wide by 10 inches high

Tall pocket - one rectangle 17 inches wide by 16 inches high

Front pocket - one rectangle 17 inches wide by 11 inches high

Sash - one strip 17 inches wide by 5 inches high and two strips 22 inches wide by 5 inches high

Fold both pocket pieces in half, height-wise (wrong sides facing) and press.

Stack layers so apron body pieces are on the bottom (wrong sides facing inward), tall pocket in middle and then shorter pocket on top, with bottom corners all lined up. Use a bowl or small plate to trace & round off corners.

Keeping pocket pieces together, mark lines along the front with disappearing marker or tailor's chalk as shown and stitch down the two outer lines along the shorter pocket.

Lay pocket pieces on top of body pieces, pin together and stitch along middle line from top of tall pocket to bottom. Now there are two rows of pockets with different sizes.

Baste along sides and bottom to keep the layers even and then encased in bias tape and stitch tape into place.

Take sash pieces and fold in half height-wise and press along fold to make a nice top crease.

Open and stitch each short end of the middle piece to a short end of the longer pieces.

Fold in half, right sides facing, and stitch edges together for the just longer pieces. Stitch the short sides on the diagonal with a ½ inch seam allowance.

Leave the middle portion of the sash open. Trim raw edges.

Turn right side out and press all around, pressing raw edges inward on the middle portion.

Insert apron body into opening of sash. Using a directional print like this sprout one makes it very easy to line this up evenly. Pin into place.

Carefully top stitch 1/8 inch away from the opening, removing pins and sewing slowly so the body stays in place and doesn't shift.

Now the apron is ready to wear and fill with gardening goodies.

I received the fabrics pictured from Timeless Treasures to use as I desired, with no financial compensation.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experiences.