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DIY Plant Markers from Up-Cycled Spoons

lifestylegreen living

Made from up-cycled spoons and seed packets, these DIY Plant Markers would make a great homemade gift for the gardener in your life! Now that it's November, I'm trying to think of creative gifts to make for the upcoming holidays. I've been meaning to make homemade plant markers for a long time, and I finally made some that I'm really excited to share with you today.

DIY Plant Markers from Up-Cycled Spoons

DIY Plant Markers from Up-Cycled Spoons

Have you seen the cute stamped silver wear plant markers on Pinterest? I've seen a lot of pictures of cute plant markers and when I first thought about this post, I thought I would really enjoy stamping silver wear too. A friend and I tried our hand at it - but stamping silver wear is not as easy as it looks. I found a lot of really pretty silver plated knives I wanted to stamp, but that didn't work out at all. Next, my friend Robin and I tried to stamp spoons. It worked better, but I still wasn't really happy with the result. After a lot of brainstorming and searching on the internet, I decided to flatten the spoons and Modge Podge on pictures!

Supplies for DIY Plant Markers

  • Spoons - I find these a lot of Good Will or Salvation Army and they're really cheap
  • ModgePodge - for outdoor use
  • Paint brush
  • Pictures (I used my favorite seed packets. You can draw your own or use clip art.)
  • Metal hammer
  • Anvil (or a sturdy piece of wood - something to hammer on)

To Make Spoon Seed Markers

DIY Plant Markers from Up-Cycled Spoons - flatten spoons
First, flatten your spoons with a metal hammer and and anvil. You can trust me when I say a rubber mallet won't work. Also, make sure you flatten the spoons on a sturdy piece of wood or a metal anvil and not a counter top you would be upset to hurt.

Next, prepare the pictures you want to use. I used seed packets from seeds I planted last year that I plan to grow again. I really liked each of these veggies and the art on the Baker Creek seed packets just warms my heart so I decided to use it!

I scanned my seed packets to a PDF file and then reduced the to a usable size in Publisher. I printed the pictures on a thicker paper and then cut them out. To get pictures the right size, we traced the spoon around the pictures and then made the pictures a little smaller so some of the spoon would still be visible.

DIY Plant Markers from Up-Cycled Spoons collage

Finally, I used Outdoor Modge Podge to adhere the pictures to the spoon. Following the directions on the Modge Podge, I applied a thin amount of glue first to the spoon, stuck the picture on the glue, and then applied more glue over the picture. I let the Modge Podge dry for about 20 minutes and then applied another coat. In all, I applied 4 coats.

DIY Plant Markers from Up-Cycled Spoons - good project for kids
These DIY plant markers are a good project for kids. My three younger kids all enoyed helping. My 9 year old son enjoyed flattening the spoons and the 6 and 4 year old daughter loved the Modge Podge! It was my first project using Modge Podge, and I have to say, I loved it to!

DIY Plant Markers

What plants would you include on these DIY Plant Markers? I can't wait to give a way a few sets this Chirstmas! I think they will be very well received. I'm planning to make Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme next!

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I’m Michelle and I blog over at Simplify, Live, Love. I live in rural Eastern Iowa with my husband, 4 kiddos, 17 chickens 3 rabbits, 1 dog, AND a cat. We are self employed crazies trying to balance it all and live sustainably at the same time. In addition to blogging, I garden, can, homeschool, and teach online community college classes too! Hop on over for more on our crazy life in Eastern Iowa.

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