A Simple Garden Theme Craft that Kids Can Make!

It seems every year, I an deluged by endless gardening magazines! I don't mean the ones promising "beautiful blooms" and "tempting tomatoes"! No, the ones I am talking about are the ones that "for a reasonable price", offer gardening gadgets that one can only drool over....I mean who in his right mind can afford a $300.00 copper revolving sprinkler with a stained glass design in the middle......or even a simple little sign that states "________'s Garden!" (insert name of choice for a SMALL fee! Huh! Small, indeed!!!

I was moaning and groaning over the latest of these missives when my oldest son settled himself next to me on the stoop with a juice bottle and a bag of Cheetos. After listening to me whine for awhile, he announced, in that "common sense tone" that I have grown to love so much, that there was no need for us to order any of those signs...we could make them ourselves! And off he trotted into the garage!

After digging around a bit in a pile of wood scraps we came up with a few promising pieces. Now, as I said, we had these on hand but you can oftentimes go to your local hardware/handy man store and buy pieces that they have previously cut for other customers for a mere pennies!

We gathered around us the following supplies and set to work!

wood pieces approximately 6" x 12" (sizes varied with the type of signs we made and the wood on hand....be flexible! Make your lettering fit the size of the wood! :-)

thin stakes to attach the sign to and to place into the ground.....approximately 2'-3' long works well for most signs

sandpaper

fine paintbrush

acrylic paints in colors of your choice....we used slate blue, wine and moss green

spray acrylic to seal your project

small nails to attach your stakes to the sign

typing paper to sketch out your sign design

Begin by sanding the edges of the wood to lightly smooth. We decided we wanted to eliminate any splinters, for safety's sake, but some people prefer their signs ROUGH!

Using seed packages as idea builders, I sketched simple letterings/signs for BASIL....DILL....and MINT. We also planned a sign that would state "pumpkin patch" but decided to leave that one for a time when we could spend more time planning!

We drew around the small wood for the sign, in order to better center the design on the sign and also to have a pattern if we wished to repeat our sign for another area of the garden!

Using small bubble style letters, we printed the letters on the typing paper. The style of the letters can be as simple or as fancy as you wish. In fact my son and I decided to have HIM print a sign title or two, in order to get the second grade handwriting into the design! It is priceless!

You can also sketch a simple drawing of the herb/item you are making the sign for. In our case, the spiky design of dill worked wonderfully! Think of the look of a hand drawn pumpkin or a tulip! The possibilities are endless! Keep drawings simple though as they are viewed, for the most part, from far away! If you aren't artistic, look in coloring books for simple designs that can be used for your signs.

After securing the paper on the wood, I pressed hard on the letters and design with a ballpoint pen, leaving impressions in the wood. You can also use carbon paper to transfer the design, although I find it smears, and thus I use the "pressure method"! Being careful not to move or tear the paper, you are quickly ready to paint!

Paint the designs and letters with a relaxed, loose hand...don't be too concerned with mistakes...after all this is supposed to be lighthearted and simple!

After allowing your sign to dry overnight, attach it to the stake with a few small nails. When this is accomplished, spray liberally with several coats of acrylic sealer and you are set! Don't forget the stake too...you don't want that to begin to rot and ruin your masterpiece!

The end results are amazing! With the use of bright colors and simple designs, these signs dress up the most plain flower/herb garden and promise beauty to come! We were so pleased with the results that we are now working on ideas for other signs. Some ideas we have had are....Grandma's Garden...Grown with Love!......Bunnies Beware!.....Magical Marigolds!.....and.....Please smell the flowers!

The ideas are only limited by your imagination and by the time spent on this project! Since it is supposed to be a simple one, it is a great project to share with your children! Just be sure to date the sign on the back so you will know when it was made and in fact we took pictures of my son standing beside his masterpiece to keep in a photo album to show his idea and how old he was at the time of its creation! It's not only a "money saver" but a "memory maker" as well! HAPPY CRAFTING!!!