Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Recycled Plant Markers...

My sister, the one I hang out with a lot is a Gardener. I swear she could plant a rock and it would grow. She is mostly into flowers but she also has a small vegetable garden. Her flower garden covers the entire backside and one side of her house, its beautiful when in bloom. She also has small gardens out and about all over her yard. I'll have to get pictures next Spring/Summer when its in bloom. I don't even know how she remembers all the kinds of flowers she has as there are so many.
She's been looking for an expensive way to mark all her flowers for awhile now. Plant markers are expensive, especially when you need as many as she needs. We searched around but didn't really find anything affordable so we did what lots of people do these days and went to Pinterest. We found a few different ideas there and being the recycler that she is, she chose markers that were made from tin can lids. She had the lids and hangers, I had the number and letter punch sets and some sharpies for another project...that I'll get around to someday.
We were all set, had everything we needed so we got started on the plant markers. We practiced first, we've never used the punch sets before and just for the record its not as easy as it seems. I told her to write us a list of flower names so that we'd know what we were putting on the markers and she got so frustrated (because of all the flowers she has) that she couldn't remember all the names. Why do flowers have such strange names anyway? She got a short list together and we started punching, some of the abbreviations she chose made me LOL but I just went with it and punched the names she chose. We worked on them for most of the day and once she matches them up with all the labels from her flowers I'm sure we will have many more to make. She likes them, we think they are sort of rustic looking. We also like the sound they make when the wind blows them against the hanger. I'm happy that we got some practice with the punch sets, now I know what to expect when I get around to my project.

Here we are punching away. Deuce (my Bichon) did not like it, its very loud. It would probably be better to do this outdoors.

 
 
Here they are outside. A few of my favorites.
Kind of Halloweenish!
See what I mean by the abbreviations.
 
 
 

3 comments:

kdglisson said...

Those are so cute Aunt Susi! I'm very proud of ya'll for finally getting those done. (And for you figuring out what Aunt Mary was talking about). They're awesome! Glad you're enjoying your time off. Enjoy the rest of your Vay-Cay :)

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Ooooh these are SO cute! I had seen an idea for plant markers where you flatten a spoon and then stamp the letters on it. I even found a set of stamps that I ordered from Etsy a few months ago and have yet to use. Seeing your project makes me want to pull them out and have a go with them. Thanks for the inspiration! Love these done on the tin can tops!

Paula... said...

Love these - such a great idea. I have those metal alpha punches too :) The edges aren't sharp? or do you have one of those can openers that takes the whole top off the can?