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DIY Garden Labels
We usually have a large garden full of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and more. But, since moving last year, Superman hasn’t decided where the garden is going to go. So, for now, we just have a few plants in pots.
We are so blessed, though. Our backyard is full of fruit trees.
- Persimmons
- Lemons
- Blood Oranges
- Plums
- Pommegranits
- Mandarin Oranges
We also have raspberries, figs, and who knows what else back there! Yummy goodness all year long.
I thought I’d make a couple of cute little plant label stakes or garden labels to go in a couple of the pots.
Most of the supplies came from the Dollar Tree, so this DIY was very inexpensive. And, it didn’t take long to make the garden stakes. I love those kinds of projects.
I think I spent the most time trying to decide what to use as the stake. I pulled out every dowel or stick that I had in my stash. Ultimately, I decided on using the tongue depressors. They were a perfect size and covered that hole on the chalkboard tag.
I loved how they turned out! I opted to make a stencil, but you could just as easily handwrite them, and I’m sure they’d be just as cute!
SUPPLIES
- Chalkboard Tags from the Dollar Tree
- Tongue Depressors from the Dollar Tree
- Mod Podge
- White Metallic Marker from the Dollar Tree (or, paint, or Chalk Writer from Dollar Tree)
- black acrylic paint or spray paint
- sealant
- glue sticks
- E6000
- If using a stencil, you’ll need vinyl, or you can be cheap like me and use contact paper from the Dollar Tree.
TOOLS
- paint brush (I just bought a bag of foam brushes from the Dollar Tree.)
- hot glue gun
- Cricut (if cutting out stencil)
HOW TO
Step 1
Paint all of the paint sticks. I used black multi-surface acrylic paint in satin. (Because that’s what I had on hand.) I stuck this bag of rocks in a cup and just popped the tongue depressors into the cup to dry.
Step 2
If you are cutting out your design using a Cricut, you can use contact paper from the Dollar Tree. Or, it’s such a small project, you can use your scrap vinyl.
Use a large enough piece for overlap. This is going to be your template, so remove the words or design, only.
Step 3
TIP: Use Mod Podge to seal your edges. You only need a very thin coat. Apply a thin coat before applying your white paint. (I picked up this little 2 ounce bottle from the Dollar Tree.)
As an example, I did one with mod podge before and one without. (see below)
Step 4
After the mod podge dried, I used my white metallic paint pen from the Dollar Tree to fill in the stencil. I didn’t wait very long after that to pull the contact paper off.
The “Rosemary” one was not sealed with a layer of Mod Podge before painting. The “Lemons” was painted with a thin layer of mod podge first.
See how it didn’t bleed under the stencil? Genius!
Step 5
I glued all of the tongue depressors on with a bit of E6000 and a little hot glue. The E6000 will keep them stuck forever. The hot glue is just to hold it together until the E6000 has a chance to dry.
Next, I sprayed them with clear Rust-oleum sealant in matte.
ALL FINISHED
It looks so cute in my garden! I am so thrilled with how they came out!
What do you use in your garden for labels? Comment below. I’d love to hear!
BLOOPERS
I was working so quickly, that when I painted the mod podge onto the first tag, I applied it too thick. When I removed the contact paper, it pulled the paint and mod podge up with it. It was kind of like this big one-piece glob.
As a reminder, use a very thin layer of mod podge before you paint.
