How Does Your Garden Grow?

One thing everyone in this house has in common is a love for gardening.  All three of us enjoy getting our hands dirty, weeding, and especially planting things.  This year, we got Noah his own gloves and garden tools, and I thought it would be especially fun for us to plant vegetables and fruit so he could watch them grow and then have the fun of picking and eating them too.  I wanted a way to label each plant so he knew what they were, so I came up with these cute little signs made from mini popsicle sticks {these were left over from our star pin project last month}.  Noah and I worked together to create them and they’re just adorable, adding a pop of color to our special garden.  Here’s how you can make your own:

– 5 mini popsicle sticks per sign {for larger signs, I’m sure regular ones would work too}

– acrylic paint in various colors

– Mod Podge {I love this stuff!}

– paintbrushes, including at least one small thin one for writing

– glue: we used a low temp glue gun, but any kind would work

STEP 1: Paint the fronts and edges of your popsicle sticks and let them dry.  You need 3 painted sticks for each sign.  I let Noah choose the colors for each plant.

STEP 2: After sticks are dry, flip them over so they’re lying next to each other and glue two sticks on to be the sign posts. {See photo…for some reason it rotated itself, sorry}

STEP 3: Using a small brush, paint the name of each vegetable or plant on the front of a sign.  You can also add little pictures if you like.

STEP 4: Generously apply Mod Podge over top once all paint is dry.  Then add some more.  Besides making your signs pretty and shiny, this is what makes them waterproof, so it’s important to make sure the entire painted surface is well covered.

STEP 5: Let dry.  Here are ours; we have tomatoes, grape tomatoes, strawberries, red and green peppers, and a sunflower, plus I made one saying “Noah’s Garden,” which he thought was cool.



STEP 6: Place in your garden and ENJOY!

Linked up to: Made by Little Hands Monday, Debbiedoo’s Newbie Party, Craft-O-Maniac Monday, Making the World Cuter Mondays, and most of the linky parties on the sidebar.