Metal Plant Tags

It's spring. It's my favorite time of the year. The weather has been simply gorgeous and so I'm spending a LOT of time outside in the garden. After years of what has been a relatively obsessive hobby of mine, I've gotten pretty good at identifying the plants, but I still like to label them anyway. It helps to identify the "specific" variety. It also helps to identify the color of a plant, so that I know what I'm separating out in the spring before everything is in bloom. And, since I've hosted a number of garden tours before, the plant tags are nice for intercepting all the inquiries as to the kind of plant.

I like to have them labeled, but I've also found that the little plastic tags that come with the plants are really rather useless for anything long-term. I've spent a little time experimenting with other options. I've tried a number of tags over the years, but this is by far my favorite for functionality and outdoor durability. It's inexpensive and easy to make. It's design also adds movement to the garden as the wind catches it. I'll be following up the next couple days with some other designs that I think you'll like too.

If you're into recycling/up-cycling, you'll need an aluminum can and a wire clothes hanger. Otherwise, you can purchase metal sheeting in copper, tin, or aluminum either online or at your local craft supply store, and any sturdy wire. You'll also need a pliers/wire cutter, scissors, a hole punch, a template tool, and tin snips if you're using an aluminum can. I also highly recommend using safety gloves for the metal cutting.

Begin by cutting the ends off of the can. You want to salvage the "flat" metal.

When finished cutting, you should be able to flatten the piece of aluminum without any real resistance. I found that mine wanted to roll back up, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Next, place the metal on a flat surface, printed side up. You'll want to do this part on a firm but flexible surface, such as a pad of paper. Using the template tool, trace a shape onto the metal. Press firmly, leaving a definite indentation. Leave at least 1/4" between tags.

After tracing the shapes, the metal should have lost some of it's need to "roll."

Use a pair of scissors to cut out the shapes. You'll want to cut just outside of the traced shape. This ridge will help to support the form of the tag, as well as add a little decoration. Using scissors makes the edge not quite so "razor sharp," but you'll still want to be careful.

Next, use the hole punch to put a hole near one edge.

Now the tag is ready for labeling. Place the tag on a firm but flexible surface again, and add the name of the plant. This is done by hand using a sharp-pointed pen. The ink may or may not write on the tag (it looks good either way.) The real intention is to impress the name into the metal. That way, the name won't wear off in the weather.

Unfortunately, this phase is a bit unforgiving. If you mess up the name, you can't do much to correct it. So either be neat, or at least creative. My dad always told me that you didn't mess up as long as you could still fix it.

Now for the tag holder. Use the wire cutter to cut the hanger apart. I can usually get 3 holders out of one hanger, or just 2 if I need really tall hangers. Then use the pliers to straighten the cut pieces.

At one end, use the pliers to bend over about a 1-1/2 inch section.

Use the pliers to twist a small loop at the very end. Some hangers are definitely tougher than others, so you might want to experiment with various kinds.

Next, feed the straight end of the hanger through the backside of the tag, and slide the tag up and over the hook. Loading the tag from the backside will result in the tag flipping over and facing outward.

Then stick the end of the hanger in the ground or flower pot.

Now you'll never lose track of the name.

And it's a wonderful way to dress up a Mother's Day gift.

It's a little breezy today, so my little tag is flipping around, reflecting the sun and clinking like a tiny little wind chime.


(For those of you that are plant savvy, you might have noticed that the tag doesn't match the plant. That's just because my veronica isn't blooming yet and that simply doesn't make as pretty a picture.)

In the next few days, I'll show you a few other options.

And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas or even add some of your own at my home page childmade.com.

I'll be linking up on the following McLinky parties:


Sunday
The DIY Showoff
The Sunday Showcase at Under the Table and Dreaming

Monday
Metamorphosis Monday
Just Something I Whipped Up
Making the World Cuter
Make it Mondays at the Persimmon Perch
Made by You at Skip to My Lou
You're So Crafty Monday

Tuesday
Reinvented
Toot Your Horn Tuesday
Today's Creative Blog

Wednesday
Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home
Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs
Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking
Creative Share Blog Hop at The Trendy Treehouse
Show Us What You're Workin' With Wednesday at Me and My Bucket
Make It Yours Day at My Backyard Eden

Thursday
Transformation Thursday
Show Off Your Stuff Party
Strut Your Stuff Thursday
Thrifty Thursday
Get Your Craft on at Life as Lori

Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Frugalicious Friday

Saturday
Saturday Night Special
Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

BAD SHERI!! BAD!!

Okay, maybe it should be, "Bad embroidery machine!" but it's hard for me to hold an inanimate object responsible.


Why am I bad? Because it has taken me until now to finalize my March give-away for the embroidered name photo blocks. **insert embarrassed smiley here** It seems my embroidery machine decided to go out of service at the most inappropriate time. (Thank you Newton and your laws...)



In any case, I've compiled my list of entries/entrants, and with the help of random.org, the winner of the 3 photo name blocks is.....


*** drumroll please ***

Stacey - Elle Belle / ellebellebaby

Apparently, Stacey knows how to enter a contest! She applied all of the different methods for entering and it obviously paid off! I'll be contacting Stacey right away to get her 3 names and I'll post pictures when they're finished.

Thanks to all of you for entering! Keep checking back! My May give-away will be a set of 5 single name blocks.



Also, if you find you're just not lucky at winning but would like to make a set of blocks for yourself, I'm going to be opening my store shortly and offering the embroidered letters for $1 each, custom lettering. They're a great base that you can use in whatever format you prefer. I'll post when the store is open, but feel free to contact me via email if you'd like something before then.


And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.

I-Spy Activity Placemat

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Work has really gotten in the way of my having fun lately!

I've had this particular project in my head for over a month, but hadn't even had the opportunity to run to the store to get the materials I needed. But finally it's done and here it is and I hope you like it.

This project was inspired by dinner. Dinner out. Dinner out at various places with my young son in tow. Now don't get me wrong, I think that restaurants are doing a good thing with the little child menus/activity books and crayons that you get at many places. But if the wait for food is any too long at all, then they simply aren't adequate. Plus, they can't possibly cover the range of ages of the children they're supposed to entertain. Again, I'm not criticizing the restaurants -- it's their business to serve food, after all. But I have simply noticed a G.W.P. (gap with potential.)

So I've been imagining some options for what to do for my son specifically, but tried to be conscious of what would have worked well for him when he was younger, which might suit someone else with younger ones currently. So here's the list of problems/requirements I came up with:
1 - No telling how clean the table is. Even with a Clorox wipe, I still don't want my son eating anything that touches it. (Really, I'm not OCD, I just know stuff.) So I decided a nice, washable placemat would be a good place to start for the base.
2 - My son can read now but obviously couldn't when he was younger, so the activities need to be progressive. If the placemat isn't versatile, then I would need to keep replacing the placemat. So versatility is important.
3 - It needs to have activities that can be done repeatedly. Once the restaurant menu activities are done, they're done. So it should have reusable, or re-doable things for activities.
4 - Kid friendly. Cheerful, appealing, colorful. Covered with things that draw their attention.

So I played it out in my head and came up with something that I (and my son!) are quite excited about. Follow along and I'll show you the process


First, you'll need a selection of items from the fabric store. Decide what size you would like your finished placemat to be. I went with 15" x 20" (for a placemat, bigger is better for my son.)

You'll need a selection of I-Spy print fabrics. This was actually one of the things that stalled me on this project. I found that while there are very many small-print fabrics available, most all of them are simply repeats of the same thing, like flowers or hearts or dots. I had quite a bit of difficulty finding I-spy type prints. But then I finally lucked out and found a bundle of fat quarters in the quilting section that worked perfect, and supplemented it with a few others that I thought would work.
Because of the difficulty I had finding the prints I wanted, I actually decided on the shape of my placemat based upon the number of prints I found. I had 12 prints, so I made my finished squares 5"x5" (6"x6" cut size with 1/2" seam allowance) and laid them out 3 x 4. I was shooting for a finished size of 15"x20".

The other items you will need are a single piece of any fabric the size of the finished placemat (I-spy is good for this too, if you have it), a piece of felt or fleece the size of the finished placemat, and a package of bias tape in a complimentary color.

You'll also need some clear vinyl. This can be purchased by the yard at a fabric store and comes in about a 54" width. If you purchase it this way, you'll need 3" wider than the short width of your placemat (my placemat is 15"x20", so I purchased a half yard--18".) You'll be cutting the 54" width in half to make two pieces. Also, the vinyl comes in different thicknesses. You'll want to get something that is thick enough to be durable (not thin like shelf paper) but thin enough that it bend/folds rather easily. The label on what I purchased read .010, if I recall, and if that means anything.

Begin by cutting your print fabric into squares. Quilt them together and iron the seams flat.

When you finish with the piecing, you'll have a little mini I-Spy quilt-top. This will display on one side of the placemat.

Next, cut a larger piece of print fabric the same size as your mini quilt. This will display on the other side of the placemat.

Then, cut a piece of felt/fleece the same size as the other two pieces. This will work as padding between the two pieces.

And finally, cut a piece of vinyl the same size as the other pieces. This will be the vinyl protection for one side.

If you happen to have a fabric cutting board, I suggest you just layer them and cut them all at once.

To begin assembly, place the large piece of printed fabric face-down. Next, align the piece of felt/fleece. Next, place the mini I-Spy quilt face-up. And last, place the piece of vinyl, making sure there aren't any unwanted hitchhikers between the vinyl and the fabric, such as threads or hairs. The vinyl tends to get very static-y and will pick up your cat if it sits still long enough. (There is a second piece of vinyl that we'll discuss later, but it's not included yet in this bundle.)

Next, align the bias tape around the outer edge, and secure in place if needed. I am a huge fan of pinning, but it doesn't work so well with the vinyl, so I use these nifty barrette-like clips. If you don't have any, you should. They come in handy and are rather inexpensive. The only downside is that the machine won't sew over them.

Stitch your bias tape in place. Be aware that the vinyl will try to stick to your machine or zipper foot and mess with the traction, so I suggest stitching with the vinyl facing up, and try to keep as much of your zipper foot on the bias tape as possible.

At this point, you should have, from bottom to top -- printed fabric, then felt/fleece, then I-Spy fabric, then vinyl, all enclosed by the bias tape. (LOL! I did such a good job avoiding the glare on the vinyl when taking this picture, that you can't even tell there is vinyl on top of the fish!)

Next, lay flat the remaining piece of vinyl and align the placemat on top, with the I-Spy quilt facing up. Cut the piece of vinyl about 1" larger than the placemat. This 1" excess should be more than enough to cover the bias tape, unless you used a super-wide bias. If so, you'll need to adjust and add more than 1" excess. Trim the corners to an angle.

On one edge, fold the excess vinyl from the back to the front, following the edge of the bias tape. Only do this on one edge.

Finger press the folded vinyl onto the vinyl on the front. The vinyl is sticky -- not sticky like tape, but sticky like plastic wrap that you use for food. If it isn't adhering well, make sure it isn't dusty, or try moistening it lightly. Securing this one edge will help keep the vinyl aligned.

Next, flip the placemat over. Only one edge should be attached, so it will open like a book. Align your activity pages (see below for samples) onto the printed fabric. You can add whatever activities would be appropriate for your child. These don't need to be secured in any way. They should stay in place because of the tackiness of the vinyl.

Now, you'll need to "close the book." Starting from the one secured edge, roll the excess vinyl onto the activity pages, keeping the pages in place, smoothing the vinyl across the fabric and pages as you go.

Turn the placemat over. Fold the rest of the excess vinyl over the bias tape on the unattached three sides and fingerpress in place.

The trimmed corners should make it easy to form a tight seal, but you can trim additionally as needed.

If you need to make any adjustments, or to trade out the activity pages, just peel back the vinyl, make your changes, and press back again. It's that easy! Now you have a personalized placemat with an I-Spy game on one side, and changeable activities on the other.

All you need now are a couple of water-based markers and you have entertainments galore! (Do NOT use DRY ERASE markers -- I learned this the hard way.)

Your little ones can I-Spy by character, color, letter, etc. I bet they will even think of a few games of their own.

And when they're finished, just wipe it down with a damp napkin.

The vinyl is flexible so it can be folded for easy transport.

Now I just need to come up with something creative for holding the markers, though I bet some of you could share some really great ideas. The difficulty lies in keep the edges "un-stitched," so that it could still be adjustable, though it would be perfectly reasonable to permanently secure just one side somehow.

I mentioned above that I had some sample game sheets. Feel free to print and use the ones below, or you can just tear pages out of a coloring book, crossword puzzle book, sudoku book, etc.

I don't know the name of this game, but you take turns connecting dots until you form a square, then claim the square with your initials.

These are geometric shapes for creative drawings.

Of course, Hangman.

And Tic-tac-toe.


This stick person is great for little girls for drawing fashion designs, or for little boys to draw super heroes.

This form works well for word games, like letter scrambles or rhyming.


I'm so glad it's Thursday, because that means we'll probably go out to dinner tomorrow night and I can have my son give it a trial run! I'll let you know how it goes. And please let me know if you make one for your little ones!

Now I just have to clean up my mess. How does this happen? Design is messy! Where are my elves?!


If you like this idea, be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.

ps. I love comments!!

I'll be linking up on the following McLinky parties:



Thursday
Transformation Thursday
Strut Your Stuff Thursday
Thrifty Thursday
Get Your Craft on at Life as Lori

Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Frugalicious Friday
I'm loving it Fridays at Tidy Mom

Sunday
The DIY Showoff

Monday
DIY Day at A Soft Place
Make It For Monday
Metamorphosis Monday
Just Something I Whipped Up
Making the World Cuter
It's So Very Cheri
Blue Monday
Make it Mondays at the Persimmon Perch
Twice Remembered
Made by You at Skip to My Lou

Tuesday
Reinvented
Toot Your Horn Tuesday
Today's Creative Blog

Wednesday
Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home
Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs
Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking