Tuesday 9 June 2015

Upcycled play matt garden signs

We like to think about ways to craft and up cycle around here, and when my girls and I were planning our garden it lead me to think about how we were going to mark what we planted. In years past writing what we planted on a Popsicle stick with a sharpie was our go to way to mark the rows, but I found they would get either knocked down or the words would wash away from the rain before what was growing was obvious.  This year I wanted to do something different, something very visible, something that wouldn't wash away and something my kiddos might like to try their hand at. I admit I only posted pics of the project that I did since they were not home when I began it, but they create some fun personalised versions of their own later on and if I get a chance I will totally post images of their garden signs.
Materials:
*foam play mats in any colour
*exacto knife or scissors
*black acrylic paint
*large wooden craft sticks or tongue depressors
*super glue or a hot glue gun
*fine paint brushes
*clear acrylic medium

Directions:
*using your exacto knife or scissors cut your play matt into 5x5 inch squares approximately. Have the adult in the vicinity do this part.
*create a small slit on the bottom edge of the square approx 1/2 an inch deep to insert your wooden craft stick. Add glue to the tip of the stick and insert into the slit to secure it.
* get your black paint ready to create silhouette images of your veggies, google stock images of the veggies you plan to plant in your garden to help the kids copy them.  Write the words on the foam square in pen so the kiddos can paint carefully over with black paint if they don't know how to spell yet.



*Wait for the paint to dry and paint over the signs with clear acrylic medium to seal the paint in so it won't wash off.
*enjoy watching your garden sprout and know what is growing at the same time!