I saw some blown glass flowers that were about 18" tall at a resale. Those could be used in pots of herbs because they are fragile. A sharpie can write on glass, right???

Dollar store fly swats out in the garden would be different and funny.

Saucers glued or screwed to stakes. Does that wet and slide film that prints clear labels on the computer stand up to weather? A short poem could be written using the name of the flower or veggie.

Pier One Imports sells wooden spoons, forks, and knives. They could be written on and polyed and glued to a stick. This would be in the kitchen garden. I bought a pack of these to make fringe to go on a kitchen valance.

Realistic Artificial veggies could be put on skewers to mark rows of simple veggies.

I have a bunch of tiny picture frames that I could frame the seed package and seal it air tight with silicone II and then glue to a stake. Would be really cool in a house plant or porch potted plant. You could make frames with plexi-glass pretty easy. I like them trimmed in copper edging.

Converted place card holders

Spring typed clothes pins- Sharpie and then polyed.

Seed packets in "SEAL-A-MEAL" air tight bags or laminated

Stair spindles.

paint stir sticks or old rulers

Bamboo poles for water garden plants

Shells on a stake

99 cent store garden hand shovels on a stake.

99 cent store garden gloves written/painted on and then shellacked (sp?) and slipped over a stick

old shutter slats

I'll probably come up with some more after I push "submit".
susie

Good heavens, Susie, is your brain on overload yet? I can't believe all the ideas you came up with. WOW.
I really like the tiny picture frame idea!

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I love thee idea of painting plant names on plates. I've got some to use as house numberes, and I'm always seeing ones that I love but thinking what would I do with them! I can't paint like our Toomuch, but I can cut stencils! 'course theres my current method of not marking and thinking I'll remember, lol.
So many wonderful ideas Susie!
kathy
kathy

If you have a young child or grandchildren they make some plastic ware silverware in the shapes of zoo animals. They could be used to mark the child's favorite plants (or "their" plants." They're pretty cute too. Mark them with paint pens because they won't hold a marker ink.

Wow these are some great ideas! I'm determined to add to this list so I will think long and hard today!

Actually, I've got a whole bunch of metal baby spoons with the spoon part being kind of rubberized. Those would look cute, cuz they are all different pastel colors.

Here it is:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/junk/msg072028527884.html

dcarch

YES! I loved those!

I do not know why this pic is sooooooo big. I'll delete it later after you see this idea. These are made of ceramic and glass. I want to make them air tight with the names of various flowers inside or on the glass. Installed on a stake. How would you do this??? Susie
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Glue the glass to the frame with ge silicone 11 or Mac Glue. Urethan the backs, is what I would think. I have some cute frames too. Good idea.
kathy

Suzie - maybe you can get a piece of plexi, cut it to the shape of the glass from the frame, and sandwich the flower pic between the plexi and glass sliconing the two together. I'm stealing the idea from a mosaic piece that Nicethyme did - one of the BEST mosaics I've ever seen. Her creative genius blows me away. Her finished work is toward the end of the thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nicethyme's Old Beater

I made some this year out of 10 wooden spatulas that I found at the thrift store for $1. First I painted then with translucent colors. Then I wrote the name of a plant on each one with a woodburning tool. I made some with wooden spoons too, but I liked the ones on the spatulas better. Cheryl

seamommy:

Do you have pics of those? They sound fantastic!

I'm lovin the picture frame idea. Maybe I'll do that for the garden this year so we can keep track of what variety we planted this time.

I Found a way for us to get ceramic saucers, glass picture frames, stones and wooden spoon plant markers labled and waterproofed. Use waterslide decals made for the computer printer. Then use oil based vanish to coat it. I haven't tried it yet but this is my plan. I could even make copies of the seed packets and apply them to the saucers. Let me know if you have already tried this and your results. Susie

This works well on wood. Prime and paint the wood, then 'gouge' the picture or word into the wood with a dremel tool and smear contrasting paint into the valleys. Go back and lightly brush the original color on the flat parts, to cover any damage on the edges from the tool. Hope that makes sense. I use only exterior latex primer and paints on wood, so no sealer is required. The wood could be put in one of those cute photo frames. Linda

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Cute chair Linda. good idea!

Printing for outdoor use: I believe that all ink jet printer ink fades over time. that is my only concern about anything printed being used outside. It would be better to use a laser printer if you have one or bring a flash drive with your work and decal paper to a copy shop and have them print it with a laser printer. (Or print what you want on a piece of paper and copy it onto the decal paper.) I've never used decals, but I know that ink jet color fades pretty quickly outside from experience.
kathy