DIY Garden Stakes

My son’s school has it’s last (hopefully) fundraiser tonight and it is a fun one. They are doing a basket bingo event where each classroom is responsible for creating a defferent themed basket. Then as people win BINGO they are able to go choose a basket for their prize. Each classroom teacher got to pick their theme and my son’s class theme was “garden”. I was a little stumped at first, but then realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to make something bright and colorful to add a little bit of spring to this loooong winter. I still had a HUGE stack of paint stir sticks left over from all the painting projects I have been doing (and maybe some I was hoarding) so I decided to use those to create some easy garden markers.

I started off by painting my stir sticks with 5 different colors, two stick in each color, for a total of ten markers. I used the same paint for this project as I did for my stenciled kitchen supplies. This paint was so amazing because it levels itself out and really combats those pesky brush strokes. I painted two coats on each stick and while I was waiting for that to dry I worked on how to personalize each stake. Originally I was going to use my trusty paint pen to write the name of each plant along the stake, but then I stumbled upon these printable labels and I decided that there was no need to reinvent the wheel! I simply printed them out, and cut them apart. I chose ten that I knew would grow around here and then mod podged them onto the stir sticks.

Once it was all dry I took them outside and gave them a good coat of a clear coat to help protect them from the elements. After that was all dry I decided to make them a little more stake like and cut the bottoms into a point. I did this by cutting them at a 45* angle across the bottom and then flipping them over and cutting another 45* angle that bisected the first. I hope that made sense!  I then tied them all together with a piece of jute and attached one of my new business cards! All done and ready to go in the basket.