This year I am about to find out if I have a green thumb, or not.


Fast forward to last Friday.  I went to check on my veggie garden that I have left alone for a little over two weeks.  I did not have to water the plants because of the consistent rain.  I was SO ecstatic to find an abundance of green roma tomatoes, ichiban eggplants (I was only able to harvest one so far), and growing jalapenos.  It looks like I DO have a green thumb after all.  In addition, the fruits of my labor are showcased with my nifty plant labels.

How it all started:

My apartment complex in Charlotte provides its residents the opportunity to have our own personal garden lots within its large community garden. I was assigned garden lot 9… Lucky #9. In April, the complex held its “bi-annual gardening get-together.” I was excited because as a first time gardener I was able to learn the basics of gardening and also have the opportunity to work on my garden alongside old friends and make new friends in the complex.

I was itching to spruce up my garden with some eye catching plant labels. I looked  online to get some inspiration. I went shopping one day with Olivia at Michael’s and found what I needed! I found these miniature wooden plaques, elegant  in their design. And right then, it clicked, and I was full of ideas. This is what I came up with:

Materials needed:
– hot glue gun
– bamboo chopsticks
– acrylic black paint
– white paint pen
– pencil for sketching
– clear protect sealant

I first used a pencil to sketch a border, 1/4″ from the edge of the shape. So now I have the same shape, smaller inside the plate, so I am able to paint the inside shape. Basically, by doing so, I am giving an illusion of a chalkboard. After painting seven of the plates, I allowed the paint to dry.

The next step, I used a black sharpie to make sure the words that I wrote out would be centered. The good thing was that if I made a mistake, which I had on FOUR of these, I could always paint over and write on the next plate name.

Once it was to my liking, I used the white chalk pen to write over the black letters. When the ink dried, I was able to attach the one stick of the chopsticks and adhered it to the back of the plate (with a hot glue gun), like so:

And, voila!

Okay, I have a confession to make… I did not use black paint. I did not feel the need to go and spend extra money to buy it. Instead, I mixed together blue, green, and red to make a dark color. It came out dark green, but then after I have sprayed each of the plant stake plates with a clear protectant coating, it became black… strange, I know.

Was there anything that I could have done differently?
I enjoyed this crafty project. I would have wanted my plate in copper metal, with an etching tool to make the letters. I’m not sure how the cost would change if I had done copper metal.  In any event, I took the easy route and it saved me some money. I spent less than $5 for 8 plates.

Here are other crafty projects I have created:

Envelope Pillows
Toilet Paper Rolls Wall Art
Pretty Carnation Lei

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