22 July 2010

Air plants

We have a wee air plant garden in our living room now!


With a big nudge from this air plant chandelier DIY project, I ordered an assortment of Tillandsia from Air Plants 4 U. So pleased with this shop and my new plants! I ordered 12, received a bonus 13th, plus a tiny little one that snuck in unnoticed, tangled up in another plant.

I keep the little plant on the windowsill in the bathroom, masquerading as the hair of kokeshi doll who is the size of my fingernail.


The plants came with paper tags, carefully hand-labeled with the species. After a few weeks the paper started to wear out, plus I was never a fan of the way the large white labels stood out against the greenery, so I decided to make my own small, sturdy, clear plastic tags.

First I ate some leftovers... then I washed the #6 plastic container the leftovers came in. Then I cut out some labels from the flat parts of the container, about 3 times as large as I wanted the finished products to be, punched holes with a regular hole-puncher, and wrote the plant names on with a Sharpie.


Then, I applied some MAGIC, aka 350 degrees in the oven for less than 2 minutes, on a foil-lined cookie sheet. At first nothing happened, then suddenly the tags started to curl up and look terrible and made me briefly question the choices I had made in life. Moments later, they shrank down and flattened out, and I was left with these cute little tags!


It's true - #6 plastic is Shrinky Dink plastic. Use this knowledge wisely.


The tags turned out so adorably that I had to spend a few minutes just cooing at them before I could move on. I finished up by cutting all the old paper tags off, and reused the string to tie the new plastic tags on. Ta da!

1 comment:

Ann Flowers said...

Beautiful.... the pictures and words were a joy to see and read... :O)