kristenlizlourie

The other day I was thinking about my garden, and I was thinking how much I love when gardens are full of bright blooms and are really colourful. The problem is that it’s impossible to have your garden always being pretty and bright because, well, everything blooms at different times, and if one thing in your garden is in bloom it probably won’t last for long and it possibly won’t be at the same time as something else. That is, of course, unless you’re extremely clever and dedicated, which I’m not. I love my garden, but I pretty much half-ass it. But I also want it to be pretty all the time, because a pretty house is a happy house.

The next part of this thought process is, well, what can I do to dress up my garden. The colour of our door and the big pot we have at the front are orange, so I’m sort of going with an orange theme. But at the same time I have a couple of bright blue lanterns (they were candle lanterns until I ripped the tops off of some solar lights and hung the tops with some wire on the inside, now they’re solar lantern – BAM) anyways with that in mind I started to think. I can’t build things out of wood because I don’t know how. I can’t build anything out of glass, and the idea of spray painting old garden ornaments is in the plans, but I have to find something cool to spray paint first.

What I CAN easily make something out of is FIMO! It’s so easy! I made some plant markers a couple of years ago so I know that they can survive outside, even throughout the winter. The DIY Fimo garden ornaments are inspired by fuchsia which is one of my favourite flowers because they’re so bright and extravagant.

Photo credit here.

Step 1. Supplies

Buy Fimo or other brand of oven-bake sculpting clay, I used three different kinds to get the colours I wanted and they all worked the same. I bought a bright blue to match my makeshift lanterns, a lighter blue to coordinate with it (and not clash with the orange pot) and a really bright tomato red to stand out against the blue. The total cost was about $24 because the clay was not on sale. I also used scissors, wax paper, small bowels, wooden balls, and twine.

Step 2. Smush the clay

into balls and then flatten them until they’re about 1/4″ thick. The amount of clay will dictate the size of the “flower”. Using a butter knife trace the shape of the flower into the clay. Cut away the excess.

Step 3. Smooth the edges

After the clay is cut the edges are going to be all crummy looking and sharp, smooth them out with your fingers.

4. Poke holes into the flowers

I used a straw!

5. Put clay onto bowls

And mold them onto the bowls. Smooth out any indents you’ve made in the process. This will keep the clay from flattening when you bake them. Make sure the bowls are okay to go in the oven.

6. Roll out some balls for the end of the “flower”

Roll ‘em, poke holes through ‘em. I used a BBQ skewer to poke the holes. I made 3 for each flower in 3 different sizes.

7. Bake

Put all your clay onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet and bake according to the package instructions. PS this stuff really smells when it bakes, make sure not to do this before a meal.

8. String them

Once the clay has cooled after baking it you can start to string the flowers. I used a hemp-like twine. I have shepard hooks out front I intended on hanging them on, so I made a simple loop to hook them on with.

9. add the wooden balls and tie a knot

So that the layers of the flowers don’t move.

10. Done!

Once you’ve added a ball for each layer you can string the last three balls at the bottom and tie a knot. It’ll look something like this when you’re done:

Ta-daa! A handmade colourful piece of flora for your garden that never goes out of season! Heres a photo of it hanging in my front garden:

Tags: clay, crafts, DIY, DIY garden, DIY ornaments, fimo, flowers, fuchsia, garden ornaments, jazzy garden fun, manitoba, over bake, Winnipeg