After five weeks of hard work I am finally ready to share my first real “reveal post” of my vintage sink potting bench and our new backyard cottage garden! Sometimes it only takes that one junkin’ find to completely transform your home or garden. That’s exactly what happened when I scored this vintage drainboard sink for $32 at an antiques shop and decided to upcycle it into a beautiful and useful potting bench.
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Gardening is a peaceful and relaxing pastime with many benefits. For some, it is a way to decompress and reconnect with nature. Others garden for the natural beauty that flowers and their aromas can bring to their life. Sometimes people garden to grow fruits and vegetables for their household that they can be sure are clean and organic. *This post contains affiliate and/or sponsored links.
Hello friends and welcome back to my Pin Away Wednesday series! Summer is a great time to create stunning cut flower arrangements and to enjoy the fresh summer blooms from the garden or market. Today I am sharing highlights from my Flower Arrangements, Bouquets, and Gatherings for inspiration. If you are a flower lover, get ready to pin away!
Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying summer and finding some joy in your gardens as these times of trial and suffering we are facing seem to be neverending. For me, creativity is the key to staying positive, and I have been trying to tackle little craft projects that have been on my to-do list for some time using supplies I already have at home.
About eight years ago I purchased this pretty garden stake at Hobby Lobby. This is the only fuzzy picture I have of how the stake looked originally. It had a small Frenchy rose and post card image under resin. Over the years the resin broke and the image completely faded. I continued to use the stake in my garden because I liked the overally style and rusty-chippy look of the stake itself, which had faded from a rusty cream to a rusty white.
I actually forgot to get a before picture (I always seem to forget the before pictures!) but here it is when I was just getting started sponging on some decoupage.
I got the idea to give the stake a makeover when I was cleaning out my craft bin and came across this outdated calendar that I kept for craft purposes.
It was one of my favorite all-time calenders (another amazing Dollar Tree find) with beautiful French vintage images that are perfect for crafting. When I flipped the calendar over and saw the small images on the back, I noticed that they looked about the same size as the missing image spot on the garden stake. With a little Mod Podge (affiliate) I knew I could give the garden stake a new (vintage) look in no time.
I wanted to use this image, but it turned out to be a bit too big. I decided to cut out the butterfly to save for a future decoupage project. Then I just pieced together the pretty flowers as a collage to fit the empty square on the stake.
Using the pieces I had left over after the butterfly was cut out, I played around until I could fill in the entire blank square. I brushed the Mod Podge directly on the stake with a foam brush where the image would be, and also on the back of each cut piece. After I positioned the pieces in place I covered the entire collage with another light coat of Mod Podge.
I love how this quick and easy garden stake makeover turned out! After it dried I took it out to the garden and played around with using it in a few different spots. Here it is stuck down in my big galvanized bucket of herbs. Even though there is a slight visible seam in the collage and the images don’t exactly match up, the stake will always be viewed in the garden from a distance, so the “imperfections” are barely noticeable.
A couple of days ago I used it to stake some tall flowers on a newly planted Yarrow that needed some help straightening up.
For now I am loving it in my colorful superbells petunia basket which is sitting on my new potting bench. This area doesn’t get heavy rain since it is up against the garage and under part of the roof overhang, so I think the image will last for a while. By the way, I will be sharing my new potting bench and progress on our new backyard cottage-garden landscaping over the next several posts, so I do hope you will visit often!
The whole project took less than 10 minutes and didn’t cost me a dime since I had everything in my craft stash. Fast and free…that’s the ticket! Now I am ready to move on to decoupaging some old flower pots. Have you used decoupage for any fast and easy craft projects for spring or summer? I love hearing from you, dear readers!
Thanks for visiting!
Amber
Hello again, my friends! Can you believe how fast May is flying by? Even though the days have been running together since the worldwide shelter in place began back in March, nature hasn’t seemed to notice. I have found a constant sense of joy, peace and solitude this spring by watching nature wake up and grace us with it’s beauty, despite whatever else may be happening in the world. This past week was absolutely gorgeous, so I took a couple of walks around our neighborhood to enjoy late spring in bloom. Today I am sharing some of my favorite spots along our road that I hope you will also enjoy.
Are you as excited as I am about summer approaching and having more time to spend in the garden? If you are like me, you are already making gardening plans, and you might even be thinking about redesigning your garden. Of course I love vintage everything, so I enjoy incorporating vintage cottage garden style to all my garden! Today I am sharing some inspiring ideas for create vintage cottage garden style.
