With Spring upon us, flowers begin their big debut! Mother Nature prepares to dazzle and delight as only she can do. Why not work with her and plant a few seeds indoors? Watching the seeds sprout and grow helps makes Spring come a little sooner--even if it's only indoors!
Let's give Mother Nature a hand and set the stage by dressing up an old container with paint and papers, ribbons, oh and a cute little Garden Fairy!
This little wooden box will be perfect for filling up with seeds in peat pots. A container for housing seeds can be many things. Get creative and use what you have around the house! Maybe it's just an old box that you can recover and dress up. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for a few other alternatives. Let's get started!
First the wooden box was painted (Front Porch by Nell Hill). I have had this little paint sample for a while. Been savoring it, you know how it is. This box was the perfect for breaking open that paint sample. Any paint will do of course. A couple of coats of paint were applied to the wooden box.
Next, vintage wallpaper was added to the sides of the box. The sides of the box were traced on the backside of the wallpaper. The paper was trimmed to be slightly smaller than the actual sides of the box.
The wallpaper was glued on with a glue stick, and every millimeter of the back of the wallpaper was covered to be sure it adhered well. The edges of the old paintbrush (with excess paint still on the brush) was swiped across the edges of the paper now on the box.
After the paper was placed on the sides of the box, a rubber brayer was rolled the paper, to help ensure a "good seal" between the paper and the box.
Next up, let's cover some peat pots. Not because we need to really, their color and texture is already great. But by wrapping them with old papers, they came alive! They are much happier now. A glue stick was used to cover "every millimeter of the back of the paper".
The paper was angled slightly, and then placed over the peat pot. The excess paper was trimmed away.
Six little covered peat pots...waiting for dirt and seeds. They were filled quickly and placed into the wooden box.
Placing the box near an indoor window will help them grow. But perhaps a little Garden Fairy will help, too. Here's an old photo I especially liked. Love how this little girl's hands are cupped together and raising...as if to motion those seeds to rise up and grow! Use any old photo you have, or a current one of your favorite little person.
Right click over the image above, copy and print her off on card stock or photo paper, on your printer's highest quality setting.
Cute she is, but she didn't look "quite" like a Garden Fairy coming out of the printer. So she was silhouetted from the background, glittered leaves were added to her back for wings. Her back was also covered with old wallpaper. A hole was punched above her head so she could hang nicely, and a few strips of old lace gave her a dimensional skirt.
A little round metal rimmed tag was added to the box. Wet glue (Diamond Glaze) was added to the metal rim and the seed identification was written on the tag. The tag was also outlined with a charcoal pencil and smudged with a wet finger.
Velvet ribbon and seam binding were added to the wooden box. Also added was a bit of silver bouillon (One Hundred Wishes On-line Store). When you pull the silver bouillon it stretches and leaves that great ringlet. Love that stuff.
Here are a few other alternatives to try. A paper container filled with pop bottles, wine or beer bottles. Cover the box and insert the little peat pots each pocket of the box. I know I'll be doing this one, too.
An old cupcake baking tin houses those little peat pots really well, too! I'd love to add ribbons through that little hole on the end of the baking tin. The Garden Fairy could be stuck into one of the peat pots with a floral pick (shortened of course), bamboo skewer or toothpick. I know I'll be making this one, too. I have major garden plans this year! I hope you do too, planting the seeds and watching them grow is almost as fun as creating this project!
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This was a fun Springtime project I created for my Paper Bella Studio E-Workshop, Bellatoria, in 2008. Still love it! Hope you enjoy it, too!
