I saw some garden labels made out of old spoons at shrimp salad circus ages ago and just knew I had to have some. So I bought a few bulk lots of old spoons off trade me this included some forks for good measure. Most of these spoons turned out to be silver plated but I didn’t let that stop me. We made some labels for my sister in law birthday last week. This inspired us to make extra labels for ourselves – they look amazing!! I love them and can’t wait to get my new seeds so we can make more labels.

Materials for your garden label spoons:

Earmuffs (we did some of the labels without earmuffs and my ears were ringing so definitely wear them)

Spoons

Hammer

Alphabet punch

Permanent marker

Steel wool

How to:

Place the spoon face down on a flat surface – we used rimu offcuts outside though an anvil would be even better. I don’t recommend hammering on tiles as you might crack them. Using the hammer pound the spoon flat we found that hitting the centre of the spoon first then work your way outwards – this reduces the hammer marks and allows the spoon to stretch without cracking.

Using the alphabet punch hammer your chosen word(s) onto the spoon. I couldn’t really get my labels straight but Mr Ecochick could get the words perfect without even measuring! So he hammered all the letters onto the spoons.

Using the permanent marker completely colour in the stamped word(s). Colour over the letters a few times as you want the marker to go into the letters as deep as possible.

Using steel wool rub off the black marker. This really makes the label stand out.

Now you’re all finished push your label into the soil and admire your handy work.