I can barely wait to get my hands in our garden and start planting some flowers and vegetables! Some of the first plants to go in will be these herbs I picked up at our local nursery. I’ve always wanted to make my own little plant labels, something simple and cute that I could reuse year after year and maybe pass on to my girls down the road. I saw these really cute DIY stamped clay garden markers and wanted to try making something similar, but with a touch of colour.

Materials needed for these DIY stamped clay plant labels:

• Easy Sculpt Self-hardening Epoxy Modeling Clay
• Castin’ Craft Universal Transparent Dyes (blue, green, red)
• A release agent such as vegetable oil, olive oil or Castin’ Craft Mold Release and Conditioner
• Gloves, wooden craft sticks, paper towels
• Alphabet rubber stamp set

 

Forming the plant labels with Easy Sculpt clay:

Follow these steps to make one plant label at a time as it is easier to get the components to completely blend together in smaller amounts. Be sure to read the instructions provided in the packaging prior to starting. Also, protect your working surface with a sheet of wax paper.

1. Use two wood sticks to take equal amounts of components “A” and “B” from the containers (be careful not to cross mix the materials in the containers).

3. Spread some of the release agent on your gloves to keep the keep the clay from sticking. Form the clay into balls of approximately equal size by eye, a little larger across than a quarter coin.

4. Press together and completely blend the two balls until they are a uniform colour with no ribbons or marbling (about 1-2 minutes). Press out any little clumps to make sure the components are completely combined.

5. If desired, add three drops of the Transparent Dye in a colour of your choice. Blend the Dye into the clay completely or just partially to achieve a marbled finish in the end.

6. The clay will start to get softer and stickier at this point (great to use as an adhesive in this state!). Form the clay roughly into a 6″ long cylinder. Repeat this process to make as many herb garden markers as you’d like. Let the Easy Sculpt clay cure for at least 2 hours before proceeding to the next step.

Imprinting the DIY plant labels:

After about two hours check on the hardness of the clay. The pieces should still be malleable but not too soft. The Easy Sculpt clay will reach a soft but firm cure within 5 hours of mixing, so you have a good amount of time to reform and shape the clay to make the DIY plant labels.

7. Use a flat surface such as the wood craft stick to flatten the clay cylinders to about 1/4″ thickness.

8. Snip a bit of clay off of the top for a more rectangular shape and then cut an angle off the bottom to create a point.

9. Use alphabet rubber stamps and gently press the names of your herbs onto each plant marker.

10. Finally, if you’d like, you can also press a sprig of the herb onto the plant label to make a subtle impression.

The nice thing about the slow cure time for the Easy Sculpt Modeling Clay is that if you make a mistake, or don’t like how something looks, you can smoosh it back up into a ball and start all over!

Once happy with how your DIY plant labels look, let it cure overnight (fully cured in 24 hours).

I’m so pleased to have these new little decorations for my herb garden. I love the slightly marbled effect of the Transparent Dye and then they’ll add a subtle touch of colour to my otherwise all-green herb garden. I think I’ll make a set to give my mom as a gift for Mother’s Day as well!

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