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Cookie Cutter Garden Stakes


Gold Post Medal for All Time! 858 Posts

Garden art can be beautiful and functional at the same time. Here is an easy and inexpensive project that allows you to add a personalized touch to your garden and potted plants. With supervision, this project is an easy one for kids, and best of all, no "crafty" skills are required. Garden stakes in ceramic jar.

 

Materials

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  • bakeable clay (available at craft stores)
  • assorted cookie cutters
  • wooden dowels or wire hangers (to act as stakes)
  • wood glue
  • clear polyurethane sealant (if using the stakes outdoors)
  • newspaper
  • rolling pin (cover it with wax paper to prevent staining)
  • cookie sheet

Optional Items

  • embellishments of your choice (leaves, pinecones, shells, rubber stamps, etc.)
  • pencil or screwdriver for carving
  • stain, acrylic paint, or permanent markers

Materials for cookie cutter garden stakes.

 

Instructions

  1. Assemble your materials. Using unfinished wood, cardboard, or several layers of newspaper as a work surface, shape a handful of clay into a patty and using your rolling pin, roll it out like cookie dough until it's approximately 1/2 inch thick. Roll out only enough clay to cut out one or two cookies at a time. Keep the rest in a tightly sealed bag until you need it.
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  3. Before cutting out your clay cookies, compare the thickness of your dough to the thickness of the dowel you will be using. The dough should be thick enough so that when you go to insert the dowel into the middle of the clay, it doesn't break through. For example, I used 1/4 inch wooden dowels and rolled out my dough 1/2 inch thick. Adjust the thickness if necessary, then cut out assorted shapes using your cookie cutters.
  4. Cutting out garden stakes.
     

  5. After you cut out your clay cookies, make a hole in the bottom for your dowel. Make sure the hole is deep enough so that after baking, your dowel can be reinserted far enough into the cookie to support its weight. I made my dowel holes 1-1 1/2 inches deep.
  6. Using dowel to make hole in clay.
     

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  7. Once you have all of your cookies cut out, it's time to carve or imprint designs into them (painting is done AFTER baking). It's a good idea to leave the dowels in the cookies at this point to prevent the holes from getting flattened. To decorate my cookies, I used a piece of a pine bough to make the fur on my squirrel. With some fancy scrapbook fasteners, I imprinted patterns on the wings of my butterflies and added copper florist wire for antennae. I used rubber stamps to imprint the word "grow" onto my fish. Remember, there are no rules, so just have fun with it!
    Warning: Do not embed any embellishments into the clay, they will catch fire in the oven! Also, the copper antennae on my butterfly did fine, but be forewarned that some metal finishes turn color when heated.
  8. Decorating shapes.
     

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  9. Remove the dowels from your cookies and place them on a cookie sheet. At this point, follow the drying instructions that came with your clay. To prevent cracking, my clay needed to be completely dry before baking. Drying times vary. Mine took 48 hours at room temperature.
  10. After drying your cookies, bake them according to the directions that came with your clay. My clay baked at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. After baking, your cookies can be painted with acrylic, enamel, tempera, or watercolors, or they can be stained or antiqued with the same products recommended for wood.
  11. After the cookies cool down from baking, drop a few drops of wood glue into the dowel holes and insert the dowels. Let the glue dry for a few minutes before moving on to the next step.
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  13. Finally, if you're planning to use your plant stakes outdoors, apply several layers of a clear polyurethane sealant to them to protect them from moisture damage. Follow directions according to the label. You can find clear polyurethane at craft stores of wherever paints are sold.

Helpful Hints

Decorated stakes.

 
Clay: I used Ovencraft Clay by Laguna that I bought at Michael's Craft Store. A 4 lb box (now that's a LOT of plant stakes!) cost $9.99 + tax (no coupon). Michael's carries other bakeable clays, and although some were cheaper, I happened to like the color of this one. If the idea of baking clay doesn't inspire you, clay that hardens by air drying may work for this project, too (I haven't tried it). Many stores that carry craft supplies carry some type of bakeable clay.

Baking: There may be a small amount of smoke and an intense odor as the clay bakes, so run the hood on your stove and crack the kitchen windows. Projects should ALWAYS be baked by adults.

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Drying: How long it takes varies according to the thickness of your clay. Place your cookies on several layers of newspaper or on an oven rack to speed up drying.

Inserting the dowels: If dowel holes shrink slightly during the drying or baking process, widen them slightly using a screwdriver or sharp knife. Closeup of garden stakes.

 

About The Author: Ellen Brown is an environmental writer and photographer and the owner of Sustainable Media, an environmental media company that specializes in helping businesses and organizations promote eco-friendly products and services.

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Silver Post Medal for All Time! 364 Posts
May 30, 20080 found this helpful

Just make sure they are visible at night!!! Don't want to get poked in the eye!

 
May 31, 20080 found this helpful

These are adorable and have given me other ideas for things to make, Thanks so much for sharing,

lisingreece

 
By cece (Guest Post)
June 1, 20080 found this helpful

What a clever idea! Thank you so much. I'm going to try it out this week.

 
By marilyn front royal VA (Guest Post)
June 19, 20080 found this helpful

Please do not use your rolling pin for food once you have used it for clay! The same goes for the cookie cutters. You can scrub and scrub, but you will never get things food-safe after they have touched clay of any kind.blind_quilter AT yahoo.com

 
May 4, 20120 found this helpful

Ellen,

I really love this project. Cookie cutters are a great passion of mine and I collect and craft with them.

I have recently started a craft blog and I am doing a series on crafting with cookie cutters. I definitely will be linking this post in my wrap-up post for the series. In the wrap-up I am sharing links I have found on the web featuring uses of cookie cutters other than for baking cookies with my readers!

This would be really cute to do with cinnamon dough! The dried color is about the same, plus they smell wonderful and you can re-charge them with refresher oil. Of course you couldnt use them outdoors except for a short time, but wouldnt they be so cute (and smell great!) stuck in pots (either in Styrofoam covered with moss or one stake stuck in the drain hole of an upside-down clay pot) as centerpieces for a garden party?

Thanks so much for posting this. I have enjoyed it greatly and do plan on making some of these.

 

Gold Post Medal for All Time! 969 Posts
May 29, 20120 found this helpful

Equal parts cinnamon and applesauce also make great scented ones, like the post idea from buggal1989. I have made these and they are so much fun especially with the kids. The whole house smells wonderful and they last a long time as long as they are dry.
This is a good link...try it!
allrecipes.com/.../

 

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