hanging succulent garden

a few weeks ago i decided i was gonna give a wall garden a try. i had been viewing them in hotels, magazines and reading all kinds of diy's on them.

 i have been a lover of succulents for quite sometime and last year i had a whole bunch of them planted in my front and back yard. recently we had another yard overhaul and had a professional service come in and do all kinds of pretty work which included yep! more succulents!

i had planned for this project to take all day and to get all kinds of dirty, surprisingly it only took about 1/2 the day but not surprisingly i did get really really dirty.

here is what you need:

-1"x4" pieces of wood. these will be your box.

-wood screws to ensure your box will be strong enough

-plywood or alder for back of the box

-outdoor varathane that is water resistant

-chicken wire

-cactus soil

-molding. this can be whatever size you'd like and will be the pretty around the box edge.

-lots of succulent pups

1"x4" wood strips

here is what i love about shane.
i told him how i was gonna try to make these boxes and he built the frames for me ahead of time. this may of been because he didnt want to see me with a nail gun in hand.
hmmm.....he's such a bro.

here is the box with the back on. i made a large box and a smaller box. 

they are about 24"x30" and 16"x20". 

i also have another larger frame built which i will work on soon so i have a nice display large enough to fill the side of my garage wall over my fountain.

remember when i said that if you didn't have a hawaiian you should go out and get one? i stand by that.

use regular nails and wood screws as well. if you want to paint your box now is the time to do so and you will coat it with varathane once the paint is dry.

i chose to leave my garden box looking natural. 

after your box is made and the back is attached you will spray it with the varathane. be sure and get all the corners, sides and the back. you will want to do 2-4 coats of this to keep the wood from rotting over time.

because the boxes have to lay flat for 4-10 weeks (or until they take root) we decided to make a few at one time. i did buy some succulents but you can also trim pups off any of your existing succulents and just let them dry for a day or two so the end will callus over. you just want to leave (in the very least) 1/4" stem to bury into the soil.

succulent pups drying out on a plate

be careful for friendly cute yard animals that think you brought them treats.

once your varathane is dry (about 30 min. to 1 hour) you can fill the box with your soil

next you will stretch the chicken wire over the box and staple it on. cut the excess wire off.

add your decorative trim molding.

look how baddass i am with that staple gun!

now is the fun part. 

designing! 

i decided to run a zig zag through the larger of my boxes with the pinkish succulents. you will want to leave some room for the succulents to grow and spread so don't fill every wire opening.

finished large box

finished smaller box.

now is the really hard part.

waiting for them to take root so you can hang up your garden and enjoy.

while they are laying flat you will want to water the boxes every 7-10 days. 

we are going to hang our boxes on the wall with hooks to make it easier to take down and water. after you take them down to water be sure and leave them flat for a few days to firm back up before hanging again.

once my succulent boxes are ready to hang i will update you and post some pictures- i can't wait!

tres tray chic

i love maps. not that i can read them. i use to dream of shane and i being on amazing race (because i love to travel and think it might be a fun gig to win a million dollars) but i can't be the map reader (fo' sho') and wouldn't be the be the best option as the driver. i can't (won't) do the bungee stuff and oh yeah, i can't (really i can't)eat strange foreign "cuisines" sooo basically shane would be running the race all by himself. oh, of course i would be there-like next to him-but i bet i wouldn't even be holding my own backpack. that shane. he's kind of a bro.

*poof* there goes my dream just like that. cruel cruel world....

back to maps. 

i wish i had the home that i could frame maps. old, new, large, small torn-whatever and hang them in my grand master hall. i would make it look fabulous-no doubt. somewhere in a home far far away there is a large open wall in a huge grand master hall waiting for me and my surely magnificant map gallery but until then....

can i truly even call this a craft project? project would probably imply that it takes time and is some sort of planned enterprise with design and layout. this isn't that. lets call this cut and paste 101. its easy and fast and you know what i always say....a trained monkey on pbs can do this. annnnd i believe i just referred to myself as a primate.

1. i picked up this tray for $6 and was drawn to the shape of it-wish it was larger but for 6 bucks its pretty great. 

2. take your map (i picked this one because its literally of my hood) lay it out and trace your shape out.

3. glue the map to the bottom, take a razor to trim any overlapping edges and mod podge the heck outta the top of it. 

check it out! sherman oaks-i can practically see my house! 

i think im gonna take some old trays i have that i dont love and do some more for summer.

5 second hug tee diy

so while i am planning my world tour (bringing the 5 second hug to people near and far) i decided i should probably advertise to let people know why i am charging them with both arms open. ya know, to give them a head start to either run or comply.

awhile back i saw a really cool post about painting bleach on tee shirts with sayings. 

i am a pretty crafty girl but am finding that i have less and less time to craft. but this! this i can do. 

basically my plan is that i will do this in the bathroom. i will lock the door and because i'm using beach i will say i am cleaning. kids know that when you pull out the cleaning supplies stuff's about to get real. they WILL scatter. brilliant! 

here is what you need:

dark tee (if it's too light it doesn't show up, you get bummed, think i suck, it's disappointing all around)

piece of chalk

piece of cardboard

thin brush (bristles should be stiff)

bleach

1. i put my tee on first so i can mark a boxed area (with the chalk) where i would paint. nothing worse than having an "o" or to have to dot an "i" right by your boob so this step is fairly important you see.

2. slip the piece of cardboard between the tee so the bleach doesn't seep through the back- although who knows this could look cool to see the reverse design from the back.

 3. use your chalk to write out what you want to say so you don't mess up when you are using the bleach. 

4. take your brush and dip it in a bowl of the bleach. be sure the bleach isn't dripping off the brush. then draw.

 the heart has already been painted by bleach

5. after it dries you will start to see the words or the design you just made appear. you may need to go back over a few areas. put the tee in the sun for an hour or 2 to help it develop.

 cool secret: if you do this on a heathered tee the 

bleach does the reverse and turns black.

this would be really cute to make for a friend who is gonna have a baby on tiny onesies dontcha think? anyone wanna take one for the team and have a baby so we can get crafty up in here??

i have plans to make more of these fun tee's and this was seriously so easy a trained monkey on CBS could do it. that's my kind of craft!