Turning Your Garden Decor into Art

Gardens may not appeal to us Americans, in the same way that they do to those from the United Kingdom or to people who live in other European cities. Nevertheless, we Americans do know how to tend to our gardens.

Afternoon tea socials don’t play a big part in our social calendars; we prefer to have our gatherings out on our front lawns for that weekly barbecue social and the odd other. This stated, there’s still the fact that we do know how to make our gardens, beautiful. Yes, we certainly know how to create beauty.

Now, for those of us who don’t own gardens which are as big as our houses and aren’t quite as big or large enough to boast about; they remain parts of our houses just the same. It won’t hurt us to add some garden decor here and there now, would it? It sure wouldn’t hurt and there are many enjoyable ways to do that.

For those gardens which begin in front the house and end where the lawn starts, why don’t you start with a special arrangement of thin stones with designs painted on their smooth surfaces? You can paint a whole bunch of things on these stones though this idea is freely given for you to use.

Take a flat stone, it could be white or black, and start painting the end parts of a bumblebee’s stripes. Continue with this pattern until you’ve finished with a set that will look like a bee when the stones are put together. When you’re done, put them in your garden in half circles like a necklace, from right to left.

You can have as many arrangements of bumblebee designed garden decor stones as you like. These painted stones should be used to improve a garden, not a lawn or yard! You’ll need either acrylic or spray paint for this project. You have to apply varnish on top of the stones, when you’re through. This way, they don’t get ruined by rain.

Your stone decor arrangement can be patterned from this design or you can choose one from the seemingly endless list of choices out there. You can choose a pattern of flowers, or marble colored swirls, curvy waves or even polka dots.

Here’s another suggestion. If you’d like your garden decor stones to be extraordinary stand outs, then turn them into conversational pieces. Go to a shop that does photo transfers. Ask their technical staff to transfer prints of your favorite paintings by famous artists, from their computers to your flat stones. Don’t like paintings? You can choose your favorites from your picture albums and have these transferred, or pictures of famous personalities; anything that you’d like just as long as it follows a theme of your choice. You can even go without a specific theme.

While ordering photo transfers for your garden decor stone aren’t that expensive, they’re not cheap, either. If you’re willing to part with the extra cash for decorations that are really eye-catching, then go ahead. Spend, spend, spend, and keep your neighbors talking about your trendy garden.

Ready to upgrade your garden decorations, remember that there are lots of choices when it comes tometal yard art.

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October 24 2009 | Gardening | No Comments »

Suspended paper lanterns

Places where happy events are staged very often are illuminated with Hanging Paper lanterns. Although used as temporary decorations, these decorative lanterns are also used for permanent illumination in buildings and gardens. Hanging paper lanterns are available either fully assembled or ready to put together.

The paper lantern assembly procedure is not tiresome work. A decorative paper lantern that needs assembly can be put together in 20 minutes.

Also, an expanding metal tool is supplied with hanging paper lanterns. The cord used to nag the lantern must be purchased separately. Generally, the length of a cord is about 10 to 15 feet and if you need more than that, an extension cord is the solution.

Even though assembly is not difficult, be careful not to contact the sides of the lantern with the expander tool when widening the lamp. Additionally, collapsible wires are used to make the body of these lamps. This helps packaging and mailing lanterns so they can be kept flattened easily. To obtain the original shape of the lantern, the metal expander is needed.

After you reshape the lantern, you will need the cord to hang it. Place the cord along the wall to the top and hook the cord to the ceiling. Select a tape that will stick the cord well. The cord can be fixed with hooks which are stronger than any tape. Install the light next. As electric fixtures may cause fires, keep enough space between each side of the lanterns when positioning the bulb. It is more suitable to use CFL bulbs rather than other types because these bulbs heat up less.

CFL bulbs are much better than incandescent lights for paper lanterns as the former heats less. Always keep the wattage low as it minimizes the probability of fires. After attaching, switch on the light to see if it works properly. Occasionally, it may not work due to erroneous installation. Check the installation for proper usage.

Cody Scholberg, a lighting expert, writes about hanging paper lanterns. Check out this post on using asian paper lanterns to repel mosquitoes!

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October 16 2009 | Gardening | No Comments »

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