DIY Network

Make Your Own Yard Toadstools

Crafter Michele Beschen, creator of the B Original series, explains how to make fun yard ornaments.

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These dazzling, easy-to-create toadstools are low maintenance and will make your garden sparkle all year long.

Toadstools fit for a prince

by Michele Beschen

Be original with what you put in your yard or garden this growing season. These dazzling, easy-to-create toadstools are low maintenance and will make your garden sparkle all year long.

I like to plant unexpected surprises throughout my yard and garden every year so that when the growing season is over, and the garden has been painted a bleak gray by the winter, I can still enjoy beautiful bursts of color. One of my favorite garden objects this past year has been the swanky toadstool. I must warn you though, once you create one, you'll find they have a way of popping up all over your yard! Plus, they're a lot of fun to create and they're guaranteed to flourish.

Before you start, you need to gather the following supplies:

terra-cotta saucers (any size will work)
broken bits of stained glass (prepackaged or you can cut your own)
contact adhesive (waterproof) or two-part epoxy
grout
rubber gloves
damp cloth
strands of acrylic beads and glass baubles
wine or other glass bottle comparable in size
play sand
conduit or 1/2" copper pipe (Be sure to get pipe that is completely hollow and that is smaller than the opening of your wine bottle.)
rubber mallet

Steps:

1. Start by placing your saucer--remember, any size will do--upside down. Cover the entire bottom side of your saucer with bits of stained glass. Glue the bits down with a waterproof contact adhesive such as Goop. Let your glue dry.

2. Now comes the grouting. Play around with mixing paint colors with your grout to increase your color choices. I like using a powdered grout mix so I can mix up what I need and prevent any waste. Put a rubber glove on and apply your grout with ease! Cover your entire piece, using a damp cloth to remove excess grout. Let grout set until it begins to dry and then do a final cleanup.

3. Decorate further by adding gemstones, acrylic necklaces, Mardi Gras beads, kids jewelry, etc. Play around with clustering things in the center and draping around the outer edges. Glue down with more contact adhesive. Once your glue has set, you're ready to install.

4. The stem to your toadstool will be a wine or soda bottle. Use whatever size bottle complements the size of your saucer.

5. Fill your bottle all the way to the top with play sand. Take a piece of conduit that is cut to twice the length of whatever size bottle you are using and is of a smaller diameter than your bottle opening. You could also use copper pipe. It just needs to be hollow so that you can push it through the sand and down into the bottle easily. Ours measured two feet long for the size bottle we were using.

6. Dig a slight hole in your yard or garden (go about six to eight inches down or at least half the length of the bottle. You'll want the entire neck of the bottle to be in the ground. Pound your conduit into the hole using a rubber mallet. Measure the bottle against the conduit as you go to gauge how far you need to pound the conduit into the ground.

7. Bring your bottle to the piece of conduit with your thumb placed over the opening so that the sand doesn't spill out. Tip your bottle over, and let it slide over the pipe by slowly releasing your thumb. The sand will slowly slide into the pipe, making room for it to slide easily up into the bottle. You should get a nice, snug fit.

8. Refill your hole with dirt so it's packed in tightly around the neck of your bottle. Replace any mulch or groundcover to ensure that your toadstool blends right in with its environment.

9. Add the saucer to the top by gluing it onto the bottom of the bottle with your waterproof contact adhesive or a two-part epoxy.

Do several of these toadstools and place them at different heights. And there you go ... toadstools fit for a prince!

(Michele Beschen is creator of the B Original series for the DIY Network. Contact her at www.couragetocreate.com, or visit www.diynetwork.com.)

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