Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
We’ve been planting our own garden and harvesting the fruits of our labor for the past 15+ years. We enjoy planting our own tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, peas, corn, cauliflower, watermelon, cantaloupe, onions, red beets, potatoes, green beans, and a few other things. * This …
One of the first things visitors see when they come to your home is your front yard (or backyard), depending on where they park. I’m the type of person who enjoys gardening and setting up pretty little areas around our yard. First impressions and curb …
Every year I look forward to spring and the start of the gardening season. First to bloom are my mini daffodils, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, bleeding hearts and then my bearded iris will start blooming. From mid March through the end of May that’s what you’ll see in my flower beds and the order that they bloom.
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This year my bearded iris’s bloomed about 12 days later than what they usually bloom and I contribute that to our crappy winter weather that went on late in the season. Once we finally warmed up and had a good stretch of sunshine I saw them spring into action – pun intended.
Currently I have 4 different colors of bearded iris’s – Dark Purple, Blue-Purple, Peach, and Yellow. This coming fall we’re going to add some new colors to two of my flower beds. They grow really well here in the northeast with little to no care. I really wish that they would bloom a little bit longer!
Once they’re done blooming I’m trim them down and put in some colorful petunias, gardenias, impatients, marigolds, firecrackers and a few other things. I like color and a lot of it!!! Thankfully, a lot of our home and garden centers are already running big sales on their outdoor flowers which helps to save me money.
Today I wanted to show you just a few photographs of my bearded iris. Do you have any planted in your garden? What’s your favorite springtime flower? Do you have a brown or green thumb?
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Over the past few years I’ve shared with you my love for flower gardening. I’m by no means an expert and don’t pretend to be one. I’ve been enjoying gardening for the past 6 years and my love for it continues to grow. Every season …
A few months ago when we were down at the beach house I collected some bay scallop seashells off of the beach. The bay scallops along the Jersey Shore are typically black to dark gray in color. They are great shells to use in a …
Over the years I’ve collected thousands of different seashells while walking the beach. A lot of my craft projects utilize clam shells and conch shells. With that said, I had an entire box of Razor Clam Shells and needed to find a way to use them. Well, I have and I look forward to sharing my new project with all of you.
If you enjoy painting on seashells or crafting with seashells…you’ll find over 70+ seashell craft projects right here on the Two Classy Chics blog! We will be sharing more seashell craft projects in the future too!
These Razor Clam Shells can be used as garden plant markers or indoor houseplant markers. You can leave them in their natural unpainted form and just use a Sharpie Marker to write the name of your plant on the front of the seashell. If you like color, you can hand-paint them and do the same thing!
Unfamiliar with what a Razor Clam Shell looks like? They’re long, skinny white seashells as shown in my photograph above. After collecting them you’ll want to wash them and remove all of the sand and debris. I like to use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean up my seashells and then let them thoroughly dry.
I opted to paint mine with acrylic craft paints. I had to use 2-3 coats of paint and I only painted the one side as I wanted the other side to look natural…just like a seashell. I left them dry for 2-3 hours or until the paint was no longer tacky. You can then use Sharpie Markers to write on the plant’s name or use acrylic craft paint and a paint brush. If using Sharpie Markers, let dry for 30 minutes. If you’re painting on the name you’ll want to allow it to dry for 1-2 hours.
To protect the painted finish you’ll want to take them outside and lay them down onto newspaper or an old plastic placemat. You’ll want to spray the painted surface with 2 coats of clear acrylic sealer, allow each coat to dry for 30 minutes before spraying on an additional coat. Let them dry for 6-8 hours or overnight. You can now use them out in your garden, flower beds or place them in some of your indoor houseplants.
If you’re a stickler about paint and putting them in your veggie garden, you can indeed buy non-toxic, food-safe paint and use those paints to decorate your Razor Clam Shells. The ones that I had used on some of mine took an extra-long time to dry. If you don’t want to use paint at all, leave them in their natural form and just use a Sharpie Marker to write on the name of your plant.
Super-easy and a great way to use up some of those seashells that you find laying around on the beach!
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Every year we plant a garden in our backyard and every year, it gets bigger than the year before. This past summer we had a really great crop of bell peppers, so I wanted to save some of our pepper seeds to plant next year. …
Every year we plant a backyard garden and I’m always looking for ways to label and mark my plants. We typically start our seedlings in late March and try to plant them about 6-7 weeks later. While out on a nature walk a few weeks …