Make homemade paper. Add flower petals, etc. You can place the mixture inside a metal cookie cutter to form a shape- say a flower. Then before squeezing out the excess water, with a sponge, add a few flower seeds. Then it is a pretty "seed planting" gift for someone. Just plant and water! I hope you can "see" what I mean. taterbug

Trellis made out of the boards. I always need trellis! PJ

With the left over pickets you could make little garden signs. You know like vegie patch, or in my case, weed garden, with one end sawed to a point to show the way.

Or even drill a hole on each end and attach chain or something so they could be hung. Welcome, Happy Easter, Merry Christmas, etc. along with a stencil would be cute.

Garden markers - The kind you hang up and they point to "Herb Garden" or some other feature. Or just a Welcome to the Garden sign. Use thick wire to form a rustic handle (like hangers are made of)

Signs are a wonderful idea.. Easy and everyone loves signs..
Save room for Fairies to dance ( or Angels)~ Free Weeds You pick'em ~He/She who plants a garden works hand in hand with God ~ A world without friends would be like a garden without flowers~I fought the lawn and the lawn won ~Flowers are the stars of the earth~SSHHH! Bulbs sleeping ~The shortest path to heaven is through the garden gate ~ Compost happens!! Keep it in the garden.....LOL and a million more!
Chena

Ooh, Chena, I love your phrases!!! I'm cutting and pasting them in to -my docs- in case I ever get the chance to do up some signs. I loooove I fought the lawn and the lawn one!!!! How'd you know about my lawn? lol

Those are great signs to make. I like the idea of making things and the easier it is the better.
What goes on in the garden stays in the garden.
Butterflies are Free
Caution: Hummingbird's at work

Those are new I love those!!! Thanks

Just a few more!!

Whoever plants a garden plants happiness..
All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today..
Children are God's flower buds.... waiting to open
Flowers of true friendship never fade
Bloom where you are planted
Plant kindness gather love
GROW Damnit..(sorry)
Garden of Weedin...
I'm in the Garden.. DO IT Yourself!!
That last one works for me!!!LOL

I love the idea for the garden signs. I'm going to save these phrases as suggestions. These are wonderful!

I also thought of painting terra cotta pots with acrylics. They dry pretty fast and we could spray a sealer on them the same night to seal them.

Last summer our garden club made mosaic stepping stones, windchimes made from old silverware and a "pot man" using terra cotta pots - although ours turned out looking more like "pot ladies". I found the directions in one of my Neil Sperry magazines written by Mary Wilhite of Blue Moon Nursery in Chandler. My pot lady is sitting on my garden bench in front.

I like the idea of the garden signs and all the quotes are so cute!

Here's my favorite garden phrase....

Roses are red
Violets are blue
But they don't get around
like the Dandelions do!

I've seen chairs and benches made with old fence pickets as the chair-back. You might be able to find a plan online. You'd need the fence posts too. Neat way to recycle a fence.

gotonenerveleft, that is a good one I love it.
You must have seen my front yard LOL they popped up like magic today.
OH, I got a good one

No peeking, Naked ladies ahead .......hehehehe

LOL!!! I just planted some naked ladies.....Now I am cuttin and pastein.. I love the Dandylion one too.. but ya'll need to keep them to yourselves..LOL
Chena

The Dandylions.. I mean!!!LOL...Keep those sayings coming..
Chena..

You can use some of those fence boards to make planting boxes. Much simpler than birdhouses, and still fun.

Or, you could use an old chair to make a planter. DH and I did this one this morning to give to the Eagles Lodge for a fund raiser. It took us about an hour, including planting.

Have fun.

Janie

My favorite use for old cedar fence material is to make planter troughs that look like an old horse-watering trough. Might take more than an hour, unless some prep was done. You need some nice wide boards (besides the fence material) that are bout one inch thick and cut as trapezoids for the ends of the planter--I make mine three boards wide for the sides and two boards wide at the narrow bottom. So, with the two end pieces cut, you decide how long it should be and screw or nail up the boards to the sides of the end pieces. Confused yet? If it were square, you'd have two squares at the ends and boards nailed on three sides to make a window box shape. . .but here the trapezoid makes the top wider than the bottom. You can also fasten the boards so they overlap the bottom a bit making rails that can fit over deck railings and such. Finally, if you want good drainage, you can arranage to have the bottom of the end pieces just a bit wider than the bottom boards. Sorry I don't have a picture handy, but I've gotten a lot of compliments on them, and it's cheaper than buying large planters. Good luck! (The link will show you the shape.)

Here is a link that might be useful: trough shape

Leaf prints. People love them. Perfect time of year. Buy cardstock, cut in half from 11 x 8 1/2 to 11 x 4 1/4. Double each sheet over and crease. That gives you a card 5 1/2 by 4 1/4; fits a standard greeting card envelope that you can buy by the 50's or 100's at an office supply.
To make the prints, applying ink or paint with a brayer is nice, but you don't have to buy one if you don't have one. Buy the small RAISED inkpads at a hobbycraft store like Michael's. Dye ink dries faster but pigment ink is lightproof. Choose your leaves, and ideally put them in telephone books under weights for a few hours to flatten them, but you CAN skip this step. Next, put a leaf on scrap paper back side up (so the veins are up and will take the ink). Pat the ink on the leaf. Use complementary colors, or one color. Some people prefer just black. After the ink is applied amply, take tweezers or the petiole of the leaf and place it inked side down on a prefolded card front. DON'T LET IT SHIFT AROUND. Put wax paper or Saran Wrap on top (so you can see through it) and press the leaf to transer the ink. Do not let the leaf move. A clean brayer is good for this if you have one. Be sure you have pressed all areas of the leaf. CAREFULLY remove the cover paper, and lift the leaf off STRAIGHT UP. With a little practice, you can make beautiful prints. A "shadow" print can be made without reinking. Do about 3 on the card, overlapping them. A heavy image and two light ones looks nice. If anyone is remotely interested and I haven't been clear, reply or look up leaf prints on a search engine.
Poison oak/ivy leaves are lovely, but I would pass those by. The more veinage the leaf has, the more impact the print has. Grape leaves work extremely well.
Catamount

Make suncatchers using fishing line, plastic beads and mirrows. We did these at a garden club meeting and everyone really enjoyed making them and love having them hanging in their yards. We got the idea at Antique Rose Emporium. They are economical and fun to make. Email me at alinville@austin.rr.com for exact instructions. I have made them as gifts and people always enjoy them.

I think the lady wants to use pickets from old fence. We did the prints Cat talks about in my homeland. On wood, paint all pickets light color or white with acrylic paint. Fast drys. Pour little bit of acrylic paint (comes in bottles and has squeze top) onto old plate or something flat. Maybe three or 4 colors. Take fine sponge (like at cosmetics dept) and dip light into paint. Dab onto newspaper or old paper to get most paint off. then dab on leaf, on back side as Cat said. Do test on back side of picket or have test picket to learn how much acrylic to have on sponges. Pick up with care, put on wood, and finish up as above say, but may have to press more on wood. Learn by doing. Make leafs prints up and down picket and with fine point brush draw in stem in green to connect leafs.

I'm not necessarily set on using the fence pickets. Any easy garden craft would be fun. I do like the idea of the leaf prints too. We even have some leftover white card stock from the garden tour book covers, so there's something else that is free - or at least we already have.

texann - Do you have any pictures of your suncatchers? That sounds interesting. What did you use to hang them? Was there more than one line of beads or just one? Thanks!