Kids' garden plant markers

Make these cute bug friends to embellish your flowerpots and mark garden rows.

What You'll Need:
• Tracing paper
• Scissors
• 9 1/4x12-inch sheets of lightweight copper
• Crafts foam: orange and yellow
• Sparkling modeling wire mesh
• 3/16-inch hole punch
• Copper wire: 16- and 24-gauge
• Wire cutters
• Pencil
• Golf tees
• Cabochons
• Two green pony beads
• Two orange pony beads
• Two green chenille stems

Instructions:
1. Trace patterns onto tracing paper (see link below). Cut them out.
2. Trace patterns onto copper sheets, crafts foam, and wire mesh and cut out as follows: from copper, two grasshopper wings and one ladybug wings; from yellow crafts foam, one dragonfly wings, one firefly body; from orange crafts foam, one ladybug body; from wire mesh, firefly wings; from pink crafts foam, one butterfly body. Punch 3/16-inch holes in cutout pieces as indicated on the patterns, folding wings and bodies in half to reach inaccessible areas.
3. Cut a long piece of 16-gauge (the thicker) copper wire; wrap it around a pencil to make a long coil. Slip the pointed end of a golf tee through the bottom two or three coils, then tighten those coils around the tee. Repeat to make one for each flower marker.

Download the Busy Bugs pattern.

How to Make Each Plant Marker

Dragonfly
1. Cut a 2x3-1/2-inch piece of copper. Starting at one long edge, roll the copper into a cone for the body. Trim ends. Randomly wrap the body with 24-gauge (the thinner) copper wire. Wire on green pony-bead eyes. Add wire antennae at the head.
2. Slip the top coil of a golf-tee assembly through the wing holes. Pinch the coil to secure.
3. With thin copper wire, attach the body to the wing/golf-tee assembly using punched holes.

Butterfly
1. Cut a 6-inch length of 24-gauge copper wire for the antennae. Push the ends through the foam at the tiny circles on the pattern. Twist the two wires together close to the foam. Curl the ends.
2. Slip the coil of the golf-tee assembly through center holes. Pinch the coil to secure. Glue cabochons to the wings at the Xs.

Grasshopper
1. Cut a 3 x 4-inch piece of wire mesh; roll into a 4-inch-long tube about 3/4 inch in diameter for the body. Press one end flat horizontally (for the tail) and one end flat vertically (for the head). Trim straight across the tail end and in a slight curve across the head end. Use thin wire to attach orange pony-bead eyes to the head. Twist the wire ends to secure.
2. Cut a 6-inch length of green chenille stem for front legs. Push half the stem through the body. Bend the stem into leg shapes.
3. Starting 1/2 inch from the arms, push half a full-length chenille stem through the body for back legs. Punch holes in the copper wings. Slip a wing on each back leg. Use a piece of thin wire to secure the wings. Bend the chenille stem into leg shapes.
4. Slip the top coil of the golf-tee assembly into the mesh body. Pinch the coil to secure.

Firefly
1. Cut six 4-inch lengths of 24-gauge (the thinner) copper wire for legs and two 2-inch lengths for antennae. Push pairs of wires halfway through the foam body at the tiny circles. Twist the ends of each wire pair together, and trim to the desired lengths.
2. Place the large mesh wings atop the small mesh wings. Attach the wings to the body at the center circles with a length of thin wire. Twist the ends of the wire securely to the top of the coiled golf-tee assembly.
3. Glue cabochon eyes to the head at the Xs. Curve the wings.

Ladybug
1. Cut six 2-inch lengths of thin wire for the legs and two for the antennae. Push pairs of wires through the foam body at the tiny circles. Twist ends of each wire pair together; trim to desired length.
2. Set wings atop body. Slip the top coil of the golf-tee assembly through the holes in the body and wings. Pinch the coil to secure.
3. Glue cabochons to the wings.


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