Make Your Backyard Garden Stand Out With DIY Stained Glass Stakes

They say that having a garden is good for the soul, as it gets you out of the house and into nature. Gardens also add an abundance of beauty to your outdoor space. While flowers and plants are pretty enough on their own, sometimes it's fun to accessorize your garden with a bit of eye candy. Stained glass plant stakes are a lovely way to make a stylish statement. Plus, they can take your garden from drab to fab in the colder months when all the plants have gone bare. Though you could buy stained glass plant stakes, why not make your own? It's a fun DIY (though it does require some special tools), and it allows you to create any shape or style of plant stake that you like!  

These plant stakes are the perfect DIY to elevate your container garden or in-ground garden beds. When the sunlight hits the stained glass at just the right angle, it creates the most stunning effect. You can find stained glass sheets on Amazon in a variety of colors and textures, ranging from transparent or opaque to iridescent or hammered. For this project, you'll also need a glass cutter, tile nippers, copper foil tape, flux paste, and a soldering iron. Once you've gathered everything you need, all that's left is to decide on a design and get crafting.

While stained glass can add a pop of color to your home, it can also do the same for your garden. You can make your plant stakes super colorful or keep the color palette soft and muted. As for the design, the options are endless. Love little garden creatures? You could make a butterfly, snail, or frog. Want to add a woodland vibe? Make a toadstool mushroom, gnome, or fairy. For a desert garden, create a cactus or a sun. Country accents like a rooster, cow, or pig would be fun for a farmhouse feel. You could even create seasonal accents for different times of the year, such as little ghosts for Halloween or snowmen for the holidays.  

Start by finding a pattern you like, and then trace it onto the glass. Alternatively, you could use a Cricut machine to cut shapes out on adhesive vinyl and stick them to the glass — this method would be especially helpful if your pattern has a lot of tiny pieces that are hard to trace. Drag a glass cutter around the shape of the pattern to cut the glass (wear gloves and goggles for protection). Use tile nippers to refine the edges and cut out the shapes more precisely. Then wrap the edges with copper foil. Tape the pieces together on the back side, and brush the front with flux paste. Solder the pieces together, solder a stake to the base, and enjoy!