I have a small addiction to San Pellegrino sparkling fruit drinks, especially in the Summer months. The only problem with this is our recycling bin is full of empty cans. I’ve been looking for ways to recycle them and made some hand stamped plant markers for the garden. I don’t have the greenest fingers but this is a great craft for the garden which anyone can do.

Time to make: 30 minutes

You will need:
Empty drinks can
Dremmel
Tin snips
Metal alphabet stamps
Centre punch
Hammer

How to make hand stamped plant markers:

I used a Dremmel to cut the top and bottom from an empty drinks can.

I wiped the can with a wet wipe to remove any metal residue and also make sure there was no sticky-ness from the drink.

Next I used a pair of tin snips to cut the remaining piece of metal open and into smaller pieces. I experimented with a variety of shapes including rectangles and circles.

I chose the letters I needed and stamped them using a steel bench block, brass hammer and alphabet stamps. I went for the random look and stamped a couple of plant names on my metal tags.

To finish them off I used a centre punch to make a hole, threaded with Bakers twine and hung from my plants.

My top tip is not to hammer the letters too hard. The aluminium is really thin so if you’re not careful you can go right through the metal! Let me know if you try these yourself.