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How to Make Miniature Garden Tools

This weekend my kids and I figured out how to make miniature garden tools for fairy gardens! I saw a tutorial for DIY mini garden tools years ago, but it used some pretty heavy sheet metal and looked quite complicated. (Not like something you’d make in 20 minutes or less with your kids, which is what I was after.) Sure, sheet metal would be more durable – but the little shovel and rake we made will stand up just fine outside for a summer or two, or it could last for years in an indoor fairy garden.

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Pink Blob

We were inspired to make the fairies a shovel and rake because recently we made polymer clay veggies for them to “harvest”… and obviously they needed garden tools to go with! Because we were making these mini garden tools on the spur of the moment, we just used things we had laying around the house. (I like it best when my fairy garden addiction doesn’t cost anything LOL.)

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Pink Blob

Here’s what we used to make the fairies their garden tools:

– an empty can – a wooden skewer – super glue – sharp scissors – pliers – black marker – paint + paint brush – rubbing alcohol + q-tip (optional, not pictured)

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Pink Blob

How to make a  miniature shovel

Neither of these mini garden tools were HARD to make, but the shovel was a little faster then rake. First I cut a square of aluminum out of my empty can. (If you are doing this with kids, an adult should do this part. Be careful, as cutting into the aluminum creates a VERY sharp edge. It is easy to cut yourself on this.)  I drew a rough “spade” type shape on my aluminum, just to give myself an idea of where I was going to cut.

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You want to leave the top along the spade shape when you cut it out. This will give you something to wrap around the handle; to attach the spade to the handle – like this: I suggest pressing your handle into the center of your spade to make an indent. Kind of bend the spade gently around the stick. In learning how to make miniature garden tools, made one spade WITHOUT doing this and wasn’t quite happy with it.

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Pink Blob

It turns out it just needed a dent to make me happy LOL. After you make your dent, you can trim your “wrapping edges” down be just about as wide as the spade. It should look something like this:

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Pink Blob

Apply super glue at the bottom of the handle, where you will wrap the extra aluminum flaps. I found it necessary to use a pliers to hold the flap in place while the glue dried (about 30 seconds). Lastly, I used rubbing alcohol and a q-tip to remove the black marker from the edges of the shovel. If there hadn’t been beer can markings all over the back of it, I wouldn’t even have needed to paint it! It was super cute as a little plain silver shovel.

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