Tuesday's Art Adventure: Toad Houses

I don't know that this really counts as art, (unless we are looking at this from the whole art for life's sake instead of art for art's sake viewpoint) but it does involve paint and it's a good summer project.

If you have a garden, you want to encourage toads to call your yard home -- they eat slugs.

Toad Houses

Supplies:

• small terracotta pots
• tape
• hammer
• epoxy (you may or may not need it)
• acrylic paint
• brushes

If you already have a pot with a chip in it about the size of a silver dollar, then you can skip this first part. 


If your pot is in one piece then you need to make an opening.

To prevent the crack from spreading too far, I taped where I wanted the opening to be.

Cracked it with the hammer,

and yelled Doh! when the tape didn't really work as well as I hoped.

Then I used the epoxy to glue the pieces back together minus the opening.

Once the epoxy was dry, I handed them over to the boys to paint. Acrylic will stain clothes and stick to just about everything. Cover your work space, wear smocks or old clothes, and don't let the paint dry in the brushes. But you need acrylic so that the paint stays permanently. Just hover, and watch out. :)

Have them either paint it to look like a house, or just slather the paint on. Whatever they most enjoy.

Once the paint is dry, take them out and bury the edge just a little in the dirt and place a rock on top to help keep the pot in place.

Toads will prefer a shaded and protected place.

Enjoy keeping an eye out for any toad friends that move in to their new homes.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) Mad Skills (T) Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day (W) Whassup Wednesday, Blue Cricket Design, Beyond the Picket Fence (Th) Creative Juice, Somewhat Simple, Thrifty 101, Smilemonsters (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday, SevenThirtyThree (Sat) Tatertots and Jello (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop