Add year-round colour to your landscape with whimsical art projects you can make yourself. Create glass garden art with recycled glass bottles and jars, stained-glass tiles and glass craft blocks. Do-it-yourself art projects for the garden need not be complicated or expensive to make, especially if you find the materials in your recycling bin.
Step One
Glass Block/Jar Landscape Lights – Make your own landscape lights using glass craft blocks or recycled glass jars and solar-powered light strands. Each glass craft block has an opening along one side where you can insert the light strands and pull out the solar wiring. Glass jars’ openings serve the same purpose, but you can use tea light candles to illuminate wide-mouth jars. Stand the glass landscape lights along a walkway in your garden or nestle them within flower beds. This do-it-yourself garden project is a blank slate — paint the glass blocks/jars with glass paint or glue colorful glass marbles to the outside surface to enhance the designs.
Step Two
Glass Bottle Tree – There are a couple of ways to create a glass bottle tree, which needs a trunk and five or six branches to look good. Make the tree structure with copper tubing, which will gain a patina over time. Attach branches to the trunk using angled copper fittings, flux, solder and a propane torch. Make PVC pipe trees using angled PVC fittings and PVC cement. Use PVC primer and paint to make the “tree” coordinate with your outdoor decor. Once the tree structure is complete, slide inverted glass bottles in an array of colors over each branch.
Step Three
Glass Wind Chimes – Make a set of glass wind chimes using stained-glass mosaic tiles, craft bells, fishing line and a metal craft ring. This do-it-yourself glass art project adds color and music to your garden. Cut a 36-inch-long strand of fishing line, thread the craft bell to the center and tie the ends around the craft ring. If you cover the knot with clear, waterproof adhesive, it will remain intact. The same adhesive works to attach the stained-glass tiles along the strand of the fishing line. Place tiles of similar size back to back on each side of the doubled fishing line. Hang as many tiled strands as you like from the craft ring.