Lawn And Garden Decorations: Frogs And Ladybugs

If you are going to be using your frog house indoors as an accent or centerpiece, I suggest using stencils to paint your designs onto your clay pot, or sponge painting it in accommodating colors to blend in with your décor and surroundings.

If you will be placing your frog house outdoors, you can either use stencils and paints or sponge painting, but I recommend the rub-on Decals as these take less time and are just as attractive for decorating your frog house. In addition, the decals usually last longer on the clay pots than the stencils and paint, as they tend to fade, peel, and chip with time.

Once you decide how you are going to use your frog house, decorate it any way you wish. Please allow 24 hours for frog house to dry if you are using paint rather than decals.

Once dry, take acrylic spray, and spray over entire pot, sealing in the designs. Allow pot to dry thoroughly.

Find a place where you would like to place a frog house; tucked away in a corner, under a street light, near the barn, or near a creek, pond or other body of water.

Turn the pot upside down and put it on the ground where you think a frog would like to live (not in the sun). Hint: frogs like to eat bugs, so someplace like near the porch light, streetlight or other indoor/outdoor light might be good. This includes lights surrounding or inside a pool of water or garden fountain. Take rocks and prop under the edge of one side of the pot, leaving it open enough for frogs to enter and make their new home.

Lady Bugs

Items Needed:

Fist-sized rocks or larger

Red spray paint

Black paint

White paint

Paint brushes

Old paper (newspaper, paper bags, etc.)

Directions:

Place paper on ground away from house or other objects. Preferably, place somewhere in the yard on the grass or barren area.

Next, take rocks and place on top of paper. Take red spray paint and spray paint rocks. Be sure to cover the top and sides thoroughly. Leave rocks on paper and allow drying completely.

Once dry, take paint brushes and black paint and paint a black line down the center of the rock. On each side of the black line, paint little black dots all over the "wings."

Choose which end is going to be the "front" for your ladybug. Once decided, paint two black eyes on the front of the rock. Next, paint two black feelers starting from the center of the eye, traveling up and curling outward.

Next, take a small paintbrush and white paint and put a small white dot in the center of each eye of the ladybug.

Allow ladybugs to dry completely before moving. Once dry; take ladybugs and place throughout yard and garden wherever you need an accent piece.

These are great to place around flowers or garden ponds.