Herb Garden Markers

It’s no real secret that I don’t have a green thumb. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone, but whenever I see those beautiful photos of homes with indoor plants, my mind filters out the last time and it’s unhappy ending and starts dreaming of buying new greenery, scrubbing up some pots and rearranging furniture.

And then I come back to earth. It’s best for all involved if I stick to something simple like herbs. This year I accidentally became very successful growing garlic.

A garlic head fell out of the basket I keep them in and became hidden behind the toaster. When I found it, it had sprouted two-inch long greens and a set of roots, so I dropped it in a small metal pail filled with dirt and it really took off. The long greens are super mild but add a nice topping to cooking – kind of like chives only garlicky.

I’m also good with basil and oregano, growing them in big pots outside and trimming them for cooking as needed.

Naturally, I realized that these pots needed cute herb markers. And since I’m currently lettering all the things, I just had to create a set.

I lettered these in Procreate, which is a drawing program for the iPad.

I sent the file over to my computer where I traced it to create smooth lines for cutting with my Silhouette Cameo. If you aren’t completely obsessed with lettering practice, you easily make these using your favorite typeface – the steps would be similar.

For the markers, I used some frosted white plastic that I found in the recycling bin at work. It’s really similar to a milk or water jug, so if you wanted to go that route, just carefully cut some rectangles out of the jugs.

I drew up a simple shape and printed it out at full size on plain paper. Because the plastic is mostly see through I could trace the shape onto them by putting the template under the plastic. I didn’t use a pen to do my tracing (although you could) – I used my X-acto knife to score in the lines and then came back and cut them with scissors.

Back at the computer I exported my lettering file as a DXF file because the basic version of Silhouette Studio (the free version that comes with the Silhouette Cameo) can’t work with an AI or SVG file.

In Silhouette Studio I resized each herb name to fit on the marker, and then added a rectangle around each one. That rectangle makes it much easier to weed out the extra vinyl.

After the letters were cut and weeded, I used transfer tape to lift them off the backer to the vinyl and move them to my marker. Be especially patient when weeding and transferring. Those speeded up videos in Instagram make it look easy, but it really takes time to get it done without twisting or sticking parts together.

Right now my herbs are just seeds in the dirt, but these markers are a great addition to my tiny garden.

Pin this so you have it handy when you are ready to make your own herb markers.

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