Plant Labels From Disposable Razors

This is a quick and simple project where even little kids can help - turning disposable razors into plant labels.

I don't particularly like disposable razors. I don't like anything disposable that is made of plastic. The one good thing about disposable razors is that at least they have a decent lifespan, unlike a disposable plastic cup or a polystyrene takeaway container that might be in the bin after just a few minutes.

But disposable razors seem to be more cost effective than the ridiculous prices charged for packets of blades for my razor handle. We can blame razor blade manufacturers for the business model that also brought us cheap printers with their expensive ink.

I tend to have a backlog of dead disposable razors waiting to be tossed...part of my reluctance to just throw them away I think.

My garden bed project won the gardening competion and this mini project complemented it perfectly.

Could your list of tools and bits be any more simple?

• Some (preferably) dead disposable razor blades
• Something that can be a label - I used an empty vitamin bottle, but it could be anything from an icy pole stick to the side of a yoghurt container. Plastic is good because it is weather proof, wood is OK but won't last forever, paper is not so OK unless you are prepared to replace it every time it rains. Since part of this is about recycling, try to reuse something that would end up as land fill.
• A pair of scissors or a sharp knife to cut the plastic
• A hot glue gun or some other sort of glue
• A permanent marking pen

Apart from maybe the hot glue gun, it is all stuff you will find laying around.

Cut the top and bottom off the container. Then cut the body into strips being as precise or as casual as you like.

Grab your marking pen and write the names of your plants. You could do this after sticking the labels to the razor, but I thought it would be easier to write on a flat surface.

You may want to trim longer labels with short plant names to remove some white space.

Note to the not-so-observant: This project is so easy I am struggling to make the instructable long enough to be interesting. :o)

The rest is pretty obvious. In fact the whole thing was pretty obvious once I had the idea, but that's no way to win a competition.

Glue the labels to the razors. If you have written the plant names first, do be observant and not glue them upside down.

Stick them in the ground and never again forget what it was you planted.

I guarantee you will have both a useful end product and a conversation piece.

Please take a moment to vote for this in the current competition. Thanks