By using recycled materials and a little imagination you can create a unique broken china mosaic shovel for your garden. I'm always on the lookout for creative, colorful garden projects and this was one of my favorites. This is an easy project that you can do in a weekend. This is a fun way to add color to your garden even when the flowers aren't blooming.

The supplies you need to make a broken china mosaic garden shovel are:

An old shovel	Acrylic paint
Old china	Gorilla glue
Hammer	Painters tape or masking tape
Tile cutter (helpfull but not necessary)	Polycrylic clear sealer
Tile grout (pre-mixed or powder)	Paint brushes
Natural sea sponge	Medium grit sandpaper

1. Start with an old shovel.	2. Sand off any rust.	3. Use painters tape to add stripes to the shovel handle.
4. Spray paint the metal handle gold.	5. After the gold paint is dry paint stripes on the shovel handle.	6. Gather up some colorful old china. Old travel plates work great because they usually have bright designs.
7. Place the china plates in a paper bag and smash them with a hammer.	8. Using a small amount of Gorilla glue began gluing the broken china pieces to the shovel. The Gorilla glue expands so you don't need much.	9. Continue gluing your china pieces until you've completed the shovel. When gluing your mosaic pieces to the side of the shovel it helps to secure them with painters tape so that they stay in place as the glue drys.
10. Using an old bowl, or plastic lid mix up a batch of grout.	11. Apply a thick layer of grout to your shovel. Make sure that you push the grout into all of the small crevices in-between the broken china pieces.	12. After you've thoroughly covered the broken china with grout take a damp sponge and wipe the grout from the top of the china pieces before it drys.
13. After the tile grout is dry apply 3 coats of Minwax Polycrylic sealer to the entire shovel.	Finished mosaic shovel. A one of a kind garden ornament that will add color and wimsy to your garden.

Copyright 2005 The Wildwood Cottage LLC