Frogs Strumming Bass Up Cycle

Linda kelley
by Linda kelley
6 Materials
I have had these two frog for a few years....they were in sad shape! I was a bit bored and thought this would be a fun project that was easy, and adds whimsy to the garden!!
I started by cleaning them up and scrapping off the rust, then sealing...this is what they looked like before.


I decided to make one a lady and the other a man. I used a red sharpie for the lips of the one frog. I used Goop to glue the shiny pearls on her guitar. I wanted the male to have a cool blue. The small green pkgs with the black net have the plain (non shiny) kind of look like pale sea glass gems .
To give the gems (ones from dollar store)a crystallized look, I baked them on a cookie sheet at 500 degrees for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, I carefully, (the gems and pan are very hot) let them drop into a bowl of ice water I had ready for them, and you can put the sheet on top of bowl with ice...just to be safe.
A couple of them didn't make the bowl...ouch, they were hot! I used the darker round blue for the males guitar. I used the flat green gems for their bodies.
For the mouth I used stones of same color that didn't sparkle. I used the flat ones for the bodies and mouths of the frogs. I used the round gems for their guitars.
I painted the girls tongue yellow....Put in the turquoise eyes. I didn't have enough of the turquoise gems, dollar store only had the two packs. I plan to get more of the turquoise...10 bags....make a pond shape where they are standing in the roses and fill it in with the turquoise and green gems..I think that will look so pretty and sparkly...
Above is in the rose garden....nice pond in there would look nice. I must add...adding all those gems around the guitar was time consuming because of the application with the glue...must be a better way. I added the following pictures so you can see the end result of the gems when they have been put in the oven.
See how the insides are cracked...they sparkle so much more.... I wish now I would have done them to there tummies.
Thank you so much for taking a look at my frogs...follow me at: kelleysdiycreations.wordpress.com
Above are some of the packages Walmart carries. They have also mixed purple, black and white mix, tan mix, pink mix, they have more, just can't remember all. The small black net bags were under a dollar....these larger under 5.00. Thank you for looking! See more of my projects at : kelleysdiy.wordpress.com Thank you!
Linda kelley
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  • Bernadette Bernadette on Apr 30, 2019

    Why did you bake them? I’m confused.


  • SJ SJ on May 01, 2019

    Thank you I had no idea you could bake the gems and they would crystallize so much prettier. Do the white or pearl ones do this too? Thank you so much for sharing

  • Joy Zucker-Tiemann Joy Zucker-Tiemann on Jun 04, 2019

    I love learning about heating up the glass, as I am working on resurfacing a bird bath with them!! May I ask what glue did you use? I used Liquid Nails before & now want to remove the old ones & resurface the bird bath basin... that is if I successfully get off the old glass beads!!

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