This is project number 8 in my 12-12-12 Series. This project involves stones and rocks used to form a unique art piece for the home.

I like rocks.

Weird I know, but it’s kind of how I ended up an engineer. I mean I got to take a whole class (2 actually) that studied different types of dirt. We also had classes in other materials, but obviously I like dirt and rocks. I’m always in awe of the history that comes with a simple stone. Just a hunk of matter all connected haphazardly, like with sand stone or in specific structures such as with quartz. Yeah I’m that girl.

As you can probably guess this little interest of mine has from a very young age taken form in collecting rocks. I have quite the collection. Over time I have given a lot away (my siblings tend to share this weirdness) or just tossed them in the yard to be discovered another day, and only kept my favorites. Those deemed good enough to stay are kept in a glass jar or two around the house, which honestly is a pretty terrible way to display some of nature’s most beautiful work if you ask me.

I decided that I wanted to do some kind of display or craft with my rocks pretty soon after we moved in. Nothing like finding things in a move to get the creative juices flowing right?

The thing with displays that I’ve never been a fan of is the dusting, so I decided to go with a shadow box for this project. My adhesive of choice was good old hot glue. This little gun and I have been pretty good friends lately, what with this project and all the wedding projects.

At first I grouped some of my favorites together by color and used these basic groups to create a gradient style design and then glued them in place. For now this piece resides in the guest room, mainly because it’s the only room that’s got any hooks on the walls, but also because I think the red/pink gradient goes really well with the other colors in the room.

I’m happy to have a place to display some of my stones and might just do this with some  of my grey, blue and green stones next.

This is project no. 6 in my 12-12-12 series of craft projects using different materials and methods throughout the year.

For this month’s (really last month, but we are still playing catch up over here) project I wanted to do something with rope. I had a number of ideas (mostly these) but with time, money constraints and the fact that I can’t find my hot glue gun to save my life, had a lot to do with the decision to dial it back and go with a simple dream catcher instead.

The hoop is actually a piece from an old tomato cage that broke in the move, and the twine is just what I had laying around. I used up a large portion of my ribbon stash, and then got some more from my grandmother for the danglies (yeah, it’s a technical term) at the bottom of the hoop. I also used up some small silk flowers, feathers, and beads that I had hanging around to add some more character.

I love the simplicity of this project and that I was able to use so many stash items, we are trying to cut back on stuff after all. I would like to add a bit more to it, but I think it’s going to be one of those things that happen as I find myself with scraps and leftover beads.

I’m happy with how it turned out and think it will make a great addition to the spare bedroom with its bright red walls. The only thing that I’m not in love with is the slack in the center of the dream catcher. I had a really hard time keeping the string tight when I got to it. If anyone has any tips or tricks for getting this right let me know. I may just rip out the last two rows of string and try it again when I have more time.

This post is a how to on turning popsicle sticks into bracelets using wood burning techniques. 

Project No. 5. This project get’s an eh-ok rating. It was a fun afternoon, but I’m someone who likes rapid results so waiting for popsicles to soak and then dry was apparently too much for me. I kind of got bored half way through.

I got a soldering set for Christmas, or my birthday (I can’t remember?) and have been dying for a project to use it for. It’s this set for reference. I really want to make some cool jewelry but there’s really no good set up at our apartment for hot metal work, so I’m holding out for our future house set up (fingers crossed we can get in soon!). In the mean time I thought this would be a good way to get comfortable with the tools.

My guess was right, I learned a lot, how to hold the iron, how fast it heats up, what the difference is heat does to wood, how smooth it draws, or doesn’t. I did enjoy the wood burning part, thought it’s nothing like drawing. First off you can’t hold it like a pencil, and you have to move slowly and evenly and not push too hard. Typing that makes me realize that this might be a good exercise in control for me, because clearly I have a problem with it. I don’t think I have the patience to really get into wood burning, but it’s nice to know that I can do it.

Here is what I did:

1. Draw designs on popsicle sticks
2. Wood burn over the drawings
3. Soak the sticks in water for about 2 days (they didn’t seem pliable enough after 24 hours)
4. Carefully hand bend the sticks and place them in a cup to dry
5. After the sticks are fully dry remove them from the cups

As far as soaking the wood and bending it; I learned a lot there too. I attempted to do the burning on the flat popsicle stick and then bend it, only to find out that many of the places I had burnt become breaking points for the wood. Next time I would bend them ahead of time and burn after, though it might make the burning part more difficult.

I also realized that my tiny wrists are not suited for this project because the bracelets just slip right off my wrist. I thought of doing this to them to help them stay, but honestly I’m just not that into the bracelets to keep working with them. A few of the sticks that would not bend at all I could potentially use as book marks, since I always seem to lose those.

So even if this project isn’t something I would do again that doesn’t mean that you won’t absolutely love it or come up with a better way than I did. I also learned a thing or two so it was well worth the time.