Category Archives: Sun Catchers/Wind Chimes

Dec26

Rustic Clay Wind Chime

Posted on December 26, 2015 by thestick81

It has been entirely too long between entries. Life gets like that though I guess. I actually made this wind chime back in May, but have not had a chance to blog about it. Pretty sad when you can’t find a spare half hour in 7 months… but hopefully I will make up for that over the next 3 weeks while my schedule is not so hectic.

I am really happy with the way this project turned out, but it may not be something everyone can make at home, as you will need access to a kiln for the baking of the clay. I am lucky enough to have that access 🙂 The discs were made from potters clay, available from any good craft shop, about $30 for 10kg (it’s really heavy when wet!). I rolled some clay out to around 5mm thick, then cut the circles out using a metal egg ring. I then used a variety of leaves and flowers from around the garden, laid them over the clay and rolled over gently with a rolling pin, just enough to create the patterns as you can see.

Clay circles with leaf and flower prints.

Once baked and cooled, it was time for assembly. Mr 5 and Miss 6 were happy to help decorate the pieces of fishing line with some chunky transparent glass beads I had in my bead stash.

Threading the beads on fishing line before assembly

We then went on a hunt for the perfect stick, attached it to a chair and began assembly. I wanted the discs to taper down, so this was not something the kids could help with.

Assembling

Once I was happy with the positioning of each string, I tied them in a few more knots and decorated the top hanging twine. Cut off any loose ends and it’s done. As simple as that.

Each disc touches the next ever so slightly, making a lovely sound in the breeze, without being too noisy.

Clay and glass bead sun catcher

Wind chime

Beads in the sun – sun catcher wind chime

Apr6

Kids Craft, Easter Egg Sun Catcher / Stained Glass

Posted on April 6, 2014 by thestick81

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Kids Craft, Easter Egg Sun Catcher / Stained Glass

Inspiration for this project came from Alpha Moms blog. I thought I’d adjust it into an Easter themed project, given it is already that time of year.

All you need is some of the whitish milk or juice cartons. We actually used a cordial bottle for the grass. The stickers on the milk bottle where quite hard to remove and left a sticky residue. I managed to remove this with some mineral turpentine.

Once you have your clean pieces of plastic, draw or as we did, trace your shapes using a black permanent marker (Sharpie etc). Then let the kids colour as desired. Once coloured, cut away the extra plastic and you’re done! They turned out even better than expected.

We attached ours to the windows using double sided tape rather than suction cups.

Feb26

Easy Sun Catcher, Kids Craft

Posted on February 26, 2014 by thestick81

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Everyone loves a sun catcher – well according to Pinterest they do! This is basically the same concept as the Valentine Hearts we did a few weeks back, but instead of random shapes, we used a punch to make stars and circles etc from the cellophane. Once laminated, we cut out smaller shapes and hung them from a branch with some beads.

Ms 5 cutting out the shapes with a punch

Sprinkle over the laminating sheet,

All spread out

Ready to go through machine.

Trace out some shapes with a marker then cut out.

Cut out

Hang on fishing line or string of your choice

we added some beads for extra colour

Sun catcher kids craft.

This is yet another almost impossible thing to photograph, it looks so much more bright and colourful in real life. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself, or maybe I just need to do a photography coarse, or even read the instructions for my DSLR…

Feb2

Kids Valentine Craft – Stained Glass Hearts

Posted on February 2, 2014 by thestick81

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Kids Valentine Craft – Stained Glass Hearts

I was determine to do some Valentine craft today with the kids before we ran out of time. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, but we couldn’t find the type of paper I needed. While picking up some other bits and pieces from the grocery store, we found A4 laminate sheets on special and decided to grab some for the craft cupboard. I had a look around Pinterest for inspiration and then it finally came to me, lucky we grabbed those sheets!

The steps are pretty self explanatory I think, but you can see more instructions by clicking on or running your mouse over each photo below.

Ms 5 cutting the cellophane up into squares.

I drew a large heart on the back of some silver card then cut it out with scissors.

I then cut the centre out with a Box cutter.

Ms5 placed the pieces into the laminate sheet, using the middle of the heart under to give her a rough guide of the area she needs to cover.

Mr3 having a go, not quite understanding ‘don’t crumple them up!’.

Ms5 puts the close sheet into the laminator.

Mr9 prepared the heart boarder with double sided tape.

Double sided tape on the frame.

Mr9 cuts away the excess ‘glass’ from the frame after sticking it down.

The back.

Stained glass heart window.

The similar projects I have seen on Pinterest use clear book contact, which you could also use if you don’t have a laminating machine. The laminate sleeves give a much clearer finish though. I was worried at first that the cellophane might melt as it went through the heat, but it was fine.

Oct2

DIY Wind Chime, Candelabra/Sun Catcher.

Posted on October 2, 2013 by thestick81

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I dragged the kids to the $2 shop to stock up on some supplies for other projects, and came across these cute little glass bottles. I had to have them. And I had to use them right now! So much for Halloween craft this week! lol.

I didn’t have a small enough pre made wreath wring to use as the frame, so I just used some gardening wire and platted it loosely along with a piece of twine. I like the rough look it gave and thought it fit well with the theme. The little glass balls were another score from the junk shop, they are actually part of a floating candle set, but I had bigger ideas. I love those old glass buoys as decorations so I figured these could be made into mini ones. I slightly filled the little jars with some crushed crystal beads I bought off eBay years ago, just to add some colour, then tied them all up. Originally I was going to position each one, stepping them down as I went, but as they were all different heights and widths, it just didn’t give a worthwhile effect. So I just tied them randomly, but so they would still hit each other to make a noise in the wind. The candle holder in the middle was a last minute decision, I just thought it was missing something, and that finished it off perfectly. To be honest, I wouldn’t leave the candle lit unattended, as those strings are flammable, maybe a battery operated tea-light would be a better idea.

What you need

Plated wire and twine

Some stone chips for colour, then secure with twine

Securing the glass balls.

Tying up the glass balls

Space out the items evenly

In the dark

With candle lit

The finished product

Anyway, I am pretty happy with it. I think I will do it again, after I collect some larger bottles to hold more candles. Create something a little different again, and probably use wire to hang them next time.

The finished product

If you would like to see more craft and DIY projects like this one, please follow my blog and Pinterest.

Jul27

Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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Autumn Theme Mobile, Using Oven Bake Clay

I have had this idea in my head for a while, but wasn’t sure what medium to use. This product is really fun and easy to work with, however, it sets more like a hard rubber than a ceramic clay, so it did not achieve the wind chime noise I had in mind. Oh well, its still pretty!

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Sculpey Oven Bake Clay. It is quite firm out of the packet, but softens up quickly with some kneading.

Ms 4 Rolling out the clay.

Cut just like a cookie or play dough

Reshape to make leaf like

Press in between the backs of 2 leaves

Leaf print

Ready for the oven, bake at 130c for approximately 15 minutes

After baking

Ms4 threading the fishing line and adding some beads.

Some things we collected on our bush walk

Drilling some extra holes in the piece of bark.

Autumn mobile,

Nature theme mobile / sun catcher.

Autumn and bush influenced mobile.

Jul27

Upcycled CDs. Sun Catcher.

Posted on July 27, 2013 by thestick81

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We were having a clean out of old computer stuff and were about to throw away a pile of old discs, but I decided those shinny little things must be good for something else? So after a bit of thinking, I came up with yet another sun catcher idea. Anyone would think I like sparkly things? It took me ages to work out what to cover, a sphere didn’t seem practical as the CD pieces are flat obviously, so after some uhmming and arrring, I decided wooden cubes were the best solution. The lovely man at the local hardware was kind enough to give me some 3″ x 3″ off cuts for free. The rest of the instructions are on the pictures. I just used clear drying craft glue to attach the CD chips to the wood and the grout is standard bathroom tile grout mixed according to instructions, available from any hardware (we had some left over from the laundry renovation).

Recycled DVD / CD Sun catcher

Gather your old CDs, DVDs the more different colours the better.

Cut ’em up! Tin snips, side cutters, or seceteurs as I have.

Munched up CDs!

Drill hooks into each corner of the wood, placing a fishing swivel between, so they can spin freely in the wind.

Some white paint to enhance the colour of the glass tiles

Stick on the pieces covering as much area as you can.

Make some grout, following instructions on pack.

Dollop on the grout

Smooth over with a spatula (instructions for tiles suggest a squeegee)

Remove as much excess as you can, then allow to set for an hour or more (weather conditions will vary this time)

Use a dry or every so slightly damp sponge, remove more of the excess once it has set to a powdery consistency.

Let set over night. Then wash off any excess dust.

Finished product.

Sun Catcher. CD / DVD

Recycled DVD / CD Sun catcher

Upcycled CDs.

Sun catcher / Disco Cube!

Hang on display

Sun Catcher. CD / DVD

Apr21

DIY Sun catcher/Wind chime.

Posted on April 21, 2013 by thestick81

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This project was inspired by another bloggers post, which I can’t find again on Pinterest, so will have to edit it back in later when I can find it. Anyway, I ended up doing something completely different to hers, because I couldn’t get my hands on the right kind of cups. The original mobile was created with plastic (recycling number 6) disposable drinking cups. I hunted high and low however, the only ones of them here were solid colours, so I had to settle for these shot glasses. The shot glasses are a lot thicker though, so the entire method required adjusting. As you can see in the gallery images, melting these at a low heat basically make little plastic globs that would only be good for playing jacks with. Eventually I worked out that by turning the heat up enough, I could get them to melt flat. However, they did emit a nasty smell at this temp, so I took the project out to the BBQ.

Adding the next colour

After melting the first cups, I added another cup, so there was enough plastic to cover the base of each muffin hole. I was not too worried about thickness, some ended up with 3 cups, I broke a few cups up to splash some other colour around. The BBQ was set to 220C with the lid down. After cooling, this is what you get;

The finished disks

They actually set really hard and when clicked together sound like glass rather than plastic. Makes them perfect for a wind chime. Just like with my previous sun catcher, I drilled holes in the sides of each piece using a normal drill bit. None of them broke this time, which was an extra win. Then we threaded some fishing line through, held each end together and threaded random shiny and transparent beads along the 2 lines. Admittedly I do have a ridiculously huge stash of beads and stones accumulated from over the years, but you can pick up cheap beads at $2 shops that will still make the project inexpensive if you were starting from scratch. The first line was 11cm, then I continued along making each one 1cm longer, there is 17 in total. My darling partner tied them on to the pre made metal loop (from spotlight – and much to his disappointment, he is not a crafty person). Once they were all tied on, I just slid them around until they were spaced evenly. And done!

Close up

** Please note, breathing in the fumes from melting plastic is probably not a very good idea. So if you do try this at home, try to use the BBQ or make sure the room is well ventilated, and preferably don’t be near the oven while its all happening. It not like burning tyres or anything, but it sure doesn’t smell like something you should be breathing in!