Rock Mosaic

I found a cute tutorial on a rock mosaic and decided to create a heart shape out of some river rocks I had picked up for my mom. There weren't enough of either color to do a solid heart so I thought 1/2 and 1/2 would look nice.

I picked up some black and white rocks at the dollar store along with some coaster like circles to place them on.  I ended up only using the white rocks since my mother's yard has darker rocks for the landscaping and I wanted this to stand out. 

I set out the red and green rocks into the pattern I wanted and slowly started to hot glue each one to the circle.  (Careful, put something under the circle or the hot glue will bleed through.)

After I completed the mosaic piece, I made a spot for it in her yard, placed it neatly, rang my mother's door bell and ran away.  I later texted her to look in her yard just to make sure she saw it :)  The white rocks make the heart stand out nicely I think.

Windchime

 So my friend Ellie has such eclectic style that it felt more natural to create something for her birthday rather then going out and buying something for her.  Her favorite color is purple and she really digs skulls.  She's feminine but not girly.  She's also REALLY into rocks.  I happen to have these "Apache Tears" (shards of obsidian rock) from a rock outing I did with my Aunt a few years ago.  The really neat thing about these rocks is when you tap them together, they make an incredibly fragile... glass-like sound.  I decided to create a wind chime out of them for her but wanted to make it in a way that would fit into her world nicely.

First I gathered the materials I would need.  A wooden letter "E" for her name, some screw hooks to hang the "E" as well as hang each of the strands, some of the metal hooks I used for my mustache pendants [here], beads, sculpty clay skulls (already made from a mold I bought on ETSY [link here]), paint, sparkles, and E-6000 glue to hold it all together.

I painted the "E" and put a piece of scrapbook paper on it with Modpodge (I made this with watered down glue to save some money) to give it a neat texture.  While the modpodge was still drying I sprinkled some yellow/gold glitter on to give the piece some contrast.

After the "E" was finished, I drilled out the holes to screw in the screw hooks.

Next came the strands of beads... this was a trial and error processes.  I knew this could end up outside so I used some glue to make sure the strands would stay on the metal hooks as well as the strands.  I allowed the E-6000 glue to set overnight.  In between each of the bead strands I put a strand that had a skull to break up the repetitiveness of the strands and to give it a cool look.

 

This is what it looked like after drying over night.  Excited and almost done I took a day off to clean house.

 

After finishing the strands, applying the "Apache Tears", adding a skull to the "E" and allowing it all to dry again overnight... I am very satisfied with how it came out.  I may do this again for other gifts (if I do... I'll take more step-by-step pictures.)

Tile Coasters

From the moment I saw this DIY tutorial, I wanted to try it out for myself!!!  I did one set for me and one set for my mom for her birthday.  I think they turned out really cute!  They are pretty inexpensive, can send any message you'd like, and are quite fun to make.

366daysofpinterest

I started out by tracing the tile onto scrapbook paper and cutting the paper out.

Next, I mod-podged the paper down (putting a layer of mod-podge directly on the tile, placed the paper onto the tile, and placed mod-podge on top).  

I wanted these to be fun and full of life (like my mom) so I added sparkles in the mod-podge.

After allowing the mod-podge to dry and doing 1-2 more layers, I used some puff paint to just add some details and then used a laqure spray paint to seal them.  (2-4 coats of this stuff just to be safe)

After they dried overnight, I added the felt pieces to the bottom to prevent scratches.

While looking at scrapbook paper, I found these awesome stickers and decided to make a coaster set for myself.  I didn't want to go through the trouble of finding a background for these guys so I made them super simple.

I still had one sheet of my mustache scrapbook paper, so I decided to label what each of the mustache stickers were.  I could have done a much better job with this, but this was my first trial (before the coasters for my mom).

I labeled each one with a sharpie paint pen and then lacquered each tile 2-3 times, allowing them to completely dry over night.

Here is the set I created for my mom out of the scrapbook paper. I had to upload these last so it wouldn't spoil my mom's bday present!

Glass marble gems

 Loved this idea (seen here). I want to make the magnet versions as well, but for now my cousin and I made some cute mustache pendants.

First, start with a square of paper (can already have a print on it, but we chose to create our own.)  We drew the image before cutting it out to make sure it fit in the gem's parameters.

 Next, cut your paper down to size.

Place some mod podge on the back of the gem and place your image face down. Press down and make sure there aren't any bubbles.

Allow the mod podge to dry, then place more on the back of the piece of paper that is now attached to the gem.  Once this drys, use the E-6000 glue to glue on your necklace-piece that will allow you to put the pendant on a necklace. I chose these (in the picture below) because they were easy to glue on and were really simple.

Place on your favorite cord, ribbon, or chain and enjoy.
(Note: some images don't show up as well under the gem.  Metalic or paper with a sheen causes a mirror effect and may make it hard to see the image on the paper.)

 

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