DREAAAAMCATCHERS!

I am completely obsessed with dreamcatchers and the Native American culture. So, recently (throughout the summer...) I have been making dreamcatcher, after dreamcatcher, after dreamcatcher. Which most of them I gave away to family and friends. Buuuuut, they are so easy to make, you wouldn't even believe me. 

Here's a quick how to: 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED: 
Metal ring
old t-shirt
embroidery thread 
large needle
feathers
charms/ beads

I bought metal rings from my local craft store, they were located in the leather section of our local Hobby Lobby. I use these to make the circle that catches your dreams.

FIRST: Wrap the ring with some fabric ( I just used an old t-shirt) and make sure you cover the entire ring. I cut the fabric into anywhere between 1/2 inch to 1 inch wide strips. Then start at the top of the ring and leave about 1 1/2 inches up off the ring so you can tie the fabric to together once you wrap the fabric completely around the ring. 

SECOND: Once the ring is wrapped and the excess fabric at the top is tied together, I started the weave with embroidery thread. I just bought thread from the craft store also, and this thread is commonly used for friendship bracelets. With the thread I started the weave at the top where I tied the knot for the fabric that was wrapped around the ring. Now this is the trickiest part of the entire project. This picture explains it perfectly and I will post a video that can help you step by step also. 

THIRD: After you finish the weave, just tie a knot as far along as you would like, some like big rings in the middle of their dreamcatchers, others like the dreamcatcher to have a small opening in the middle. Once you tie the knot, you can start to decorate the bottom of the dreamcatcher. What I did was cut strips of the t-shirt into about 16-20 inches for my big dreamcatchers and maybe 8-12 inches for my small dreamcatchers. 

FOURTH: You can add feathers, beads, charms, whatever floats your boat! I added feathers to EVERY single one that I made except for one, which had seashells instead. 

Here are some of my creations!

For this dreamcatcher I used a lace doily as the weave. I tied the doily to the ring after wrapping it with a t-shirt and then added the charms and feathers to the lace strips in the bottom.

 This is a close up of the bottom of the lace dreamcatcher.

This one's my favorite, I used a piece of vine as the ring and then tied the weave all the way around the vine. I added an arrowhead charm to the weave then stuck feathers into the vine instead of adding strands at the bottom.

This one I made for my sister, she loves the beach and sea shells, so I had to make her a beach themed dreamcatcher for college.

These two were practice dreamcatchers before I made the vine one.

This one was difficult. I was trying not to use glue to make the antlers stay together so it isn't the most stable dreamcatcher I have. But I did the same general weave as the rest and then added the feathers to the bottom.

And lastly, another doily dreamcatcher in dark green.

I hope that these helped get your creative juices flowing! They're fun to make and look nice when they're hung up. Good luck!

Love, Sarah

Vintage Maps

Have you ever wanted to go on an adventure? I feel like I am always wanting to travel to new places but have never made that happen. It's time to change that. Even if I can't physically travel to new places around the world yet, I will with my artwork. I have been completely obsessed with vintage maps and compasses the past few weeks and I cannot wait to add them to my journal. I'm even going to make a big map from coffee and tea stains along with watercolor. I want it to be decent sized so that I can hang it up on my wall at school and at home.

Here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

This is just a simple map of the world that you can use to create your map.

Compasses are just so beautiful by themselves. I LOVE this.

Here's a huge collage of ideas

I love this picture of both the compass and the map together.

I love how this map has everything included.

Am I the only one who feels like a pirate after looking through these itching for an adventure?

I hope you guys are doing well and I am sorry that I have been slacking with my posts lately. It's been a crazy couple of months recently. Keep up with your artwork!

Love, Sarah