I’m trying to be patient for spring to come but its just early March and it snowed all day….sigh.
Fortunately, I am hoarding craft supplies…including driftwood from trips to the shores last year. So let’s put it together for another rustic, nature craft.
Gather your supplies.
You will need:
- Driftwood
- Wood Slice or Stones
- Wood Scrap
- Wood Stain
- Rag and Gloves
- Eye Hooks
- Twine
Start by finding a scrap piece of lumber that will match the size of your driftwood. Lay out your pieces of driftwood to arrange them and make sure they fit! My board is 9 x 18 inches (23 x 46 cms) and its a pretty good match for my driftwood pieces.
As always, I used my little pot of Miniwax Jacobean stain. I love this dark shade.
Apply with a rag or brush in the directions of the grain. Allow the wood to dry according to the instructions. My stain can says to wait 8 hours before applying a clear polyurethane. I didn’t add a clear coat because I like the mat finish.
Here I am playing with the driftwood while the stain dries. I’m so impatient.
Now that its dry you should decide on how your going to hang the sign up.
Hang it like a picture?
Or like a sign with screw eyes and a bit of twine or jute rope? I’ve used the above options on several projects.
Now the stain is dry and I can pull it all together. I found some blue glass stones? Hmmmm. Tempting to use them but I wanted to have this look natural.
I also like the wood slice for the “O”. That is natural.
But after deliberations, I settled on small pebbles in the shape of a heart.
You can use your hot glue gun to attach the pieces to the wood. I might put this on the craft sale table at work so I used E6000 glue which is a very stinky permanent adhesive glue that will not pop off like hot glue can when it gets moved. Crack a window or work in your garage…it’s pretty strong smelling stuff.
And that is all there is to it!
Here are some other similar projects I have posted you might like….
Easy Wood Photo Frame Idea
Let’s make a 5 minute craft that looks great-a rustic picture frame that holds a typical 4×6 photo.
Before the winter weather came in our direction I planned ahead for winter crafts by cutting up scraps of lumber and coating it with a bit of dark wood stain. You never know what sort of crafts could use a bit wood and hot glue gun. I’ll post some other wood scrap ideas at the bottom of the post.
Rustic Wood Photo Holder
You will need:
-
- a scrap of wood approx. 5 inches by 9 inches
- walnut wood stain
- rag
- basic twine
- hot glue gun
- ruler
- picture hook or eye screws
- 4×6 photo
The piece of wood I used was a 1×6 board originally. In actuality its more like 5 1/4 inches wide and 9 1/4 inches long (13cm x 24cm). Use what ever you have this doesn’t need to be exactly the way I did it.
Stain the wood with a rag dipped into a dark brown stain such as Minwax Walnut or Jacobean.
After the stain is dry, choose the better looking side to be the front. Turn it over and using a hot glue gun, glue the end of the twine to the back of the wooden board approx. 1 inch from the bottom.
Wrap the twine around the board approximately 5 times keeping it fairly tight and adding more hot glue to secure each line of twine.
Repeat again 5 and 1/2 inches away from the first twine wrapped section. Have a 4×6 photo handy to test out the distance you would like the top and bottom of the photo.
Take 2 or 3 strands of twine and cut to 7 inches long.
Bend the twine in half so there is a point for the bottom of your heart.
Add a dab of glue to the bent area of the twine and secure it onto the board. I added to the top right.
Add more small dabs of glue at the top of the heart. Use very little here because we don’t want it to dribble and show on the finished side.
If you would like it to be able to hang up on the wall you could hammer in a picture hook. Another option is the screw in eye hooks and tie more twine or jute rope to hang it up.
Add a special photo and give it as a gift.
I put this on the craft table at work and it sold right away! Fortunately, I have a stack of wood ready for more crafting. See the links below for more ideas for how to use up the little pieces of wood you have in your cut off scrap pile.
Pebble Art – A Snuggling Couple
I got a nice collection of flat rocks when the weather was warmer. When you start becoming a beach pebble collector its hard to stop. Even now, although its freezing rain I still would love to escape to the beach…an hour drive away…to look for my favorite shapes of stones (hearts, ovals, circles). So I’ve stained a few small boards to turn them into Pebble Art.
I’ll show you what I made this time….
What you will need:
- 2 long pebbles
- 2 round pebbles
- small piece of drift wood
- red and yellow felt
- a twig
- a scrap of stained board or a plain canvas
- hot glue gun or E6000 glue
These two long rocks fit together perfectly for the bodies. Two round stones on top for the heads. A small piece of driftwood for them to sit on. Glue everything in place. You can stop with just these natural items or keep going to add some colour.
Here I took an inch of red felt and folded it in half and cut the shape of half a heart. I find this is the best way to get your heart shape. If I try to cut it freehand it turns out lopsided.
Trace a tin can from your pantry to make a felt round sun. Put a twig on the side and now its done.
Now it’s a couple having a snuggle at the beach, watching the sunset. Although, my 8 year old would like it to be a mother and daughter. Awe she is snuggler. I better make her one for her room!
Thanks for reading another one of my easy crafts….Have a look below for links to some of my other “Pebble Art” projects.
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Make a Wooden Book – Original Journal Gift Idea!
Have you ever thought of making a journal with a wooden cover? I hadn’t until I stumbled across this on Pinterest….from ThriftDiving.com….
….it kept coming back to my mind that this is my woodworking skill level. I really should try this!
I’m really happy with how it turned out. Rather than wood burning like Serena did. I hand painted a daisy on mine.
You will need:
- 1/4 inch birch plywood
- drill and 5/16″ drill bit
- fine sandpaper
- stain and rag
- craft paint – yellow, white, brown
- clear coat varnish and brush
- binder clips
- computer paper
- 3 hole punch
The thin birch plywood comes as a large piece that needs to be cut down. I don’t have a table saw-so I had the wood cut for me at Home Depot.
Each cover needs to be approximately 9″ x 11″. So do the math and try to get the most out of your wood board. Each book needs a front and a back cover. I was able to get 6 pieces from mine to make up 3 books and there is enough left over to make at least one more.
I stained the board and then drilled the holes. Next time I would drill the holes first and then stain the wood.
The cuts may cause some fraying of the thin birch veneer, don’t panic! Sand the rough parts smooth-the stain will also hide flaws. I used my favorite color Jacobean from MinWax.
Using a rag, rub the stain into both sides of the boards. It’s quite a dark stain so I don’t use much and start light and work at slowly going darker. Allow the stain to dry overnight.
As I mentioned above, it would be sensible to drill the holes before staining. Doing it afterwards can mean you’ll do some touch ups with stain afterward.
Use a page with holes as a template. Mark the hole with a pencil first.
Place a scrap board under the journal cover before drilling. The journal cover will be damaged if you drill without scrap wood underneath…do don’t skip this step.
For the second piece of birch you could set it right on top and drill through both book covers to make sure they are matched up perfectly.
Put in the binder rings and see how it fits. Everything fits perfectly. So take the top cover back off and prepare to personalize and decorate the cover.
Using inexpensive craft acrylic paint, I painted the daisy on in white. Then I added some highlights with tan and yellow paints.
I used this exact same daisy idea on long boards for ways to use up scrap wood. I’ll include the link at the bottom of this post.
The last step is to turn the paintbrush upside down and dip it into the paint. I added rows of dots all around the edge of the daisy’s centre and some random ones in the middle.
Again allow to fully dry.
Put a coat of clear polyurethane for extra durability. Allow to fully dry overnight.
You can use lined paper or computer paper and punch the holes in it yourself. I like blank pages if you are going to give it as a gift. It looks like a sketchbook and how great would it be to sketch with a book with a wooden cover!
Thanks for reading this post! I hope you will share it or save it on Pinterest. See below for more easy woodworking ideas.
Heart Shaped Beach Stones – Pebble Art
Make heart shaped pebble art with a collection of beach stones and natural rope on wood.
We have gone to the beach twice in October. The cool thing about going to the beach in the Fall is that no one else is there. The beach-that is typically packed with families with picnics and sunscreen….well….is empty. Have you ever had an entire beach to yourself? It’s amazing!
Our home is about an hour’s drive away from Lake Huron. If you aren’t familiar with the Great Lakes allow me to explain….
The Great Lakes
The Great Lakes aren’t your typical lakes. There are 5 and they are huge! Each looks like a sea, with rolling waves, winds, strong currents, great depths and distant horizons. According to Wikipedia if you put all 5 of the Great Lakes together the surface would be the size of the United Kingdom. Lake Huron is where we would head to see a gorgeous sunset.
If we drive an hour in the opposite direction from home, we will be at Lake Erie. If you are a morning person you can watch a beautiful sunrise on that side. Yawn…..
The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. 4 out of 5 are on US Canadian Borders (Superior, Ontario, Huron and Erie). Leaving Lake Michigan the only one that is located completely in the US. According to Wikipedia “they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water”.
Well that is enough of our fun facts for today! Moving back to our craft project and a trip to the beach.
With my eyes on the ground looking for awesome rock treasures I always marvel at how beautiful the stones are wet, sparkling in the sunshine. As we walked along looking for interesting shapes-especially hearts! What did we find but this heart made out of drift wood. Awe isn’t it Lovely!
If you look at the beach for odd shaped stones, you suddenly see how very many there are in the shape of a heart.
We came home with a nice collection of smooth stones that I sorted into a few containers for different crafts I have planned.
Circles, Oval, Hearts, Big Flat ones and some that were just wonky shapes.
If you are just buying a bag of stones from the dollar or craft store you probably won’t find heart shaped ones, but you can make a heart shape with any natural pebbles and it still looks great.
A month ago, I was spray painting things and I threw in some stones and painted them. If you have already my previous projects from the summer you will soon see that I love to spray paint things! My daughter noticed that I had painted a random stone orange but it was a really cool heart shape. This started my fixation on heart shaped stones.
On our next trip to the beach we specifically made a search for hearts, circles and long oval pebbles of any size. Bring on the rock projects!
To make this you will need:
- heart shaped stones (if you can’t find them smooth pebbles are fine)
- wooden board (I had already stained this 9 x 16 board with Miniwax Jacobean)
- jute natural rope
- hot glue gun
- 6 glue stick refills
- 2 eye hooks
To get started, I organized my love heart shaped rocks to see how big it would be on my wooden board. I didn’t glue it to on yet. Instead, I took a photo of it on my phone in case I needed to refer to it. Then I got my jute natural rope.
To decide on your letter size use your fingers to make the shape of the L. I usually “eyeball” my projects instead of measuring. Holding the rope down I wrote out the letters of the word Love on the wood.
I cut the rope ahead of time because it was quite big to work with. You might choose to leave it on the spool until the end. That’s cool too!
Using a hot glue gun put a few dabs at the top of the loop of your letter L and guide it into the shape of the letter using dabs of glue as you go along. Move on to the letter O and then join into a V and finally an E.
After the E is glued down trim the rope. Make sure the end of the E is secured so that the rope doesn’t fray and lift up.
Perfect! Next lay out the rocks in the heart shape again.
When you have the stones just where you want them. Remove each one and put a dab of hot glue on each pebble and then put in back in its place.
This craft would look good without the rope if just the stones on the wood appeals to you.
I picked up this package of screw eyes at a craft store but you can find them at the hardware store and dollar stores too. I chose the humble eye hooks so that I could have the rope on the top of the project match the “Love” at the bottom.
Simply screw these into the top of the board and tie jute rope in a knot. Now it can hang on the wall.
This is a super easy gift idea. You could really personalize it by writing your last name instead of love, or something else…maybe “faith”, “hope”, “smile”, “dream”….something that will inspire or make you smile. You could also make this any size or paint the wood board instead of staining it. Get creative!
Thanks for reading this post and checking out another one of my crafts. I have posted several rustic/wood home décor projects recently, so I’m linking them to this message for you to pop over and see too.
Please pin or share with your social network of friends.
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How to Make a Rustic Wooden Star
Have you seen these lovely rustic wooden stars and wondered, how hard can that be to make? Well let me tell you it’s ridiculous how easy it is to make this wood star.
Did I mention the wood cost is around $2.50? Say what….?!?!
You will need:
- 1×2 Board $2.50
- twine
- scissors
- stain or paint
- rag
- varnish
- paint brush
Cut the 1×2 lumber into 5 pieces 18 inches long. No wasted wood. Awesome!
I used my FAVORITE wood stain Miniwax Jacobean – it has a dark walnut look to it that I just love! You could use paint instead. Dip a rag into the stain and rub it into the wood. Follow the instructions on the tin to leave it for the right amount of time to dry.
After allowing the stain to dry, I put on a coat of polyurethane. This adds a clear coat of protection if you plan to use it outdoors. If you intend to use it indoors like on a mantel you could skip it.
Gather your finished pieces, scissors and twine….
Place one piece on an angle to the left. Lean the second piece on top,angled to the right.
Add the third piece to the bottom right corner angled up.
Next add the forth piece across….
And lastly add the fifth piece of wood. If it doesn’t look exactly the way you meant it to, shift the corners a bit.
Tie twine around each end. You could also use industrial strength glue like E6000 with the twine, or skip the twine and use nails. I like the rustic look of twine.
For extra reinforcement I tied more twine on the middle parts of the star. This extra twine made it very sturdy. Next use the scissors to snip the scraggly bits of twine close to the star.
I adore hydrangeas so I popped a few out of another arrangement and put it in on the star to test it out. Lovely, these are my favourite flowers.
One nice thing about the twine is you can tuck your flowers into it and pull them out if you want to change flowers for the next season.
I picked up a bunch of purple flowers at Michael’s and took 3 flowers from the bunch and a few little wispy bits off to use for this one. This turned out to be the one I stuck on my living room wall.
This is a dollarstore ($4) autumn decoration I just tied on for fall.
This is so easy! The only thing that takes any time is waiting for your paint or stain to dry. The lumber cost is $2.50. The only thing cheaper than that is the wreath I made for my neigbour out of twigs!
Thanks for reading to the end! I hope you’ll pin this on Pinterest or where every you network with friends.
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Make a Wooden Play Tent for the Kids!
Here is a tutorial for a DIY Kids Play Tent! This won’t take much time or money to build. It would be an easy woodworking and sewing project for kids to help with. Why did I wait so long to make this!?!? The kids love it!
My daughters have always loved building tents. It’s fun for kids to steal the cushions and blankets and chairs to build a tent….sometimes even begging to fall asleep in it. I just wish they would put the cushions and blankets back when they are done….but that’s another story.
For the tent frame, you will need:
- 3 – 1/2 inch wide dowel (4 ft long) (approx. $8)
- 2 1x2x8 wood boards (cut in half) (approx. $5)
- power drill
- 1/2 inch drill bit
- tape measure
- pencil
- paint (optional)
For the tent fabric, you will need:
- fabric 45 inches wide x 90 inches long (115 cms wide by 230cms)
- scissors
- ribbon (2 pieces 30-40 inches/75-100cms long)
- thin elastic (4 pieces 5 inches/13cms long)
- safety pins (6)
- needle and thread or sewing machine (optional)
This is literally all you need, 3 x 1/2 inch dowels. They come from the store 4 feet long so there is no cutting here. Also, 2 boards 1×2 cut in half-so you have 4 pieces of 1×2. You can ask them to make this cut at the hardware store if you don’t have a handsaw or mitre saw.
Gather your drill, tape measure and pencil.
Measure and mark 2 inches from one end and 1 inch from the other end.
Drill the hole with a 1/2 inch drill bit. Test to see if your dowel will fit through the hole. You need it to be able to slide in fairly easily. I found it too tight and frustrating to put together when tight fitting so I ran the drill through the hole again in and out, in and out, to make it slightly bigger.
The top is the end that has a hole 2 inches from the top. The bottom has a hole 1 inch from the end.
Slide the first piece of dowel through the top holes of two of the 1×2’s The second piece of dowel can be inserted into the bottom holes.
Add the next piece of 1×2 onto the top dowels to make an A.
Slide the third dowel into the bottom end of the 1×2’s.
That’s it for the tent frame. Now for the tent fabric.…
Slide your fabric over the top of the A frame. Pin a ribbon to the front and back ends.
This ribbon isn’t essential but it does look nice and it will be helpful ties when you are storing the tent away.
Pin a small piece of folded elastic onto all 4 of the bottom corners of the tent fabric.
Hook the elastics over the ends of the bottom dowels.
It looks fine with just pins holding everything in place. You may want to hand or machine sew the ribbon and elastics in place. I did sew those in permanently and also hemmed the bottom of the fabric. It’s looking good enough to give away as a gift!
After this sweet picture was taken we decided the only thing to make it better is to paint it pink.
I already have loads of spray paint….because I love to change the color of things. See my previous posts and you will find I used a lot of spray paint this summer. This project doesn’t take much paint so its a great way to use up leftovers.
After allowing it to dry put it all together. Admire your handy work!
Did I mention that this is super easy to pack up?
Fold the tent fabric in half. Next, place all the wooden tent parts on the end of the fabric.
Roll up the fabric into a tube to hold the wood pieces together.
Lastly, tie the ribbons to keep it compact for storing or travelling. Remember when the babies were tiny and you wanted a place for them to nap that was in the shade at the park or beach? This would have solved the problem!
This was so easy to make. I can’t believe I didn’t do it when my kids were smaller.
Please pin or post this to facebook and share this easy DIY with your friends!
Make a Dark Stained Rustic Wood Tray – Easy DIY!
Shortly after making this rustic wood tray I had it placed out on the table with my bowl of clementines and we had company over. My friend Tina’s eyes lit up and said that looks like a Charcuterie Board! I had no idea what she was talking about.
Apparently, these boards are French named partly because harcuterie is the French word for smoked, dry-cured or cooked meats. So during a cocktail party or anytime your entertaining you put out a sampler of all sorts of meats on a wooden board. Cheese and crusty bread or crackers, dips and olives could also be intermingled on your board.
They can be the size of a large wooden cutting board.
reluctantentertainer.com
Or as big as the table top!
moncheribridals.com
The above photo is wedding spread!
Now this is not a blog about entertaining and making beautiful food. I’m a crafter and DIY-er so I’m going to be telling you about how I made my ridiculously easy to make serving tray.
You will need:
- 1 board 2x10x8 (this is long enough to make 3!)
- 2 handles ($3 each)
- sand paper
- stain
- rag
- clear varnish or polyurethane
- paint brush
The board above is 2x10x8 cut into three pieces-so you can 2 away as gifts-That makes the lumber approximately $4.50 per tray!!!! That is amazing. When you look at these in the stores and online they can cost $50 to 100.
Cut the board into the lengths you prefer. The one I show in the photo was 31 inches long, the second one I made was 30 and the last one was 35 inches. I would recommend that you measure the side table you are going to put this on. Are you planning to make this to be a centre piece in the middle of the dining room table? Then 35 inches is great! But, if its a dresser that is 30 inches wide you don’t want to make it wider than 30 inches.
If you prefer your wood smooth, then you could sand it. If you like it very rustic then you could bang it up a bit with some random tools. I skip the sanding step usually unless there are frayed slivers on the ends of the boards.
With your stain and rag apply the color to your wood.
I used my favourite Miniwax color Jacobean 2750. I made the other pieces of board other colors (grey and ebony) but my favorite is always Jacobean.
Since I don’t plan to put any food directly on my tray I used my usual clear coat over the wood to protect from wear and tear. This means I could even leave it outside in a rain storm and it would be fine.
If you do want to place food right on top of the tray there are many food safe options. They are not as durable (don’t leave it outside in a rain storm). Food safe options: Pure tung oil, raw linseed oil, mineral oil, walnut oil, beeswax, carnauba wax, shellac. One website suggested a mixture of mineral oil and beeswax. Here is the recipe…. https://www.finewoodworking.com/2006/08/01/food-safe-finishes
I picked up 3 of the cheapest handles the hardware store had. Each is $3-5 dollars making the cost of the project $11-15 each-assuming you already have the stain and varnish in your DIY stash of essentials. If you find some handles in the craft or specialty shops or even vintage handles by all means use them. They will be on top of the tray so it could be quite the conversation piece.
I chose this one because it screws in from the top. This is actually a good point. If you put on handles with screws that go in on the bottom you may need to counter sink the screw so they don’t scratch your table top. Or you could put 2 slim pieces of wood under the wood to lift it.
If like me, you chose handles that screw in from the top this isn’t a problem. Put the handles on the board and see where you would like them to be permanently. I put mine 3 inches from the ends (this board is 30 inches long).
Voila it was that easy…its a simple board with handles.
This would look great on a side table with a few nicknacks between uses. If you do want to use this to lay out meat and cheese, olives and antipasto you could put down paper doilies, little bowls and plates or wrap the board with cling wrap. I would do this even if you use a food safe finish for faster clean up.
If you find this too long or the wood too thick cut the boards shorter to suit you and your space.
This goes to show that if you see something so awesomely simple, see if you can make it yourself for a fraction of the price.
I hope you give it a try!
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Make a Ladder Plant Stand – Easy DIY – Only $20 for Lumber
How to make an amazing plant stand on a small budget.
Help! I’m becoming a crazy plant person! My collection of plants has been growing in the last 6 months and then the plants are growing bigger…so its getting a little overwhelming…they are on the kitchen counters, bookcases and dangling from window hooks. The back of the house by the deck gets the sunshine so they are all in the same area.
After spotting the ladder-style plant shelves made out of antique ladder…..I thought the ladder shelf would be the right solution for this nutty plant buying lady.
This photo from https://abeautifulmess.com/2013/02/nesting-ladder-display-makeover.html is what got me thinking about it. I love that they painted it mustard yellow!
Rather than go in search for a old ladder I went right to the lumber store to make my own. Just a few weeks back I made a blanket ladder and its virtually the same thing-add a hinge at the top and some cross boards across.
You can change your plant stand size to be taller or shorter and add another shelf if you prefer. My plant stand is 60 inches tall and at the widest shelf, 32 inches wide. As you can see it has 3 shelves.
You will need:
- 1 – 1x9x8 Board (this might be 1x10x8 but actually is 9 inches wide)
- 4 – 2x2x8 Boards
- 2 Hinges
- Sand Paper
- Tape Measure
- Pencil
- Square
- Drill/Screwdriver
- Mitre Saw (or get them to cut the pieces at the store)
- Stain (Miniwax Jacobean)
- Varnish (Clear Coat)
- Rag and Paintbrush
- Rubber Gloves
Cut Lumber
Cut the 2 x 2 boards:
- 4 pieces 60 inches (177 cms) long
- 8 pieces 11 inches (28 cms) long
Next cut the 1 x 9 x 8 (or 1x10x8). This board was cut into 3 different lengths.
- Top – 15.5 (40 cm)Middle – 25 (64 cm)Bottom – 32 (82 cm)
Sand any rough areas after the wood is cut. If you like the distressed look you could rough the boards up by hitting it with your hammer. Scratching with the side of a screw etc. I like the rough look with this dark wood stain but I don’t want slivers. So I just sanded the ends.
A sensible person might have put the stain on now before putting it all together. However, I wasn’t feeling sensible and wanted to see if this would turn out how I imagined it. So I put it all together first and stained it at the end.
Lay out the pieces in place. Pre-drill where the screws will go. Using the 2 1/2 inch screws to attach the rungs into the sides. I put the first cross board right at the top. The next one was 15 inches below the first. The next one was 15 inches below and so on.
Now the 2 ladders are done. Lets move onto the hinges.
I chose these hinges because they are long and skinny rather than wide and short like the hinges on a cupboard.
Lay the ladders head to head on a very flat surface. Set the hinges on top and screw them into the wood.
Now I could set it up and make sure I was happy with it before going to the finishing steps.
Yup, I’m Very Happy!!!! 🙂
Stain and Protect the Wood
Almost done! Next we stain the wood. I used Miniwax “Jacobean” for a dark wood finish. I love this stain!
Wearing gloves, dip your rag into the stain.
Rub the stain onto the wood. Now is when you will wish that you did this step earlier before the ladder was put together. There is lots of corners to do if its already put together so it adds time and work. Look at it from every angle so you don’t miss any sides.
The final step is to put a clear coat. Since water could be spilling on the boards putting a clear coat of polyurethane is recommended. If you plan to put the shelf outdoors for a few months of the year you may want to put on a few coats.
I stained and allowed it to dry overnight. The next day I put on the clear coat and allow to dry over night.
It’s hard to be patient for the drying time when the rest came together so super fast!
Now the happy moment has arrived to bring it inside and add the plants.
TA DA! Having all my plants together is going to make it so much easier to remember to water them all!
This project is so simple and easy to make and inexpensive. If you have a toddler at home you may want to keep an eye on them around a project like this. The shelves are just resting on the ladder rungs. To make it more secure you could put an L shaped bracket under each shelf. Its a ladder shape but no climbing on it kids!
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How to Make a Sundial
Are you looking for an outdoor family nature project? Here is a cool idea for a sunny day. Make a SUNDIAL.
A sundial is a device that uses the position of the sun to cast a shadow to tell the time. As the sun moves across the sky the shadow moves. According to Wikipedia the oldest sundial found by archeologists is dated around 1500 BCE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial
When I started my project it was very cloudy so it got more decoration than I intended. It was going to be bare wood with a light clear coat. Our weather was cloudy and rainy for several days so I had to postpone it repeatedly. Grrr.
Technically you could make a quick sundial using a stick in the ground. Or you could use paper and a pencil stuck in playdough to make a sundial in a pinch. But if you want to make one like mine, here is the scoop.
You will need:
- a scrap of wood (mine was 9 x 13 inches)
- dowel (mine was 10 inches)
- drill
- tape measure or ruler
- 12 rocks or gems
- 1 screw 2 1/2 inches long
- hot glue gun or other glue (optional)
- watch or clock with an alarm
- pencil
- spray paint or varnish
- craft paints and brush
Cut the wood to a size you choose. I would have preferred a 12 x12 square but I had this scrap 9 x 13 left over so we used it. I also had this dowel that was a leftover and already 10 inches long.
Measure and mark the centre of your board.
Screw the dowel into the centre of the wood. This was hard to take a photo of. Put the dowel on the ground, place the block of wood on top. Ensure the x marking the centre on the wood is right over top of the dowel. Drill the screw through both pieces.
We could see the clouds coming, so we decided to start the time markings the next day and for now paint the sundial to help it last longer outdoors. If you have a partial can of spray paint or wood protector…this project won’t take much.
Spray the board and allow to dry. Tip over to paint the bottom and allow the bottom side to dry.
Once it is dry you can decide where you will have the most sun in your day. You could raise it up with bricks or a tree stump. We have a lot of shade in our backyard which normally we appreciate. But for this project it made things difficult.
Now seeing the giant rain clouds moving in. We decided to post pone and begin again tomorrow. In the meantime, we could jazz it up a bit.
Using craft paint we put wide stripes on the dowel part of the sundial.
We had a package of dollar store polished rocks so we painted a white circle on each one. This will be our pretty markers for hours. Print the numbers: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
A SUNNY DAY FINALLY ARRIVES
We did follow some of rules for making a sundial. Such as the pole needs to tilt slightly to the north. Use a compass to determine the north pole. I twisted the dowel to loosen it and put a tiny rock in that space to tilt it. If you are in the southern hemisphere you will need to use the compass to find the south pole and tilt the dowel to the south.
Just before noon put your sundial in a sunny place. The shadow of the dowel will be your first mark to write in the number “12”. I wanted that to be right at the top like a regular clock.
This is going to take more than one day to complete so make sure that no one moves it. Maybe add a note that says “do not touch” so it doesn’t move.
Next, set the alarm for 1’oclock and come back to write on the number where the shadow hits for 1pm. Write “1”. Set the alarm for 2pm and then 3pm and continue to repeat every hour until the sun sets.
After sundown, set the alarm for 7am so you can begin recording the morning time marks.
If you are going to leave your sundial outside and you haven’t already painted or varnished the sundial you should do that next to water proof it. A clear coat on the rocks is a good idea too. You don’t want the paint to shift off the stones. That can happen on polished stones.
After the times are all marked, you might want to secure the rocks so they don’t get carried away. You can use a hot glue gun (fast and easy) or E6000 glue (slow, stinky but stronger).
Our finished project does not look like a clock like other sundials. Maybe it was moved. If your kids are older you might want to do more research and see how the impact of the tilt of the earth’s access. It’s August now, will the shadows still line up in September? This project has the potential to be quite educational. Telling time, shadows, the earths axis, the solar system, using a compass,
This picture is linked to a nice pencil and paper sundial blog.
Children who spend time outdoors are more likely to be happier, healthier, problems solvers and more creative. Check out this blog post about a paper sundial. https://hubpages.com/education/Reconnecting-Children-With–Nature
https://otherwiseeducating.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/sundial.html
https://www.kcedventures.com/blog/how-to-make-a-sundial-for-kids
Here are some other posts of my projects you might enjoy!
Nature Craft – Perfect for Earth Day Activity – Clay Imprints with Plants and Flowers
