Friday, January 17, 2014

Trash to Treasures. Make Dream Catchers from CD's

Hi Angels

I had a bunch of CD's lying around handed down by my uncle (we are a family of hoarders LOL) and some embroidery threads. Now if you are something like me a blend of creative + spiritual you might just love this idea.

I converted these CD's into Dream Catchers. And I made a bunch of them and gifted them away to friends and family. Want to see how?




Here is a quick progressive snapshot of how I made them quickly.


Gather a stack of CD's if you have lots of them and divide the stash into half. So if you have 10 CD's lay divide them into 5's




Just dribble a bunch of your favorite acrylic paints colors over half the CD's. Dont worry about perfection. Its just got to be random. I used the colors that may have started to thicken and threatened to be totally unusable if not used soon - I actually used ceramic paints because I had a bunch of them (remember I am (used to be) a hoarder) that were about to dry and I had no tiles to paint away. But use absolutely any acrylic paint, the one in tubes, free flowing any.

Then take one plain CD and mush it around over a paint dribbled CD, rotate it around a bit in your hand, play and once you separate them you will have two colorful CD's in no time. This is how my colorful stash of CD's looked. And they were done in no time.



The large gaps you see in some CD's below were painted away with a brush randomly with that yellow color. The yellow goes with everything




Once dried I simply created a web like design on the colorful CD's with Black. Once the black dried I created them with random white web like lines. You don't need the web to be perfect and the CD has a hole in the centre to guide you with the final look. And finish off with a white circle on the edge. (this photograph is another batch so wont see it here) I like that look better but its up to you. 



While these dry take some threads (I used embroidery threads which were lying idle again), cut them up in equal length - approx 6". I needed 6 per dream catcher. (two CD's will make 1 dream catcher). I cut them all and kept them ready. Cuz the next step is messy. If you want more beads at the top then cut 1 per CD longer (if becomes half the size when folded to enable it to dangle) Like I did in one batch of CD's.  



Again divide the stack of CD's back to half. Then applied a strong adhesive on the uncolored side of the CD's (if you have many CD's work on 5 at a time). Placed the threads on the CD's like this. I first folded one piece of thread for the top. Then placed a single thread at the exact opposite. That gave me the rough measurements. The sides where then easy.



And covered it with one more CD, colored side up and pressed it a bit and left them to dry. So now I have the strings sandwiched in between two CDs.   



Once done you can start the fun part of attaching your favorite beads and charms and simply knot them. I happened to have a feather like bead that went well with the dream catcher. U cut off some extra strings from the bottom once finished. 




So here you go the final set of CD's. Never mind if the little bit of CD background shows cuz they still look great and shiny.


I love the way they turned out and I am glad I at least stalled them from getting into the trash. Well at least for a while. 

Make your own. And come back and show me yours. 

Much love and light
Prerna Poojara

Catalyst for Creative Compassion.



PS: In case this post inspired you and you make some would love it if you mentioned this linked.













2 comments:

Laura S Reading said...

What a beautiful way to use things you have laying around.

They would look great hanging in a tree over a hammock.

Prerna Poojara said...

Yes Laura DogsMom. I totally love the idea of hanging them in a tree.