Last week I braved the open road and took all three kids camping by myself. We went over to eastern Washington, where I grew up, to visit my mom. While we were there I attempted to expose my kids to as much nature and wild and crazy play as I could in the hopes that they would sleep realllllly hard at night. One of the days we went out to the river and while the kids splashed and frolicked I quietly gathered sticks so that I could make this dream catcher when I got home.
Before we left on our trip I had whipped up a dream catcher for my girls’ bedroom. Never to be left out my son asked if he could have one for his room too. I didn’t think he’d appreciate the lace and floral motif as much as they did, so I started brainstorming ways to make a dream catcher a little more boyish. I’ve mentioned before what a huge Harry Potter fan he is (printable Harry Potter tattoos ring a bell), and so the idea was born!
I gathered three sturdy sticks for the frame, and then found a thinner stick that had been living its life underwater for the better part of forever, Because it was so water logged it was fairly pliable so right there on the river bank I bent it into a circle and tied it in place using water soaked pine needles. A girl’s gotta do, what a girls gotta do! My son found a curly stick, that he says was an exact copy of the elder wand. I stashed all my goodies under the seat of my car, for safe keeping from little fingers until we got home.
The first step was to lay out the frame. Two of my sticks were too long, but I knew I could cut them down once it was assembled. I placed them how I wanted and then used hot glue to attach them. I then placed the elder wand in the center and glued it down as well. Lastly, I carefully undid the pine needles and glued my circle (the resurrection stone) to the back of the elder wand. The frame was complete!
When I made the girls dream catcher I sewed all the ribbons and accessories on with a needle and thread. It was tedious, time-consuming and to be honest, really frustrating. This time, I opted for more hot glue! I pre-cut all my ric-rac, yarn, and ribbon to similar lengths (no need to be exact) and laid them out. Then I squeezed about an inch of hot glue onto the back of the bottom of the frame. I placed all the ribbons in the glue so that I could fold them over the frame and you would never see the glue.
Once all the ribbons were glued down I started with the feathers. I personally don’t think you can have a dream catcher (even a boyish one) without feathers. Plus, they are pretty. I used my new Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine from Spellbinders (it’s not available until August 23, but you can pre-order now!!!) to cut the feathers all at once. Yep, I just folded my fabric up and rolled it through. The machine is super strong and can cut through 4 layers of fabric at once without batting an eye! I then applied a tiny amount of hot glue to the stem part of the feather and randomly stuck them to the yarn, ric-rac and ribbon.
Once I was all done I chopped the excess sticks off the top with our saw. You might want to do this earlier on in the project (like before you start gluing anything) but I like to live dangerously so I waited until I was done. Then I wrapped a piece of twine all around the tops of the triangle, and glued a loop down at the end of the piece so I could hang it.
Before I knew it, I was done! I absolutely love the natural materials paired with the ribbons and yarn. The fabric feathers are a nice addition and really give it that dreamy feel (see what I did there!)
