Heyyyyyy! Labor day has passed and now it is officially acceptable to be decorating for fall! Even if it is still reaching the high 90's :) I've had our mantel done for about a week now and shared this IKEA frame hack earlier this week. If you are a weirdo attention person you may have noticed the arrows that were next to the frame. Well, incase you've been biting your nails waiting to see a post about them HERE IT IS!
These lovely DIY Arrows came about while cleaning the house. Yep, I was inspired by cleaning- struggle #1 of a creative brain you can't see the world with out making some project out of it. Basically I was dusting off Reeds bedside table and found a huge pile of arrowheads he has found around the property. At first I placed them in a pretty jar so that they weren't just falling all over the place. Then as I moved on to the living room I realized how cool they would be on display! I mean they are very old arrowheads once used by the people who lived here so why not share the history with our guests!
So obviously I stopped cleaning the house (struggle #2 not very many things get accomplished around here unless it is a fun project) and went about collecting supplies to make arrows to display these beautiful arrow heads with. I was trying not to make them too fake looking, by no means would these ever stay together when shot from a bow but I wanted to use materials that were a little more realistic than glitter and colored string :)
Here are the supplies I used:
Stone Arrowheads
Here are the supplies I used:
Stone Arrowheads
Semi straight twigs from the yard
White Craft feathers
White Craft feathers
Floral wire
Twine
Stripes of leather
(yes I threw in some cool old tin and aqua leather just incase I needed them, but I ended up staying true to my roots and used only "natural" things for arrows)
Then I dug around trying to find something I could split the twig with. I ended up using a cutting board, and x-acto knife with a flat edge blade. This way I could cut straight down and through the twig with out scaring myself :)
Here is the step by step to making your own decorative arrow.
1.Find a twig and arrowhead that look like they fit well together. ( I used a larger stick for this larger arrowhead so that I would be able to have a substantial amount of wood on either side).
2. Cut straight down the center of the twig about a half inch. (You need enough room for the twig to pull apart and the arrow head to slide snuggly in.)
3-4. Slide in your arrow head and adjust your twig until it is tightly in place
5. Wrap your floral wire around the twig pulling it back in and loop up around either side of the arrow head.
6. Use your twine or leather to hide the floral wire.
7. Pick out your feathers and wire them to the other end of the twig.
8. Again, hide the wire with your twine or leather.
WAHLA! ALL DONE!
Now, like I said before these are by no means sturdy. I'm sure if you have kids (or husbands) who want to play with them you could add a dab of hot glue to secure the stone arrowhead a bit better. But I knew Reed wouldn't be happy if I used hot glue because Native Americans wouldn't have used that. And boy was I right, he knit picked these arrows... Apparently Native Americans also didn't have floral wire or pick crooked sticks....
But they work lovely to display a couple of his arrowheads while not risking messing up any of the stones. I would have hated if these stone arrowheads would have lasted this long out in the weather but couldn't make it past the crafting of me!
So these lovely fellas are sitting on our mantel adding a bit of whimsy and history to it :)
What are you adding to your fall mantel this season??
So these lovely fellas are sitting on our mantel adding a bit of whimsy and history to it :)
What are you adding to your fall mantel this season??
