Hi! I Still Matter has decided to create a section in our blog for artsy ideas we come up with so you can try them at home! Some of these are our original ideas and some are inspired by Pinterest or by other blogs and the like. The following is an idea seen on Pinterest. I wanted to do something more than just make a dreamcatcher so I came up with a “Dreams Catcher” because I thought it would be neat to write actual dreams as positive affirmations. Items needed for project are listed at the bottom of the blog.

To start, I gathered things from around my house (but I hoard arts & crafts so I already have a ton of stuff) to see what ideas I could come up with before purchasing anything. I had a ton of buttons and ribbon so that was a pretty good start. I used to make beaded bracelets so I thought it would be neat to use some of my beads. I collected those things and realized the main thing I needed was a grapevine wreath. If you don’t have one or don’t want to purchase one you can use any type of ring to make your Dreams Catcher. You could find an old dreamcatcher and redo it or you can use basically anything that would be a nice solid base. Go for a walk and find a vine to use. Just make sure it’s thin enough to bend and thick enough to be able to reinforce if you need to.

Once I added all the ribbon (with a glue gun) I used buttons as weights on some of the ribbons that weren’t laying the way I wanted them to. You can do this by using the hot glue gun to line up two of the same (or different) buttons on both sides of the ribbon.

The words you see in the above photo were purchased at Michael’s craft store. They have a sticky back and I’m still debating on whether to add Mod Podge.

“Create friendship”, “Imagine”, “Find posibility in magic”, “Embrace love”, “Share adventure”…

Things you may already have at home:

Ribbon, Beads, Findings, Buttons, A ring or vine-type base, old earrings or costume jewelry, unique cloth you can cut up for decoration and fishing line you can use to thread beads. I used an old head band I never wear for the pearls in the above picture. The feather came from an old dreamcatcher. I purchased the paper flowers from Michael’s craft store.

A good place to look for inexpensive craft items is the antique store. They often have things in bulk such as: ribbon, beads, buttons, old keys and other random things you’ll realize you can use once you start looking.

As far as the middle part of the Dreams Catcher…I did that part at the very end. I actually looked at another dream catcher I own to help me with how to tie the string. You can do whatever you want, however you want to do it. I suggest you look at a dreamcatcher you might have or Google an image and try to copy it.

Take your time with your Dreams Catcher. Find a calm space and let yourself If your inner critique decides to start giving you some negative talk (“you aren’t an artist”, “you’ll never do this well”) tell it to GO AWAY! Tie a figurative rock to those negative thoughts and let them sink so far down that they aren’t able to come back up.

If you decide to complete this project share photos with us! You can find us on Instagram at #istillmatter or on Facebook. Thank you for reading and happy crafting!

~ ISM