How To Paint Pebbles And Rocks

Every time I visit the beach, field, or river, I always pick up some flat, or interesting shaped stones to paint. I have been doing this since I was a kid, and have always enjoyed using the stones as a canvas.

The picture shows a bowl of stones that I have painted up to look like cacti. This was a really fun project to do, and made a fantastic gift for my mother.

She loves unique items in her home, and has placed this cacti bowl in her bathroom, where it is too dark to keep a plant.

How To Make Plant Markers With Found Objects

This is a very simple how-to, on how to make plant markers, it came about when I began to build up far too many pieces of pottery, pebbles, and bits of river glass, that I pick up on my adventures outdoors.

I have a whole cabinet full of my favorite finds, but things that are mediocre or plain, do not end up there, and I sometimes have a hard time trying to figure out what to do with them, besides throwing them away.

I was in desperate need of some plant markers for my herb and medicinal garden, I did make some out of wood, but after a year, these were getting really rotten and damp. Anything rotten and damp attracts pests, so it was time to get rid of them and replace them with something more permanent.

I don't actually need to mark my herbs as I know exactly what they are, but my partner has no idea, he uses the herbs for cooking, so I like to have labels on all the plants for his benefit.

5 Ways To Display Beachcombing Finds

What to do With Beachcombing Finds

It is always exciting to come back from the beach laden with treasure, but what to do with it once home can be a challenge. I curse when I think of all of the beautiful finds that I have lost over the years, because I know if I was a bit more organised I would still have them with me.

 My main problem used to be that I would use the items I had found to dress the tops of my flower pots. This looks lovely, but unfortunately small finds can work their way down into the soil with watering, and disappear from sight and mind. I have lost a lot of fossils and minerals that way. When it came to changing the soil I used to just throw it away, going through all your old plant pot soil to find pieces of china, small minerals, and such is not much fun.

Nowadays I try to think of interesting ways to display my beachcombing and nature finds, this could be making them into a home decor item, a gift, jewelry, or just finding a nice way to organise and display my collection.

Creating Jewlery From Beach Finds And Other Found Objects

One of the nature crafts I most love to do is to create jewelry out of my beach and river combing finds. You will be surprised at how many cute things can be found and made into pendants and charms.

I like to use old fashioned wire wrapping techniques as this gives the piece a rustic and natural feel, but things can be mounted in a host of other materials and ways. I will be giving some tutorials to show how to mount sea glass and other found objects later on in this blog.

Today I will focus on wire wrapping; some of the things I like to use for wire wrap pendants are..

old pottery - the more patterned and colorful the better, make sure it has no rough edges..