If you’ve been following me for a while, then you’ll remember the days when I sold custom signs on Etsy and made a living off it while attending graduate school. I still to this day get so many questions about how I made my signs! Well, in all honesty, being a graduate student on a budget meant I couldn’t afford a stencil cutting machine. So, I had to get crafty! To help celebrate my one-year anniversary of my PhD, I partnered with my friends at Varathane to spill my secret as to how I made custom signs and stencils without a stencil cutter and how you can too!
I don’t have a lot of jewelry (I actually had to steal some from other people for this photo)… but I for sure have a lot of driftwood from my walks on the beach in Montauk. In fact, I have so much driftwood, that I have a basket full of it in the closet, and no use for any of the branches. That being said, I decided to take it back to my crafting roots …
A few weeks ago the beautiful, rad, and talented Rachel Metz reached out to me about a collaboration, and I couldn’t be more stoked! Together, we put our creative brains to work and decided it would be so much fun to do a DIY swap challenge. So, the two of us went to our respective shops on opposite coasts (she’s all the way in California), packaged up some fun materials, and sent them to each other. I sent her a box full of goodies that she made into the cutest Mason Jar Sconces, and I used her materials to create bohemian mixed-media string art for my bedroom! This project was so much fun and had my mind racing – there are so many things you can do with string, nails, and wood! Here’s how I made mine, and how you can make your own!