Again, there are so many gift ideas you can come up with for someone’s
birthday or Christmas present, but here are a few tried and true ideas:
For outdoor lovers or those people who love to have outdoor decorations,
there are two great ideas that are low in cost but high in quality.
The first idea is sun catchers. You may have seen these in specialty shops
or in gardens around the neighborhood – but why spend $20 when you can make
them for so much cheaper? All you need is small mirrors cut into squares,
triangles or circles (either purchase a cheap full length mirror and take to
your local hardware store to cut, purchase glass cutting supplies and do it
yourself or you can even purchase already cut mirrors in the craft section of
your local craft or large grocery store), colored glass stones (make sure they
have a flat surface on one side), fishing string and swivel interlock snaps
(found in the fishing section of any store) and some high strength epoxy.
Cut your fishing line at the right length (usually 1 and a half the length
of your arm) and then tightly secure one side of the line on the circle end of
the swivel interlock snap. Once secured, take the other side of the fishing
line (the one with nothing attached to it) and bring it through the interlock
portion of the swivel (the odd-shaped portion of the swivel snap which is
locked into place). This should create a loop which your sun catcher will hang
from.
Then, the creativity begins. Decide how you want your sun catcher to look –
you can either have a specific design – mirror, glass stone, mirror, glass
stone and so on, or all mirrors or stones – or a completely random design. Once
you decide how you want it to look, take the mirror or glass stone and apply
some epoxy to it. Place it on your work surface (an old board or other area
that you don’t mind epoxy getting on) face down so the flat non-mirrored side
is facing up. Stick your string on top of it at the location you desire, and
work it into the epoxy. Then, pick the exact same colored glass stone or mirror
shape and apply epoxy to the flat or non-mirrored side and place it on top of
the other stone or mirror and string. This created a double-sided effect. Hold
the two stones or mirrors together for one minute, and then move on to your
next portion of the sun catcher.