Sunday Funday, Back to School Week: Schoolhouse Windchimes

 I have seen some of the most absolutely adorable teacher gifts and Back-to-School decor on Pinterest. Why do they have to be just for gifts? What better way to foster excitement for school than to decorate areas of the house with things made from school supplies? I sort of started decorating for B2S last year when I made a wreath with rulers (more of that later this week). I also planned on making today’s pin last year but didn’t get a chance to. I saw the pin and that it lead to an Etsy site, so I was just going to buy one, but much to my dismay the item was no longer available. Looking at the photo, I decided that it looked fairly simple and could it put together myself. Here is the pin I used as a guide:

Pin: Schoolhouse Windchimes

The website leads to Etsy to a product that is expired and unavailable.

For the project I used:

• A wooden ruler
• 11 plain pencils
• Jewelry metal findings, the ones with eye pins
• Fishing Line
• Floral Wire
• Scissors or wire cutters

I started out with the pencils. You only need a short piece of the finding, so I clipped off a little over half with scissors (you can use wire cutters, but I didn’t even use my best scissors, and they cut right through the metal findings). I stuck the findings into the eraser of each pencil. Then I cut a fairly long piece of fishing line and looped it through the eye of each finding tying the line into a double knot. I repeated the process until I had 11 pencils ready to put on the ruler. I then tied each pencil to the ruler at the inch mark (1 on 1 inch, 1 on 2 inches, and so on). I did not tie one onto the 12 inch mark because obviously it would fall off of the ruler. I adjusted the pencils to the desired length and snipped off any extra line. The ruler I used had holes near the 2 and 10 inch marks. I looped the ends of the floral wire through these holes and twisted to secure leaving enough wire to hang the chimes. The project was fairly easy. I did not sharpen my pencils and really didn’t have a specific scheme in the organization, but you can use a variety of placements, colors, etc. on your chimes. I hung them from the porch and listened to the wind clank the wooden pencils together lulling me into a deep pre-school sleep. Until I woke up at 3 am freaked out worrying that my children were going to come home from school with lice the first week and didn’t get back to sleep until 5 am because every nerve in my head was causing me to itch. UGHGHGHHGHHGH. Do you think I can start a child fashion trend of saran-wrap head gear/hats? Just a thought. Anywho, the pin isn’t approved because it is no longer a working link, but the project is approved! Hope you all enjoy making your own beautiful Schoolhouse Windchimes!