Mother's Day Gift Idea ~ Bamboo Tile Cuff Bracelet

Hey all!!

Today was a great day ~ we moved the last of the chicks out to their new chicken house which is where they will reside until late fall when they will move in with the "big" chickens (1 1/2 year olds).

This evening Dh and I walked to the field behind our barn to see how the oats were coming along and as we were walking along the fence line we found 3 morel mushrooms!!! If you've never had any they are delish! This is the only time of year they are available and somewhat elusive so we were pleased to have found what we did. (I have a photo of them and will post it tomorrow.) Of course we came right home and fried them up ~ mmmmmmmmmm What a treat :)

Today's gift idea uses bamboo tiles, Archival Ink, a few stamps and a length of jewelry hemp.

To color the tiles I simply rubbed them on the pad of the desired color of Archival Ink. Archival Ink drys fairly fast but I heated each tile to dry it quicker.

Next I stamped a design on each tile using the same color of ink, again heated to dry.

Finally I stamped the letters on each tile. Now this could be any word, name, etc.... Totally up to you what you add to the tiles.

After the tiles were dry I sprayed them with a couple of coats of acrylic sealer to protect the ink and add a bit of gloss.

Once the sealer had dried I strung them on some hemp jewelry cord, braided each end and added a couple of beads for decoration. Honestly the braiding took longer than it did to make the tiles!

You can use any number of tiles you need to vary the length of the bracelet. The width of each tile is approximately 1 inch wide give or take a bit which will give you a pretty good guestimation on how long the finished bracelet will be. For example, mine is just about 8" long. Of course the ties can be used to add additional length if necessary.

So now you have a cool cuff bracelet for your mom or anyone else you might need a gift for :)