Thursday, March 29, 2012

Popsicle Stick "Snap" Bracelet

Marquette here! We received a Pinstrosity from Amanda about making bracelets out of popsicle sticks. Genius right?

The Original Pin
http://www.thepinkandblueblog.com/2011/06/be-your-own-designer-diy-popsicle.html
Boil the sticks for 15 min., shape in a cup and "Wah Lah!" "Voila" a bracelet! (Wah Lah is bit of a family joke...I know it's voila, but we've been getting a lot of comments and messages about that, so I thought I'd "fix" it). Awesome, no? Amanda, along with her mother-in-law and niece, decided to try these out, but they ran into problems when the popsicle sticks kept snapping and breaking instead of bending to fit the cup (there's the snap part of these popsicle stick snap bracelets...hahahaha, I'm so funny. Ok, not really...today I'm not feeling so witty). They even tried soaking the sticks longer, and that didn't work either. Then the cups they had on hand had to large of a circumference to make a bracelet that would fit well. Amanda said "I don't see these curling around my wrist." 

The Pinstrosity

I couldn't pass the chance up to test this out and see what I could come up with. I love testing pins and projects. Anyway...here's how mine came out:


I decided to do my testing in stages to see if I could figure out how to get these bracelets made. I stuck one popsicle stick in a jar of room temperature water, then I put 3 other sticks in a pot of boiling water. After 15 minutes I pulled one stick out of the pot and I pulled the stick out of the room temperature water. The stick in the room temp. water bent into the glass beautifully, no problems at all. The stick that was in the boiling water for 15 minutes snapped in half really easily. I pulled the next stick out of the boiling water after 25 minutes of total boiling time, and that stick bent to the shape of the cup, but it was hard to get it in the cup and it wanted to snap. It didn't form to the cup completely, it's still kinda stiff. The third stick I pulled out after 35 min. of total boiling time and that stick bent to the form of the cup beautiful and easily. They are all still drying (the directions on the blog say to let them dry overnight, so they are still drying), so I don't know the final finished results, but I imagine they'll dry just fine. I used the smallest cup I have and, like Amanda, I think these are going to be too big for my wrist.

So, either let the sticks soak in room temp. water and immediately shape to the cup, or let the sticks boil for 35 min. and let it cool before forming them to the cup.

Now I just have to decide how I want to paint or decoupage them. Hmmm....

                                                                                                         

9 comments:

  1. What was the final outcome

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    1. The sticks dried beautifully, but as I feared they were way too big for my wrists. The cup I used to dry them was too large. I need to find something smaller and try again, but I'll have to use something other than a cup because I used my smallest cup.

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  2. I tried it and the sticks only went half way around my wrist and then fell off.

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  3. I tried these as well and they are too big, but I think I'm going to drill a small hole in each end and braid some twine or embroidery thread to actually hold it on. I also sprayed mine with a high glass acrylic spray.

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  4. so which one worked the best? room temp or 35 mins of boil

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  5. I'm a craft director at a summer camp and when I saw this, I was instantly ecstatic about the concept of getting rid of popsicle sticks. I didn't boil my sticks, I let them sit in water for a day or two. They formed to the glass...okay, but not great, and I let them sit in the glasses for a few days. But when I took them out, they almost instantly started to straighten out again.

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  6. I made this back in February, and had success. I used the boiling as suggested in the pin. I broke quite a few, but ended up breaking less if I left them in the glass for a day or so. I decopaged both sides, and clear coated with acrylic spray. Also were too big for my wrist, so I drilled a small hole in each end and knotted some ribbon on long enough to tie on with a box. Here's a picture:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/feelthelove/6420200573/in/photostream

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  7. I tried this and the cup was also to big so it formed a half bracelet lol. Also broke 4 sticks out of 8

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