Engrave It
(a lasting keepsake)
MATERIALS:
Rocks - Free
Dremel -Amazon.com $17.17
Clear nail polish - $1-3.
Total cost per rock: $1 or less depending on how many rocks or pebbles you dremmel.
HOW TO STEP BY STEP: (See below for more cute ideas)
1. Find Rocks or pebbles you like, I found a bunch at the beach, and at the local rockery. Wash the rocks. I used soap and water. I tried to pay for a couple bags at the rockery but they gave them to me for free.
2. Paint the rock with the clear nail polish, any clear polish worked for me. You can skip this step, but the polish really makes the lettering stand out more. I got a couple bottles at the local pharmacy in the clearance section for around $1-$3 per bottle.
*Make sure to paint before dremeling and not after otherwise the polish will seep into the lines and you wont see the lettering. The polish is great for mistakes though. If you make a little error, paint in the engraved lines with the polish and it will dissapear.
3. Use a pencil to draw on the rock or print out the saying you like.
My kids liked "(Child's name) Rocks!",
"Mom loves you on one side, on the other "Always and Forever".
Engraved hearts on a rock for their pockets
Some quotes for inspiration can also be found here.
4. Draw your saying on the rock with a pencil or you can also print out the saying on a printer and tape the paper onto the rock then dremel right through the paper onto the rock. I found just dremeling free-hand worked the best for me, but all three methods work.
5. Dremel away! I usually only did one or two rocks a day, depending on how many words I was dremelling and the size of the rock. I found that my arm got sore otherwise.
Lessons learned:
- Lettering often shows up better in darker rock, the type of rock you work with makes a difference.
- Ear plugs may be necessary and it is better to pick a time or place away from the rest of the family or they will be requesting (loudly) for you to stop.
- Ordinary drain rocks from the rockery were nice to work with, easier to drill than some others and become a nice dark green/grey color and white lettering when covered with polish.
- Pre-polished stones bought from Michaels and the dollar stores were nearly impossible to drill on, don't waste your time or money.
- If drilling on glass stones, lettering looks jerky no matter how hard you try to drill straight. I thought it would look cool to drill on the flat side of the glass stone so that the image would appear through the glass on the domed side. If you do letters, be sure to write them backwards so they appear forwards when you flip the stone over. Hearts and shapes or initials work better.
- the bit on the dremmel will wear out after a while. I am still going strong, but replacement bits can be found on Amazon as well.
- Shorter messages are better. Your arm will get sore otherwise.
-Dremelling in wood wasn't as satisfying because there was no color contrast between the letters and the engraved portions.
- Dremelling on metal is good for labeling tools and belongings, but takes a lot of practice to do nicely enough for jewelry due to the nature of free-hand formed letters and you could not fix it if you messed up. Also the cost of the metal blanks was a factor as well. Still some nice jewelry can be found on Etsy and made with some practice I think.
TIME SAVERS:
Here are some time saving tips I hope will help you enjoy this project even more...
Some cute ideas:
- Dremmel a four leaf clover into a pretty pebble, give it to someone that needs a little luck that day as a good luck charm.
- Dremmel a thank you for your child's teacher instead of an apple with a nice quote about teachers
- Make a bowl of pretty rocks as a center piece and give them away to friends who like them.
- Kids at playdates love to get a rock with their name in it to take home as a keepsake and it takes only a few minutes
Please let me know your ideas and thanks for visiting.
MamiJami
