DIY gem and mineral chart

One of my biggest hobbies when I was a teenager was collecting rocks and minerals. As a bit of a tomboy,at 14, I was always looking for fossils,setting stones and making my own jewelry. I was so obsessed, I would spend free time combing newly dug up areas under construction around our home, looking for that specimen I didn’t already have. I even had a subscription to Rock and Gem magazine.Total rock geek, and it kind of never left. There is nothing more beautiful than a naturally formed crystal. With that in mind, and my love of botanical charts, I’ve decide to combine the two and make this DIY gem and mineral chart. The best part is, it uses things you probably already have.Cardboard, yarn and paint sticks. I have the printables for you, so this is an under $5 project!!!

You’ll need:

1 sheet of recycled cardboard cut approximately 11 inches by 17 inches.

White craft paint

printable

glue

4 paint stir sticks

yarn

Brown/gray water color paint

 Cut your cardboard to the correct size. It should be about an inch smaller than the paint sticks on each side. I cur mine from  a box at home.Paint with White craft paint on plain side. It’s ok if it curls a bit while drying. When you paint it, just make sure the whitest part is in the middle where your cut outs are going to go. The rest can be left a bit rustic to mimic the vintage-look if you like.

After it’s dry,use hot glue and glue a paint stick to the top and bottom on the back. Flip it over and repeat on the front, lining up the sticks.

This will help flatten your cardboard.

Cut your printables out and glue onto cardboard,spacing them evenly, After, pencil in the names underneath before writing with permanent ink.

I used watercolor paints to “age” the bare wood of my paint sticks. You can also use gray paint.

Go over your letting with black ink, add yarn to hang!

Isn’t this fun?

You could also use this idea to make other charts by using vintage images.

Just right click to save as an image and use. I printed mine on card stock so it had that more dimensional feel to it when I glued it down. I hope you love this DIY gem and mineral chart as much as I do!

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