Ryan Galiotto

Suncatchers and windchimes, I think, are always an effective item. Generally they can be produced quite easily from items that you already own. So what I am about to suggest making, is done using old compact discs.

How can you do this and what will you need? Not too much, some scissors, glue, bells, old CD’s and something to hang your items on. You have choices for this, narrow ribbon, string, twine, cord etc. in any colour you like to choose.

So, now you are feeling a bit more adventurous, let’s forge ahead! After all, you are not going to need much to complete this project. You have your CD’s, so what you now need to do, is to pick the first two up and put the labels face to face. Using your glue, simply stick these together like this, then do exactly the same with the remaining two.

Bear in mind, this idea can be adjusted to suit where you want to actually hang this. First of all, you will need to cut about 36 inches of fine ribbon. You then need half of this on each side of the first two CD’s, so go straight through the middle of these and do a tight knot on the edge which will be on the outside.

Your second CD now needs to be added to this so that it will end up on top of the first one. To do this, one string has to go through the middle of the CD and be joined with the other string and knotted at the outside edge again and then knot again.

Now we can add some bells. As you, in this case, have used colourful CDs, I think that it would be quite nice to spray or paint your bells on the outside with coloured metallic paints. With both strings together, attach a bell just above your CD, then move about two inches up and add another.

In this manner you could end up with three or four, but do leave enough cord to be able to hang your catcher at the top. I leave the choice of how you hang your bells to you. You can knot them with space above and below, or you could fix them on to the two separate strings at alternate type of spacings.

It is still possible to hang smaller bells, or whatever you like, from the base of the bottom CD. So, if you were to hang two or three strings, they would all jangle, and you could not only use bells, it would look good with some coloured beads or use some of both. You can buy plastic crystal beads in handicraft stores now which would catch the light well.

This would work similarly with silver CD’s, but there is nothing to stop you spraying these with other colours. Crystal beads would work well with silver CD’s.

Try hanging this in the garden, it might keep the birds off your seeds!