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Super Simple DIY Weeding Tool Hack

Mar 20, 2020

It’s time for another super simple (and super inexpensive) silkscreen cookie stencil assembly tip! If you are a member of The Colorful Cookie Club, you may have seen me talk about this (along with some other great tricks) during one of our Thursday Night LIVE tutorials. One of our members, Cherry Leigh, mentioned she had tried it and loved it, so we made one together during our LIVE. We call it the “Wacky Weeder”. This idea is just too great to keep to ourselves, so even if you are not a member of our club(yet) I wanted to share it with you! It is the best DIY weeding tool!

You may have seen or used a weeding tool with a needle in it to weed vinyl for your silk screen stencils. Well, this hack will save you some money and it is so easy to do that you can make multiples to keep in all the places you sit and find yourself weeding.

What you’ll need:

1 mechanical pencil

1 sewing needle(not to thin and not to thick so it will fit snug)

That’s it, that is all you need for this hack.

How to assemble:

First, you need to remove the pencil lead that is currently loaded in your mechanical pencil. Next, hold down the eraser just as though you were loading a single pencil lead but instead (carefully) insert your thin sewing needle, eye of the needle first. Finally, turn your pencil upside down with the needle tip on a table (or other hard surfaces), and gently push the pin against the table while holding down the eraser until the needle is fully loaded. Now all you have to do is use it just like you normally would, push the eraser until your desired amount of needle is exposed and you’re ready to get weeding! When you’re done, just push the eraser and push the pin back in using a hard surface so it’s nice and safe.

How cool is that?!? Any old mechanical pencil will do. If you’re like me you have a ton already lying around the house. Also, you’ll want to use a thin needle (the 1/5 inch ones that I had were a bit too thick) and once it’s in there you can weed all day long and it won’t go anywhere!

These things are awesome! Go ahead and make several so you can leave one at your desk, one by your machine, and one where you sit to relax for the evening. I just recommend labeling them somehow (maybe just a sticker or make a large mark with a Sharpie) so no one accidentally grabs one to write with or scoops it up and throws it in the black hole that is the pen drawer where you’ll never find it again. Or is that just my pen drawer, lol.

Do you have an awesome DIY tip, trick, or hack you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about it!

You can find many more tips and tricks like this when you join us in The Colorful Cookie Club. When you join the club, you’ll have access to 350+ video tutorials(almost 400 now!) and brilliant hacks from me and your fellow cookiers in the member’s only Facebook group. Put your cutting machine to work and grow your cookie business or expand your hobby! If there’s something cookie or stencil or cutting machine related that you’re struggling with, we will have an answer for you or we’ll figure it out together! Find the link below to all of the materials and supplies that I use and recommend.

*some of these items may be affiliate links… this just means we may receive a small percentage of the sale for sharing the products with our customers. But your price will be the same :0)

LINK TO STENCIL MATERIALS and SUPPLIES

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