Recycled Jet Pack Costume

January 18, 2018January 18, 2018Leave a comment

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We’ve been having fun with empty cereal boxes lately. Combine that with Travis’s current interest in the moon and space exploration, and what better item to turn our cereal container into than a jet pack?

To start, cut the ends of two toilet paper tubes and fold them outward; they’ll look almost like little octopuses.

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Wrap the tubes in foil, then duct tape them to the ends of the cereal box.

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Note: Ideally you’ll have silver duct tape. Unfortunately, I only had yellow duct tape on hand… but it was nothing that a little silver paint couldn’t solve in a pinch!

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Next, wrap the cereal box in aluminum foil, and tape the edges with duct tape. (Add your silver paint to cover any duct tape, if needed, at this point).

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It’s up to your little explorer how they want to decorate the jet pack. Travis always needs lots of glue of course.

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We added construction paper buttons and glitter glue, because of course a project this silver needs glitter glue.

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Use hot glue to attach ribbon or string onto the top and bottom corners of the box; these will be the shoulder straps.

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Our jet pack couldn’t launch without flames, of course! A few strands of tissue paper glued into each tube solved that problem.

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And now we’re ready to fly.

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What else might you make from empty cereal boxes? I’d love to hear ideas in the comments!

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Cereal Box Racetrack

January 18, 2018January 18, 2018Leave a comment

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The next time you polish off a box of cereal, think twice before tossing it into the recycle bin. Cereal boxes make for fantastic upcycled crafts! Proof? This easy car racetrack.

To start, begin cutting down the long side of the box, about two inches in from the edge. Continue to cut all the way down, around the bottom, and back up the other side.

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Now snip the corners where the sides meet the bottom, so the piece lies flat. Repeat this step on the other side of the box, again two inches in from the edge. Join those two pieces together and you’ll have one long track. We did this with two cereal boxes, so the image below shows the resulting tracks from both boxes.

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Line your race tracks with colored duct tape to create the perfect racing surface.

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You can add embellishments such as pipe cleaner hoops for your cars to travel through.

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Later, we were feeling especially fancy and cut construction paper into decorative “flames,” which we then taped onto the pipe cleaner hoops.

Now ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!

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Travis got the hang of giving his cars a push (rather than keeping a hand on them) quite quickly, and in fact his cars beat mine in many races!

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A super easy and super fun way to race inside on a winter day.

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Egg Carton Boat

January 14, 2018Leave a comment

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Travis has been having so much fun with the foam and cork canoe we crafted a few weeks back that we decided to add to our upcycled bathtime collection!. Half of an egg carton from my in-laws’ house was the perfect base for our boat.

Cut an egg carton in half; save the remaining half for another use.

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Decorate the carton with markers or paints. Markers will probably work fine on a cardboard egg carton, but since ours was Styrofoam, we used dot markers. Travis loved making each tip of the boat a different color.

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I cut a triangle from white paper, which we decorated as well, then taped to a wooden stick. Voila! A sail.

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Stick your mast into the base of the boat, and it’s time to set sail.

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Use any toy figures you have, such as Duplo people, to be your sailors. Ahoy mateys!

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The verdict is that this boat didn’t last very long (the sail is toast the minute it gets wet), but Travis had so much fun with it that bath was double its normal length in time! I don’t post bathtime pictures, but needless to say there was lots of capsizing, splashing, rescue games, motor boats running out of gas, storms at sea, and more.

Making a Rocket

December 9, 2017December 9, 2017Leave a comment

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An extra mailing tube from the post office spurred this idea, and turned out to be a huge hit.

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To turn a simple mailing tube into a rocket, the first thing you’ll need to do is paint it silver using a metallic acrylic paint. Travis has his own agenda more and more these days, a busy three-and-a-half year old. He normally isn’t so into painting, but when I told him we were using “big boy paint” (i.e. non-washable) like real astronauts, he leaped to the task!

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Cut two fins for the rocket from cardboard and paint those as well. Let dry completely.

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For the flames of the rocket, you can trim lengths of orange and red fabric into strips, hot glue the edge of the fabric onto plastic piping, and insert into the bottom of your rocket. Or you take a vast short-cut, cut strips of orange and red construction paper, and glue them in. Yup, we went the simple way!

As the final step, I hot glued the two cardboard fins to the body of the rocket, and then made the cap. Cut a piece of shiny craft paper into a circle, and cut out 1/4 of the circle. Fold into a cone, and hot glue onto the top of the rocket.

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As soon as the glue was cool, it was Travis’s toy to zoom, and oh boy was he exited!

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It was his suggestion that we launch the rocket off a launch pad, so we repurposed an old cardboard box as our launch site.

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Definitely a big hit with this three-nager.

Color Mixing

August 29, 2017August 29, 2017Leave a comment

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I’ve recently discovered the all-natural, all vegetable-based food coloring from Watkins, which I am loving for their consistency and ease of use (no mixing required, as is the case with many natural pigments).

To have fun with the colors, we pulled out this simple game – it’s also a great way to discuss primary (yellow, red, blue) versus secondary (green, purple, orange) colors.

First we mixed our colors in 4 clear cups, one each of red, yellow, green, and blue. Add a pipette or spoon to each. Either one is good fine-motor skills practice.

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We used an upcycled egg carton for the color mixing, giving ample opportunity to make new colors in the multiple compartments of this one container. Place a little clear water in each compartment, then begin adding your colors and see what happens.

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I thought Travis might consider the game a little old-hat (we did something similar back in the spring) but he was so into his creations.

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Watching purple and orange form were big hits.

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He also was very interested in how he could make brown (which he says is his favorite color!), and intrigued when I said he could create it just by mixing all the colors together.

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An easy and fun diversion for a rainy afternoon.

String Roller Print

August 5, 20171 Comment

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You can upcycle your empty toilet paper tubes and enjoy some messy fun with this project.

To create the rollers for our prints, first squeeze glue onto a disposable plate or tray. Add pieces of string and have fun squishing the string through the glue until coated.

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Travis was actually a bit squeamish about this step, so my fingers got good and messy; I finally cajoled him into winding some of the gluey strings around our two empty toilet paper tubes.

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We set the tubes aside to dry – nap-time was the perfect pause.

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To make our prints, I splattered several colors of paint onto parchment paper. First we needed to swirl them together a bit with a paintbrush.

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Then it was time to roll through our rollers. The whole project was neat because it made me think of roll printing on fabric.

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Travis was a little hesitant about getting his fingers covered in paint, but soon the rollers were rolling about on a piece of poster board.

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He decided to add a few brushstrokes with the paintbrush to finish his creation. Overall, very Jackson Pollock-esque!

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Tree Jewels

July 2, 2017Leave a comment

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Here’s the perfect upcycling project for all your old CDs. This pretty and easy craft will make any tree sparkle.

Travis adores gem stickers, so I simply provided him with a few sheets of them and a pile of old blank CDs. He didn’t even pause before going to town.

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If you want to get more craft-y, you could glue on sequins as well, but we stuck with the sticky-back gems.

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We added a little bit of glitter glue as a final sparkling touch!

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Now find the perfect tree to hang them!

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If you save these for the winter, they would look fantastic on bare winter branches, or a Christmas tree.

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Tin Can Wind Chimes

May 23, 2017May 23, 20171 Comment

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Before you toss those cans of beans or soup, save a few for this adorable project.

Over a few days, we rinsed out three cans and set aside until dry. Then it was time to cover them with paint!

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Travis particularly loved how the paint went over the ridged parts of the metal.

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Once the paint dried, it was time to attach our chimes together – a decidedly mommy job. To make a hole in each can, I held a screw to each and hammered until perforated.

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