04/02/2012 - Noah, the finger puppet

Zoe gave me this idea by grabbing one of the ends I cut off of an inner tube during the big basket project. She put one on her finger and walked around saying she had a finger puppet. She also named this little guy. I told her I made the finger puppet for her. She looked at it skeptically and said, "his name is Noah." Then she snatched out the green hair and said, "because he has NOAH hair." This is what she gets from the Bible stories I tell her?

Reclaimed Material: rubber inner tube, button, plastic bottle ring, green thingie
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors, Sharpie, X-acto knife

How I did it: The tube was already cut to the size I needed and I had already cut skinny little strips. I used the X-acto to cut little notches along the top to string the skinny rubber strip through to bring the top together around the hair that was going to be pulled out anyway. I cut two more notched to sew on the button, using the rubber strip. After cutting two more notches for the mouth placement, I cut the plastic ring in half. The ring had little flaps on it, so I notched them on each side to hold the mouth in place after I tucked it into the rubber. I drew a black circle on the button to make the eye and gave Noah to Zoe the next morning.

What I would do differently: It would be fun to make more Zoe-approved puppets.

03/24/2012 - Rubber Octopus Toy

I have this weird thing where I critique rubber inner tubes. My favorite class of inner tube are the lovely ones that are shiny and wide. Some of the tubes I go through are nasty with bits of the road imbedded in them, filled with a green goo after a flat, or covered in bright orange patches. Those tubes give character to some projects, but they are not my preference. I wrote all that to say that this little buddy is made from my favorite type of rubber.

Reclaimed Material: rubber inner tubes
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors, white marker

How I did it: I tied a simple knot in a piece of rubber inner tube. I tucked one of the ends into the knot so that both ends came out the same side to make the legs. I cut the two ends into 24 kind of equal strips by cutting the ends in half so there were four pieces, then again to make 8 pieces. I cut each of those eight strips into thirds. Next I braided the thirds and tied them off to make each leg. I used the white marker to draw on the face. 

What I would do differently:  I was trying to for a "clockwork orange" thing with his eyes, but the execution was not so successful. I need to little bits for faces and also maybe stuff the head with fluff. Zoe is happy with him though.

01/30/2012 - Cardboard Tube Owl

Whooo" loves this project? I do! The flu bug has stricken my household and this was all the energy I could summon to fulfill my New Year's Resolution. This was a great pin I found on Pinterest, http://pinterest.com/pin/181621797442261216/. Not sure if that link will work, but here are some similar instructions: http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2010/10/owl-family-play-set.html. 

Reclaimed Material: toilet paper roll, fabric scraps, map 

Other/New Material: googly eyes 

Tools: glue, tape, scissors

How I did it: The first thing I did was cut the map (that came with junk mail) to fit around the roll and glued it to the roll. I focused the map on my new home state of Oregon. I folded down the top of the tube to make the owl's ears and taped it down. The scraps I used for the wings and beak are from a Christmas fleece project and are green and yellow in honor of my hubby's Oregon Ducks. I cut and glued the scraps on and added the googly eyes.

What I would do differently: Next time I will include my daughter on this owl-rific adventure...once the flu bug has left the premises. I just covered the roll, but will paint it next time. I also saw a cute little picture of this project where both ends were folded down to make a little gift box. Too cute.

01/25/2012 - Plastic Lid Quote Magnet

This wasn't as ambitious as the previous project, but was still fun. I was originally going to make a photo frame, but changed my mind when I saw this neat picture in an old newspaper and the car reminds me of my new home, Oregon. This is an easy craft for everyone. 

Recycled Material: plastic lid, newspaper, cardboard
Other Material: clear nail polish, magnet
Tools: X-acto knife, glue, Sharpie marker, paint pens

How I did it: I used a lid from an empty raisin container and cut out the inside, leaving about a 1/8" border from the rim. I then cut the cardboard and newspaper to fit tightly inside the lid and glued the paper to the cardboard. I used the paint pens and Sharpie to add small touches of color to the picture then popped it into the back of the lid. There is probably a better way to do this, but I squeezed some good ol' Elmer's glue along the edges between the cardboard and plastic to hold it in place and wiped off the excess. I cut a magnet sheet to fit and glued it onto the back of the cardboard and let it dry. The picture was still missing something so I painted it with clear nail polish. I liked the effect because it pulled the newspaper print from the back side and gave the car a little more personality.
 
What I would do differently: I cut the plastic by hand, but next time I will use a straight edge to get a nice cut.

01/16/2012 - Game Card/Toy Wire Notebook

This is a very simplistic project, but was fun to do. The game cards are from an old Magic Trolls game I intercepted from the garbage. The paper I just pulled out of our recycling bin and I found another use for the toy wire - hooray me!

Recycled Material: game cards, paper, toy wire
Other Material: none 
Tools: paper cutter, small hole punch, round pencil, long nosed pliers  

How I did it: I trimmed about 25 rectangles to the size of the game card using the paper cutter. If you don't have one, this can be done by hand with scissors or sneak into a FedEx Kinko's to use their fancy paper cutters. I made sure the printed side of the paper was facing down and used 2 cards, one for the front and for the back. I took a shorter piece of the toy wire (about 7" long) and wrapped it tightly around the round pencil to make the coil and ended up with 7 loops. I stretched the coil as evenly as possible to the length of the top of the cards and paper then evenly marked the placement for the holes on the back of the front cover and punched 7 holes. I used the cover as a guide, then took about 5 sheets of the paper and made them flush with the card and punched the holes in the paper. I continued this until all the sheets and the back cover were punched and put the covers and paper together. I started twisting the coil in by inserting one end into the first hole and started twisting the coil, guiding the end of the coil into each hole until I reached the end. I used the pliers to bend both ends inward about 1/4".

What I would do differently: I thought this was a cute little project that kids could do easily. They could use yarn or ribbon to tie it together, but this wire seems o.k. for kids to use since it is coated in plastic...unless you cut it, then it will have sharp edges and need to be filed down. Another idea would be to reuse the coil from a used notebook.

01/03/2012 - Plastic Ring Bracelet

If you like Dr. Pepper, you may recognize these rings. I have been saving these rings for while now trying to come up with something fun to do with them. This would probably be a great project for kids, except using ribbon or yarn to connect the rings instead of jewelry wire.

Recycled Material: plastic bottle rings
Other Material: jewelry wire
Tools: long nose pliers with clippers, cuticle clippers, thin barrel (like a pencil)

How I did it: First I prepared the jewelry wire by creating little rings by tightly wrapping the wire around a pencil and created 10 rings (I made a couple extra in case I messed anything up). I slid the wire off and snipped each of the pieces in the same spot with the needle nose pliers. I am a newbie at wire wrapping, but I was told that you open the ring one toward you and one away from you. If you pull it open outwardly it won't ever close back properly.

All of the rings had sharp little notches inside them so I used the cuticle clipper to snip them off...and that really was not fun. If you decide to try this, I highly recommend using plastic rings without the sharp notches. I attached the rings using the wire rings I made. I also clamped done around the wire rings to help make them stronger...also something I had heard.

What I would do differently: Unless I am really bored, I won't use the sharp notched rings again. Milk rings and other plastic rings aren't as aggressive as the Dr. Pepper bottle rings.