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.

02/17/2012 - Coffee Bag Ring

This is a throw back to the folding gum wrappers in school thing. Way to reuse gum wrappers kiddos! There are some awesome candy wrapper and chip bag purses that people make using this technique, but I don't really have the gumption to make one myself. I was going to make a bracelet, but gave in to just making a ring. Please pardon the seriously dry hand picture.

Reclaimed Material: coffee bag
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors

How I did it: Since I didn't use gum wrappers I had to cut the coffee bag into strips, obviously. I cut the strips 1/2" tall about 2.5" wide. I didn't use a ruler, so I just eyeballed a template and cut them all the same size. I followed these instructions (it has been many, many years since doing this in school): gum wrapper chain instructions. Circling the ends together was a little tricky. Quite frankly it has been a few weeks since I did this so I don't remember exactly what I did, but I think I had to take one end of an inserted half to wrap through the other end and tucked or something like that.

What I would do differently: I might try this technique again to make a bracelet with another material. The pieces seemed too thick when folded and tucked, so next time I will cut them thinner and make less folds.

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.