Dinosaur Bike Makeover

Another week down in the So You Think You're Crafty Competition. For last week's theme "Let's Hear it for the Boys" I made this Dino Bike for my nephew. ( BTW- This week's theme is "Out and About". Voting ends tomorrow.)

My dino-bike started with a $5 bike I picked up at a tag sale. The bike was functional but definitely needed a makeover!

My nephew loves dinosaurs. The shape of the handlebars reminded me of a dinosaur's jaw line, so I decided to create a dino's head on the front, and paint the rest of the bike to look like the body.

The mister took the bike apart. Then I cleaned off any dirt and grease on the frame and taped off the areas I didn't want to paint over.

To paint over the old blue paint I used the Martha Stewart Spray Kit. (If you're curious about this kit I used it for the first time recently on another project. I talk about my impressions of the kit in that post, which you can find- here.)

The main color of the bike was a green called Scottish Highlands. Once that was dry I sprayed highlights on the front and underside of the crossbars using a yellow called Yellowjacket.

Then I used a brush to paint dark green (a color I mixed myself) stripes.

Finally, I sprayed the entire frame with a glossy finish coat/sealer.

For the dinosaur's head I needed something that was light enough to easily attach to the bike, and most importantly, soft so if my nephew bumped his head or face on it he wouldn't get hurt. Craft foam fit the bill perfectly, but I would need to make it weather resistant if it had any chance of holding up on the bike.

Before cutting the head out of the foam I used a grocery bag to create a shape that matched the curve of the handle bars. I folded the grocery bag in half, cutting out just half the shape of the dino's head. When I unfolded the paper I had a symmetrical shape.

Once I had a shape I was happy with I used the grocery bag as a template and cut the head out of the foam.

Before painting craft foam it has to be sealed (otherwise it will soak up the paint and dry blotchy). Usually I do this with regular Mod Podge, but this was an opportunity to help make the foam weather resistant so I sealed it using outdoor Mod Podge.

Once it was dry I painted the dinosaur's features with acrylic craft paint, that was water resistant. Then sealed it again with a waterproof spray sealer.

The mister put the bike back together and I attached the dino's head to the handlebars using a waterproof glue that was for use on both metal and foam.

I'm really happy with how this $5 bike makeover turned out. I can't wait to see my nephew ride his new dino bike!

Pet Rock Crab

That titles so close to being Rock Lobster that now I want to make an actual rock lobster just so I can title a post "Rock Lobster"as a B-52's homage. Anyway- Here's a recycled post I hope you'll like. I first wrote this back in 2009 (when I think about 3 people read this blog) so for many of you it will be new and not recycled at all. It's an oldie but a goodie- the painted rock.

I used to color and paint on rocks all the time as a kid. I loved to collect interesting looking rocks and pebbles on beach vacations or playing outside- some were interesting enough that I kept them as rocks, some just seemed like they wanted to be something else- a dog, a dinosaur, a rabbit, a turtle, or like today's rock from the garden- a crab.

It's been eons since I've decorated a rock- but there's something about them that's just too cute.

For this little crustacean I painted the rock red, while that was drying I dug through some mini seashells.

I found pointy ones that reminded me of claws and white ones I thought would make interesting eyes. For the claw I glued a smaller pointy shell inside a larger one. At the last minute decided on googly eyes instead of painted eyes so I glued those onto the white shells.

Once the rock was dry I glued the eyes and claws on- and gave Mr. Crab a happy little smile with a sharpie.

Making your own recycled paper

I first did this tutorial as a guest post on Ready, Set Craft! this summer. But thought it would be a great indoor craft project for all these snowy winter days most of us are having.

Making your own paper using recycled paper is fun and easier than you might think!

I first made paper back when I taught museum programs for kids. But it’s not just a great project for kids. I’ve enjoyed making paper for my own cards and crafts over the years.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A cheap wooden picture frame (You can find frames at almost any dollar store or discount chain, I think I paid a dollar each for mine). Any size you like is suitable but 8x10 or 11x14 are the easiest work with.
• Roll of fiberglasss window screen. You don’t need anything fancy. Mine was inexpensive (6 dollars at a home improvement store) and there is enough to make more paper frames than I’ll ever need.
• Staple gun
• ¼ inch staples (or the smallest that will fit into your staple gun)
• An old blender
• Scissors
• A plastic container that’s larger than your frame
• 2 more containers for holding scraps of paper and water
• A cup (to our water into the blender)
• Various papers that are ready to be recycled
• Felt Sheets (At least dozen is good- you’ll need about two per sheet of paper you want to make)
• Newspaper and some hand towels or paper towels
• Dry sponge
• Duct Tape (Optional)

First, in order to make paper you’ll have to make a paper frame. Remove the glass and cardboard backing form your frame- you’ll only need the wooden part.

Cut a square of screen that fits over your frame. Lay the screen over the front side of the frame and staple once to hold it in place.

Pull the screen on the opposite end of the frame so it’s tight and staple in place.

Work you way around the screen, pulling the screen tight over the frame and stapling it into place.

Cut the excess edges of the screen off.

If you want you can use duct tape to cover the staples and ragged edges of the screen. (I didn’t but it’s probably a good idea if you are going to do this project with kids).

Once you have the paper frame made you’re ready to get going.

Start by ripping paper into small pieces. I like to rip paper in big bunches at a time so I wind up with a container full of paper bits that I can grab anytime I need to make more paper pulp.

Mostly I’ve used white and cream colored printer and notebook paper that results a white/off white pulp that can be left as is or colored if I want (by adding bits of colored tissue paper into the blender with the white paper). You could also use torn up colored paper if you like.

Note: You can also use paper from your shredder but you’ll end up with a confetti textured paper. The blender doesn’t chop of those small shreds very well.

Place a few handfuls paper into the blender.

Make sure to use an old blender, one that won’t have any food prepared in it anymore. Once you’ve blended the paper you’ll want this to be a “craft blender” form now on.

I don’t fill the entire pitcher- this is just asking to burnout the blender!

Add about twice as much water than you’ve got paper and blend on high about 15 seconds until you get a fairly smooth looking pulp. (the occasional pulse also helps to break up any large clumps).

Pour the pulp into your large container.

(There is about 3 batches in here.)

Now add enough water so you are able to dip the screen into the paper slurry. And it’s time to dip the screen, it should go in staple side down.

Dip your frame in like your digging or shoveling (tilting front end in first followed by the back) so that you get a slight scooping action. If you’re doing this project with kids- younger ones usually need help dipping to avoid the screen plopping in straight down.

The key here is to get the water to sort of flow over your screen evenly. The water will go through the holes in the screen but the little bits of paper suspended in it will get stuck.You’ll get this nice pretty screen of sopping wet paper pulp.

Let the screen drain over the container for a minute. While it’s draining now is a good time to remove excess clumps from the edges of the screen and frame.

Now it’s all about removing the water! Grabbing a piece of felt lightly press it over the pulp to remove some of the water

Remove that sheet and place another over the frame. Flip the frame over onto a stack of newspaper and paper towels or a tea towel. Use a sponge to press out more of the water from the screen side. You can squeeze the sponge out in the container of paper slurry.

Now flick the screen with your finger to help the paper release (this is most little kids favorite part).

Once you remove the frame you can let your paper dry overnight on the felt.You’ll end up with a lovely handmade sheet of paper!

Want to know more about making paper- check this post out too.

Tutorial- Make Recycled Handmade Paper

Today I'm excited to be guest posting my handmade recycled paper tutorial over at Ready, Set Craft!

Here are a few bonus tips and ideas:

• Make a cast paper shape using a cookie cutter. For the star I dipped the frame into the paper pulp, placed the cookie cutter on top and removed the excess pulp around the star. Then I removed the excess water as shown in the tutorial.

• Break up bits of dried leaves and flowers and sprinkle them onto the wet paper.

• Or try adding glitter for some sparkle.

• You can even experiment with making a plantable paper by adding seeds to almost dry paper. Once the paper has been used you can plant it and the seeds will grow.

• Tint paper by adding in colored tissue paper, or party streamers.

(I made this sheet light green by using some leftover tissue paper)

• You can make scented paper by adding herbs or essential oils to the paper pulp (and bits of pine needles will make a nice scented Christmas paper).

To get the step by step on how easy it is to make your own paper- pop over to Ready, Set, Craft and check out my tutorial.

Have A Great Day! Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Yogurt Cup Planter For Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day,

Here is a quick fun project that transforms an empty greek yogurt container into a small decorative planter in just a few minutes. I got the idea from this project I did about a month ago. This is a quick earth friendly adaptation. I used the greek yogurt because I like the shape- but you can use any plastic container you like.

You need and empty yogurt container some ribbon, jute and hot glue.

I started with a container that I'd removed the label from.

Added a ribbon to the top where it was flat (adds a nice bit of color)

Then attached the jute with a small dot of hot glue.

For the first row I glued the jute pretty frequently to get a stable start, then the occasional dot of glue a few times per row works just fine.

Wrap the whole pot up and your done!

Makes a great small table decoration.

And it's a fun and easy reuse project for kids (also Mother's Day is coming up, this would be a sweet gift!)

MSCE April and the Last Day of Kids Craft Week: Pet Rocks

Today's post is a little late- but better late than never I guess. It turned out to be a busy day. The buying a new house bug has hit us, and while we aren't officially looking yet- we went a bunch of open houses to see what the market is like. We saw some not so great, and some really nice places. But it took a lot of time and we didn't see anything that made us want to pack up and move tomorrow.

Today for the last day of my kids craft week, I have... a Pet Rock.

I used to color and paint on rocks all the time as a kid. I loved to collect interesting looking rocks and pebbles on beach vacations or playing outside- some were interesting enough that I kept them as rocks, some just seemed like they wanted to be something else- a dog, a dinosaur, a rabbit, a turtle, or like today's rock from the garden- a crab.

It's been eons since I've decorated a rock- but there's something about them that's just too cute.

For this little crustacean I painted the rock red, while that was drying I dug through some mini seashells.

I found pointy ones that reminded me of claws and white ones I thought would make interesting eyes. For the claw I glued a smaller pointy shell inside a larger one. At the last minute decided on googly eyes instead of painted eyes so I glued those onto the white shells. 

Once the rock was dry I glued the eyes and claws on- and gave Mr. Crab a happy little smile with a sharpie. 

It might be a little soon to start thinking beach (at least in my corner of the world) but this is a great way to use of all those little treasures collected from a day at the shore.