LOVEZILLA

All Aboard!

Feb
02

“All aboard!”  It’s the Kleenex Box Express (and you were just going to put them in the recycle bin). It’s winter time.  Don’t you have a box of tissue in every room of your house? Even if you don’t, you could buy three or four boxes of Kleenex, save the tissues and make a train for under five dollars.  Gather your Beanie Babies, Barbies, Polly Pockets, Strawberry Shortcakes, Transformers and Rescue Heros. It’s time for a ride on the train.

You can make a train in no time flat, but you know, if your kids are helping, it may take LONGER than you thought (but in a good way).

What you need:

  • Tissue boxes
  • Package of button magnets
  • Paint
  • Kerr mason jar lids or any other “wheel” type objects around your home.
  • Glue gun

Paint your boxes.  With the glue gun, glue three magnets on the back of the front car.  The middle car needs magnets on both the front and the back.  Make sure the magnets line up to one another on each car.  If they are not attracted to each other, your train won’t work.  The end car only needs magnets on the front but you could put three magnets on each car so they could be mixed around or you could add more trains later.

Next, glue wheels on each car of the train. They could be mason jar lids, milk lids, juice lids, or cardboard/cereal box cutouts.  Glue them on above the bottom of the box so they don’t drag on the floor

I tried the train with fewer than three magnets.  It works much better and can pull more weight with three.

You could use this train as a theme for a safari birthday party, circus party, or zoo party.  It would even be a fun Valentine box!

HAVE  FUN!

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DIY Car Ramp

Jan
31

I love to make things out of something you might throw away or recycle. I teach preschool so there is always a plethora of “garbage” that can be made into something fun if you’re desperate enough.  We just made garages out of shoeboxes in my class, but didn’t think of this cool ramp until they had all gone home. Dang it.

If you want to make a garage for your kiddies or grandkids, it’s as easy as pie. (purchased from a bakery….pie is hard to make).  You can paint it or leave it as is.

What you need:

  • One shoe box with an unattached lid
  • Glue gun
  • Paint and paint brush
  • Old spools or anything to use as a garage handle.
  • Scissors

Paint your garage.  It’s nice to have black paint for the top so you can make it look like a road. When the paint is dry, use some yellow paint to make stripes in the road. (Yellow or white painters tape could be used as well). Cut out a door. You could also make a wide cut on the other side so you could park lots of cars inside. Decorate your garage with stickers or other artistic additions. Next, with scissors cut a slit on the seam of  the two corners on both ends of the shoe box.

Coat the end piece of one side of the shoe box with hot glue and press it to the end of the road. The lid should be facing down so the edges can be bent up to make the side rails on the ramp.

TA DA!

We broke out the old matchbox collection of my now 15-year-old son. I KNOW if I wasn’t there watching he would have tried it out.  The cars speed down the rail and it is wide enough to race two cars at once. You could use lots of shoeboxes and make a whole town.  Try it!

 

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Valentine Ideas!

Jan
22

 

I don’t know how it works in your school, but our children had to make and bring their own Valentine’s boxes for Valentines Day.  None of that ” Hey, let’s make these all together at school so mom isn’t stressed”. Making Valentine boxes at home made it seem like a competition.

My oldest daughter made a toilet one year.  It was a shoebox on its end glued to a #10 can. We covered it with white paper and rigged it so the lid lifted when you flushed it.  I’m embarrassed to admit she wrote “Dump your Valentines here”.  It was a family icon.  Every child used it until it literally “pooped out”.

Here are some self explanatory Valentine’s day ideas that may spark some thoughts in your head.  The kleenex box has Valentine treats in it.  It might be fun to make one for the “LOVE BUGS” in your life.

There’s always the toilet idea.

 

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Valentine 5 Second Friendship Bracelets

Jan
16

These ribbon bracelets literally take minutes to make.  My kids loved making them, and could basically do it themselves.  More importantly, they loved giving them away!   What’s more fun than a girlfriend with the same bracelet as you?  How about making one for your sports team?  All you need is:

 fun ribbon

sticky backed velcro or velcro and a glue gun

clear nail polish (for fraying edges)

embellishments (if desired)

Measure your child’s wrist with ribbon.  Cut a small piece of velcro and attach ends on opposite sides, front left and bottom right, so they come together.  Voila!

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