In the summer, we try to balance our actual ice cream eating with some pretend ice cream eating. It keeps us slim (sort of)! My seven-year-old and I made these nifty ice cream cone replicas out of toilet paper rolls and tissue paper. Cut a line up the side of the toilet paper roll and curl into a cone shape–hot glue will hold the shape and make sturdy little cones. Then stuff with tissue. Voila. Here are the kids selling ice cream out the half door in our cottage.
This matchbox project was inspired by “cameras” my brother and I used to make when we were kids out of band-aid boxes (back when they were tin, which really wasn’t that long ago, was it?). We taped on a lens and a viewfinder and snapped imaginary pictures. To make this wee version, I covered a matchbox with black paper, except the ends, which I covered in light blue washi tape. Then I folded a strip of paper to make a viewfinder, and sliced off a circle of cardboard from a toilet paper roll to create the lens.
Inside is the treat: an accordian album of tiny photos. I went old-school for this part—good old cut and paste. I printed the photos on regular printer paper (albeit high quality printer paper) and glued the photos in place.
More summer fun projects–Instagram antics! I’m trawling through the (seemingly endless) camera roll on my Iphone and modifying my favorites on Instagram (see above: first grade Crazy Hair Day). What I like about Instagram: turning all images into squares and filtering them circa 1976–and yes, one of the filters is called 1976. Once I get to 72 images, I plan to make a set of these wee photo albums from Printstagram (you get 3 tiny books for $10).
I also love this photo book by Elizabeth Kartchner at Dear Lizzy. She used Blurb to create her paperback album and had the savvy idea to keep some pages blank to write in captions and anecdotes by hand.
In my library day job, I’ve been weeding old books from the shelves. The books aren’t in circulation any more but they’re still hardcover treasures with great illustrations about Arctic explorers and Presidential boyhoods and stuff like that. With some help from The Repurposed Library and a glue gun, I remade some of them into “bookmobiles.” (Repurposed has instructions for dismantling books to make all sorts of upcycled crafts.)
Kids think the mobiles look like birdhouses. I think they look like something that exploded and spilled over in weird loopy accretions. But I like them anyway.
Here are other great ideas for upcycled books (links below):
Row 1, left to right: Nancy Drew book purse by Rebound Designs; party favor pinwheels & keepsake box from bhg.com
Row 2: paper hearts from Too Much Time On My Hands; decorations from an Anthropologie store display; organizer from SCJohnson
Row 3: Artichoke pendant by Zipper8Lighting; book shelf by Lisa Occhipinti in The Repurposed Library; “lace” runner by bhg.com;
This mini-matchbox home belongs to Mr. Bunny. If you (or your kids) enjoy tiny coloring–great for fine motor skills!–here is a free printable of Mr. Bunny’s burrow. Just color and trim to fit your matchbox. Matchboxes don’t come in standard sizes so you may need to do some fancy cutting and pasting. Happy bunnies & eggs & challah bread!
homemadecity.com 