Homemade instruments- rice shaker

Sound!
All the restless children love "to do music", most of the time it's more noise than melody, but it is also true that's an important component of development.

Let's see how to build a rice shaker.

What we need:

• empty can,
• balloons, ideally busted,
• rubber bands,
• rice,
• glue,
• old newspaper and magazines,
• tape,
• pliers.

How to:

1. Wash the can, and dry it;
2. Remove the glue residues;
3. With the pliers turn inside the cutting edges of the can, this is a very simple procedure that avoids accidents later;
4. Cover the ca with the paper, fix them with the tape, apply them at will, overlap, stick them together, leave this task to your restless, they usually achieve fantastic results;
5. Let it dry, at least for 4h;
6. Place half a cup of rice inside the can;
7. Stretch the balloon with the hands;
8. Use it to close the top of the can, make sure the top of the can is closed;
9. Use the duct tape and rubber bands to help secure the balloon;
10. Repeat the procedure 2 or 3 times with different balloons, the top of the can must be tightly closed.

NOTE:

• You can paint the can after you glue the paper, use acrylic paint.
• Different seeds/ grains/ dried leguminous make different sounds, try to do several cans.

Et voilá!
Music in a can.

Enjoy!

Plastic bottle moneybox (PET)

Transform a plastic bottle into a piggy bank.

What we need:

• plastic PET bottle with cap,
• 4 PET bottle caps or 4 cork wine stoppers,
• acrylic paint,
• cardboards,
• double tape,
• exact-O knife or scissors;
• color markers;
• other materials you want to reuse, as buttons for the eyes.

How to:

1. Remove all the stickers and labels from the bottle;
2. Wash it with running water;
3. Let it dry completely;
4. Close the bottle and place it in horizontal position;
5. With the marker draw the place where you want to make the hole for the coins;
6. Use the scissors, or the exact-O knife to open the hole, this requires adult supervision;
7. Glue the 4 caps o the bottle, they must pretend they are the pig feet but most of all they must keep the bottle steady;
8. Now its time to get creative ad to make your piggy bank one of the kind, paint it and decorate it at will, reusing materials is a good option.

Tips:

• Use hot glue for the feet;
• Use double sided tape to glue the cardboard;
• If you paint the bottle paint it first with white;
• The normal acrylic paint comes off the plastic after a while.

Et Voilá!
Enjoy!

DIY- Bird house

Our restless love this kind of crafts. This is how we did our own bird house.
We bought the house already made in the store; of course you can make one from the scratch.

What we need:

• a plain wood bird house;
• sand paper;
• small branches, acorns, leaves, sticks, whatever you can find in the garden;
• white glue; 
• varnish;
• brown acrylic paint, or another color you prefer;
• wire.

How to:

1. Sand the bird house;
2. Paint it with your elected color;
3. Let it dry for 3 to 4h;
4. Varnish it;
5. Let it dry again;
6. While you wait between the point 3 and 5, look for small branches, acorns, leaves, sticks, whatever you can find in the garden, to camouflage the bird house.
7. Cut the branches and the sticks in the right size, don't worry if some of them are larger or smaller, nature is irregular.
8. When the varnish is dry, cover one of the house walls with white glue,
9. Glue the branches and the sticks, don’t worry with the space between them, we will deal with it later,
10. Let it dry,
11. Chose another wall and repeat the step 8 and 9.
12. Go on until all the walls are decorated;
13. Leave it to dry for 24h;
14. Glue other elements to cover the spaces between the branches and let it dry again;
15. Varnish;
16. With the wire fix the house on a tree, don’t use nails;
17. Wait until the new inhabitants move to the new condo.

NOTE: do not glue the box cover (bird house roof) 


Et Voilá!
A little help for wildlife!

Enjoy!

S. Valentine's day craft- flower lollipop

I found this super restless idea for Valentine's day. All you need is a lollipops, cardboard, scissors, color pens and lots of love.

Use this molds to cut the flowers and the leaves

Et Voilá!
Lovely lollipops

Enjoy!

DIY Pendant with beach stones

Another DIY project for the Summer.
Use your restless beach stone collection to make beautiful and personalized pendants. You can use them with chain-keys, necklaces or bracelets. You also can paint some lucky charms like the "Evil Eye"- in last picture-, this amulet will protect everyone who use it against the evil eye .
Or you can simply ask your restless to paint the stones as he wishes.

We will need:

• alcohol,
• little stones from the beach,
• thin wire,
• pliers,
• pencil,
• acrylic paints,
• varnish.

How to:

1. Chose your stone, to paint evil eye the stone must be small, round and plain. try to chose the small ones, you will not want to use heavy weight around your neck;
2. Clean the stone with tap water and alcohol to clean the salt, the sand and any other residue;
3. Draw on the stone what you want to paint;
4. Next paint all the stone with a light color, (white if possible);
5. Next color your draw with the other colors, first the light ones;
6. You must resist painting the details, Those will be the last thing to paint;
7. Wait for 4h, paint must dry;
8. Varnish and wait another 4h;
9. Now you have 2 choices:
1. Use the wire and make a cage for the stone: Use the pliers and curl the wire around the stone. The stone must be trapped but not "glued" to the cage. When you finish make a double ring and super glue the 2 turns of the ring.
2. Make a double ring with the wire: Make a double ring with the pliers but don’t cut the ends, super glue the end tips to back of the stone.
10. You can use this in many was: in a bracelet, in a necklace, in key chains...

NOTE THIS:  If you chose to paint the evil eye- in the image-you must know that some people believe that a blue looking towards to us brings bad luck (although the blue-eyed person is good and virtuous), that’s the reason the most common color in evil eyes is the blue (they take away the bad luck)

Et voilá!
Another great use for beach stones

Enjoy!

DIY Christmas Project - EVA Santa Claus ornaments

This week the invited super restless mind is Quiane with a Santa Claus mold. Use it to do some ornaments to your Christmas tree, use EVA or Felt.

Source: Pais Natal para a árvore- em Feltro ou em EVA.






Et Voilá!

Enjoy!

Decorated candle with beach stones

Another good application to your restless shell/stones collection is to do some candles. Doing candles can be a highly specialized task but it can be transformed in a very rudimentary task, anyway it's fun. 

To this DIY project you can buy a white and plain candle, if you wish
With this project you can recycle those annoying little crayons your restless keeps in his pencil box.

We will need:

• candle wax,
• candle-wick,
• old crayons,
• beach stones, tiny
• shells,
• an old pot or metal box, the box will be trashed after this, you can use a metal milk powder box for example
• Molds, the plastic yogurt cups work well they aren't the ideal material but they easy to find,
• Wooden sticks, you can use clothes pins.

How to:

1. Wash and clean the yogurt cups very well;
2. Cut the candle-wick with the cup height plus 2in;
3. Chose a tiny, really tiny, stone to work as weight to candle-wick;
4. Tie the stone to the wick.
5. Tie the wooden stick to the other candle-wick end, the wick must be tied in the middle of stick;
6. Place this “stick+wick+stone” set in the yogurt cup,
7. The wick must be stretched, if needed adjust the knot on the stick;
8. Place this cup in a metallic tray;
9. Put the wax into the metal box and take it to the stove fire, don't use to much wax at the same time;
10. Wait until the wax is pasty;
11. Chose your favorite crayon color and chip it into the wax, keep the heat down during this process, this avoid the wax to become dark;
12. Let the chips to dissolve and turn off the heat;
13. Wait a few moments to cool the wax a little, remember you are using plastic yogurt cups and if the wax boil the cup will melt almost immediately, that’s why we use the metallic tray, to avoid accidents,
14. Fill 1/4 of the cup with wax; place some stones against the mold wall;
15. Place the wick on the center and far from the stones;
16. Let it cool;
17. Melt the wax again, you can chose to use another color, repeat the mix and the cool steps;
18. Fill the cup at 1/2, place the stones, adjust the wick, and let it cool;
19. Fill the rest of the cup with wax;
20. Leave it to cool for 24hours;
21. With the exact-O knife unmold the candle.

Et voilá!
Original candles you can use as you wish

Enjoy!

Photo in a lamp

Look to an object and see beyond the obvious is a good exercise. Our brain must be trained to do this. A good way to train this is to reuse objects; sometimes we trash materials that can be something else. This thinking promotes recycling and stimulates the reuse, encouraging energy saving with the waste reduction.

Old lamps are good objects to reuse, we can pain them, we can fill them with color sand, make a jar... But there is a problem with lamps, open it, it's needed some training to open a lamp without broken it

What we need:

• pliers,
• screwdriver,
• lamp, Broken lamp to reuse
• a towel, rag,
• wire,
• wood block,
• sandpaper,
• acrylic paint,
• varnish,
• mini clothespin,
• glue, hot glue works better,
• lamp socket, you can buy it in any hardware store,
• screws, for the socket ,
• rubber feet, or felt;
• a photo, small enough to fit inside the lamp.

How to:

1. Sand the wood block;
2. Paint it with the acrylic paint, remember the bottom will be hidden and the top will be partially covered with the socket;
3. Let i dry for about 24h;
4. Varnish;
5. Let t dry again;
6. Glue the rubber feet on the bottom;

First phase is done, lets take a look on the lamp, this must be done by an adult

1. Place the lamp on the towel, and with the pliers, remove the metallic tip of the screw of the lamp. Just the tip, don’t use to many pressure on the lamp, grab the screw with your hand and the metallic tip with the pliers,  rotate steadily, be careful with your fingers, child must be away from you while you are doing this.
2. When we pull the tip with the pliers all lamp content is dragged out;
3. Confirm the lamp is really empty;
4. Wash the lamp with tap water;
5. Let it dry.

The lamp is ready, lets place the picture inside: 

1. Screw the lamp socket to the wood block;
2. Cut a piece of wire, about 2 and half times the height of the lamp;
3. With the pliers roll up the wire like the one on the image, when you finish this twisted wire must fit inside the lamp.
4. Glue the mini clothespin to the other end of the wire, upside down;
5. Bend the wire end, the curly section will support the picture, like feet, and the mini clothespin will work as a pin;
6. If the wire is too big cut it now;
7. Place the wire inside the lamp, remember to do the last adjustments to it, size and position;
8. Pin the Photo to the clothespin;
9. With careful and patience, place the set "wire + clothespin + photo" inside the lamp
10. If necessary use hot glue to fix the wire to the lamp socket.
11. Screw the lamp.

Et voilá!
A photogenic paperweight 

Enjoy!

Sources:
http://girlinair.blogspot.com/2011/05/lets-make-fathers-day-gift.htm

Christmas Origami star- tutorial

We already did the tree and some ornaments, like Christmas balls, now its time to do the Christmas Star.

What we need:
an old magazine, 5 sheets for each star,

How to:

1. Fold the sheet in half and open it again;

2 Fold the 2 up paper ends inside, like the picture;

3. Fold the triangle down;

4. Flip the paper horizontally;

5. Repeat step number 2;

 6. Fold it again, like you are doing a second triangle; now it looks like a paper airplane;

7. Flip it again horizontally;

8. Fold up the 2 little ends on the bottom;

9. Now make a thin roll with the paper up to the end of the paper;

10. When you reach the top flatten the paper with your fingers, now you must have something like the picture, this is one of the five star tips;

11. Each star have 5 tips

12. Fit the points as shown, first the back;

13. Then the front;

14. Repeat the procedure until all the tips are fit. this is the final result;

15. This is what it looks like on the back.

You can paint it as you wish, use glitter to make it shine!

Et voilá!
Without the star the tree is not a Christmas tree!

Enjoy!

Art with beach stones

Your restless can role play with this. Make a masterpiece with beach stones.
This is another summer craft you can do all year, is always fun and they love it.
Buy an art board, or make yourself one with a piece of wood, and invite your restless to make art with stones, the result always work.

What we need:

• beach stones, several formats and colors,
• art board,
• white glue
• charcoal,
• beach sand, optional
• acrylic paint, optional,
• varnish, optional,
• brush, optional.

How to:

1. Wash all the stones, first with water and after with alcohol;
2. Separate the stones by color, size and format;
3. With a charcoal, draw, with light strokes, the design you wish to replicate with the stones, for some restless the "we will see as we go" works best;
4. Geometric designs always work in this project, triangles, circles, straight lines...
5. Apply white glue on the art board;
6. One by one, glue the stones to the board as you with, to form the design you want. Use colors, formats and sizes to do the pattern;
7. After you finish spread the sand on it, the sand will glue to the "empty spaces";
8. Let it dry for 24h;
9. You can paint stones outlines with acrylic paint if you wish, let it dry for 4;
10. Before varnish remove the sand.

Et Voilá!
Hang your master piece on the wall, and wait for next summer.

Enjoy!

Beach shell frames- Summer DIY

You can find a few summer activities here, but this one is really a summer activity.

The idea is to make some frames for our pictures using materials we find on a summer walk along the beach. I don’t know about you but every time I come home from the beach we bring tons of stones and shells...

This tutorial will help all restless to use their stone/shells collection to do something that will remind them, when the winter comes, the hot and nice days of summer.

What we need:

• a photograph,
• tape,
• white glue,
• shells,
• exact-O knife or scissors,
• Pencil or pen,
• ruler,
• cardboard can be a piece of a cardboard box,
• Thick cardboard,
• Acrylic paint, optional,
• Sand from the beach, optional,
• Varnish, optional.

How to:

1. First of all chose the photo you want to frame;
2. Make 2 little rolls with the tape and fix it to the cardboard;
3. Outline the picture with the pencil;
4. With the ruler and the pencil draw the frame format, if you can't make it symmetric draw it clearly asymmetric, otherwise will look weird;
5. Take the photo off;
6. Again, with the ruler and pencils help, draw a second outline 1/2in around the original photo outline, like the photo is 1/2 smaller;
7. With the exact-O knife cut the frame;
8. Place the frame on the tick cardboard;
9. Draw the frame exterior outline on the cardboard;
10. With the exact-O knife cut the second cardboard, remember to cut "inside" the pencil stroke, otherwise the back cardboard will be bigger then the front frame;
11. Spread white glue on the frame, not too much or the shells will drown in glue;
12. Place the shells like your imagination/creativity tells you to, you don’t need to fill up all empty spaces;
13. If you want to use sand, now its the time, cover all the frame with it;
14. Wait for 24h;
15. If you wish to use acrylic painting:
1. First option is to dye the glue, before apply the glue mix paint on it as you wish;
2. Second option is to paint shells after the glue, wait 24h before apply the paint.
16. Remove the excess of sand;
17. Glue the photo in the frame back;
18. Let it dry for 2h;
19. Glue the cardboard in the back, to protect the photo;
20. Varnish it if you want.

Et Voilá!
Summer in a shot!

Enjoy!