A Christmas tree with plastic bottles (PET)

Imagination and creativity make all the difference.
The super restless idea this week smells like Christmas and came from here

Watch the video, all you need is a stick, plastic bottles, scissors and a candle.

the video is in Portuguese

but the walk through is easy to follow

Et voilá!
Another great idea to this season

Enjoy!

Can phone

Can phone is a project extremely rewarding, because it really works, its easy to do and its fun to do and play with.
The sound makes each can to vibrate and this vibration is transmitted along the string connecting the two cans.

What we need :

• 2 clean and empty cans,
• hammer,
• nail,
• +-20 m (+-21yd) of string.

How to:

1. Clean the cans;
2. Make sure the can has no sharp ends;
3. Place the cans, upside down, on a hard surface;
4. Punch the center of the cans with the nail;
5. Pass the string through the hole of the first can;
6. On the end of the string attach a paper clip;
7. The other string end goes on the second can, using same method, when you finish you will have 20m of string attached to 2 cans, one on each end;
8. Give your restless one of the cans;
9. Walk away until the string is fully stretched;
10. Ask your child to place his/her can on the ear;
11. Talk to the can;
12. Now it's your turn to listen.

Why?
When we talk the air vibrates, thats how the sound travel, the can also vibrate, those vibrations travel along the string to the second can, this causes the air in the second can to vibrate, producing sound.
 
Et Voilá,
Fun fun fun!

Enjoy!

Christmas presents wrapped with milk cartons

Do you remember that milk carton that ends in the trash?
Today we are going to show you how to reuse and transform that piece of garbage in something useful.

What we need:

• empty and clean milk carton,
• wrapping paper, the original carton is usually not that ugly,
• craft glue,
• paper punch,
• scissors,
• rope.

How to:

1. Cut the top of the milk carton, wash it and let it dry, do this with no rush, you don't want your present bag to smell;
2. Cut the wrapping paper with the exact measures to line the carton;
3. Glue the paper to the pack;
4. Let it dry for 2 or 3 hours;
5. With the paper punch, punch the top of the pack on both sides;
6. With the rope make a handle to the bag, like shown in picture
7. Secure rope with a knot.

This is a super restless mind idea from here

Et voilá!
Offer something really original this Christmas

Enjoy!

Multicolor wool pom-pons

Red, yellow or green, big or small, you can do them anyway you like it.
Pom-Pons, little crazy wool balls, are easy to do and your restless child will love that.
With pom-pons we can do a lot of different things, we can do little dolls, multicolored worms, book markers, apply them in clothes, frames or just keep them in a huge box to play with. The most important is that they are easy to do and kept.


What we need

• wool, in your favorite colors,
• scissors,
• 1 empty cereal box.

How to: 

1. Start by cut your card box in 2 plain card sheets;
2. After that draw a circle in one of the cards, use a glass, if you use a large glass the pom-pom will be bigger;
3. Inside that first circle draw a second one, much smaller, they must be centered and exactly aligned;
4. Cut the large circle, and the center hole you draw;
5. Repeat the procedure, you need 2 circles, you can reuse them;
6. Hold the two circles steady in you hand, and follow the scheme in figure:

 

Variations:
Use two colors of wool,
Garnish the wool balls with googly eyes, or legs, antennae, anything you want.

You can trim the pom-pons with the scissors.

Et Voilá!

Play with colors and do some art.

Enjoy!

A garden on the balcony

Another super restless idea from Andreza's blog to reuse plastic bottles (we also recycle / reuse here)
Its a simple concept, planting aromatic herbs in your balcony using bottles as pots.
Your restless will love the idea of those "little green things" growing outside, and its halfway to make them eat their vegetables.


We will need:

• 3 plastic PET bottles,
• pot soil, enough to fill the bottles,
• fertilizer,
• sand,
• seeds of parsley and chives,
• water,
• exact-O knife,
• scissors,
• shovel and rake,
• flowerpots clamps,

How to:

1. Cut the bottles with a sharp knife, open a hole with 20 cm on each bottle,
2. Punch a hole in 2 of them.. on the bottom;
3. Don't punch the third, this one will catch the water that falls from the other 2;
4. If your restless kids want to decorate the flowerpots, now its the moment, they can use paint, paper, or anything else they want;
5. Mix 3 parts of pot soil, and 2 of fertilizer, you can use exterior fertilized pot soil, 
6. Place this soil on both punched bottles,
7. Seed and water the plants (already done this here)
8. Place the sand on the third bottle. 
9. Chose a wall you can drill and attach the flowerpots clamps to it. Leave 20cm between each one.

Hang the system to a height that allows children to see the plants.

Variations:
there are several ways to do this project. You can chose to use a string system, is cheaper the the final result is the same. for this you will need 2 fixation points, you can use 2 nails.
You can plant anything you want, not just shovel and rake.


Et Voilá!

Thank you Andreza!

Enjoy!

Magnets with bottle caps

When comes to reuse and recycling we all have to take part of the process.

From here

Restless Minds is not an exception and from time to time we share a recycling/reuse idea, today we are going to use old bottle caps to do fridge magnets (other projects here)


What we need:

• caps, assorted colors and brands,
• clay, or other modeling clay,
• wool,
• buttons, pasta, dry beans, pins... etc.,
• magnets,
• glue,
• exact-O knife,
• sand,
• alcohol,
• paint,
• brushes.

How to:
First option:

From here

• If the cap is colored and pretty, why change it?

1. With the knife take off the withe cap protection, the one that protects the beverage to touch the metal;
2. Carefully, clean the cap with alcohol, sand it if needed;
3. Fill the cavity with the clay, press the clay inside;
4. Allow the clay to dry;
5. Glue the magnet, you can chose to press the magnet on the clay while this is fresh.

From here

• You can fill the cap with clay and paint it your your favorite colors, or glue buttons and other little objects such as beans. This way you can do monster head caps, or alien caps. Place the magnet on the back of the cap.

• You can just clean the cap, do the art on it with wool, pasta, beans, anything, and glue the magnet on the back. 

Et Voilá!
Magnets for everyone! your fridge will never be the same again!


Enjoy!

Modeling Clay

This is a "super restless mind" by Dani, we leave you with this tip:

Homemade Modeling clay (already used here)

What we need:

2 cups of flour,

half cup of salt,

1 cup of water,

1 tablespoon of oil;

bowl,

food coloring.

How to:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well;
2. To color the clay use food coloring, as much as you need to get your favorite color.
3. You are ready to do some art.

Et Voilá!

Little restless artists!

Thank you Dani

Enjoy!