Halloween hat craft

This is a simple project, inexpensive and suitable for all ages

What we need:

• 2 sheets of black cardboard
• sheet of felt (green, orange, purple, or red), you can use other materials like fake cobwebs, paper gloss, or anything your imagination wants,
• white glue,
• scissors,
• tape,
• ruler
• compass. 

How to:

1. Fold the cardboard in a cone shape, this cone has to be so tight as your head;
2. Fix the cone with tape;
3. Cut the free ends in the bottom of the cone with the scissors, this free end is the triangle that is formed on the base of the cone when you fold the paper, cut it, so that the base becomes a circle;
4. With the compass, draw a circle on the second card sheet with less 1in of radius then the opening of the hat, use a ruler to measure the diameter of the opening (the diameter is the distance between 2 points in the circle passing in the center of it). Now, divide this value by 2, you will get the radius;
5. Draw a second circle, concentric with the first but with more 2 to 3 in in radius then the first one, concentric circles have the same center;
6. Cut out the larger circle;
7. Cut out the inside of the smaller circle, This is where your head goes;
8. Place the cone centered on top of the circle;
9. Apply a layer of glue in this junction;
10. Let it dry;
11. Turn the hat up side down;
12. The small circle is slightly smaller than the opening of the hat, about 2in remember?, with small scissors make small cuts on this cardboard flap, at the end you must be able to flap it inside;
13. Apply glue inside the cone;
14. Bend the cardboard in;
15. Press;
16. Let it dry;
17. Cut some felt strips;
18. Wrap and glue them around the hat;
19. Use stencil-like images to decorate your hat.

Halloween colors:

Black, orange, purple, red and green.

You can use theses 5 stencils to decorate your hats:

Ghost

Bat:

Spider:

Pumpkin

 

Witch

Et Voila!
Bu!

Enjoy!

Spiders with plastic bottles

This is a great and easy idea from decor e culinaria" blog. his project will keep your restless occupied for a few hours and will save you some money when the time to decorate Halloween comes. In addition is a project that recycles and reuses old plastic bottles.

What we need:

• plastic bottles, any size will do,
• craft knife,
• scissors,
• thin rope or twine,
• electric driller, small,
• black acrylic paint,
• small brush,
• fishing line,
• sewing needle,
• old newspaper, to protect the surface.

How to:
(this project requires adult supervision!)

Drill 2 small holes near the bottle opening;

Drill a 3th hole in the bottom;

With the craft knife cut the bottle in 2 parts, like the image- one will look like a funnel, the other like a cup;

Paint the 2 parts with the black paint;

Let it dry;

Paint the interior;

Let it dry;

Use the scissors to slice the cylindric half, like image 7, this will do a sider with more then 8 legs... it's a Halloween mutant;

Bend the plastic slices in two points, one near the spider body, and the other like a knee (halfway the end of the leg).

Follow the image 9 and 10 to cut and bend the other half of the bottle;

Remember the drilling job you did at steps 1 and 2? Use the holes, the fishing wire, and the needle- if you need it- to hang the spiders on the celling;

 

Et Voilá!
Everyone will love this black and huge spiders!

Enjoy!

Growing crystals at home

What is a crystal?
Crystals are regular structures formed by a regular repeating pattern of atoms or molecules.

These structures grow by a process called nucleation. During nucleation, the atoms or molecules of what we want to transform in a crystal (solute) are dissolved in a solvent. The particles of the solute will tend to cluster together, forming subunits of atoms or molecules. These larger particles will also group with each other and eventually become large enough to "pop out" the solution (crystallize).

Other solute molecules will continue to adhere to the surface of the crystal, causing it to grow until equilibrium is achieved between the solute molecules in the crystal and the solution.

Growing crystals
Three factors that can influence the growth of "home" crystals:

• A good/poor solution saturation- The first stage of home crystal growth is a saturated solute. In a saturated solution the probability of molecules colliding with each other in order to form a core for initiating nucleation is greatly increased.

• Surface type-A rough surface tends to be more attractive for nucleation. It is more likely that a crystal is formed on a piece of rough rope than the in the smooth walls of a glass.

• The presence of deposits in the bottom-This occurs when the solution is not scrambled or means that too much solute was added to saturate the solution. The presence of these deposits create areas for optimum crystal growth however prevents crystal formation in the "target."

Lets see how to grow sugar crystals, these crystals can be sucked and eaten like a lollipop. This demonstration may take up to 3 weeks.


We will need:

• 3 cups of sugar, we have to adjust this quantity, we want to saturated at 100% but no precipitate,
• cup of water, to boil,
• food coloring,
• small jar,
• small bowl,
• wood stick, or rope,
• kitchen paper or paper filter.

How to:

1. Boil the water, careful with burns!;
2. In the bowl, mix the boiling water with the sugar;
3. Stir the water until all the sugar is dissolved;
4. If you want to give sugar some color, now it's the time, add the food coloring;
5. Place this solution in the jar, attention! wash the jar really well to avoid nucleation in it's walls;
6. Avoid any amount of sugar precipitate in the jar- any not dissolved sugar-, this sugar will be a good nucleation "start point";
7. Suspend the stick or rope in the solution, do not wash those, we want this to be a suitable "start up" spot for nucleation;
8. Chose a nice and quiet spot to place your jar for at least 3 weeks;
9. Wait until the solution cool and cover it with a paper filter. 

What happens?  
After cooling the solution will use nucleation spots to form crystals.

NOTE: You must check the jar on daily basis, if you see any nucleation in jar walls, change the jar;

Wait about 3 weeks for excellent results.

Go further:

• Follow the growing crystals with a graph;
• Use salt and compare the growing velocity with the sugar;
• Use 3 jars, in the first one use boiling water, in the second tepid water, and in the last one repeat the essay with cold water;
• Try to dissolve the sugar/salt/other while the water is boiling;
• I am sure you can remember other ways to change this demonstration into a experiment...

 Source: about.com; squidoo.com; buzzle.com
Et Voilá!
Science you can eat!  

Enjoy!

Halloween vs Day of all Saints

Halloween has its origins in Celtic culture.

2000 years ago, in the territory now called Ireland, Celts feasted Samhain, this festival happen on the 1th November. This festival marked the end of the year, the winter beginning and the last harvest.
At that time some people believe that in this date the souls had their last and final chance to return to the realm of the living

In this festival people gathered and lit fires and offer sacrifices to the deceased, believing this would stop them to return. Celts also dressed in clothes made from animal skins and offer food to the dead. As time passed by the festival changed and the people started dressing as ghosts, witches and other creatures known to be malevolent, and asking food and drinks. It is thought that this was the origin of the famous "trick-or-treat".

In the Catholic Church November 1st celebrates the day of "All Saints", in Mexico, for example, is celebrated as the day of "los Muertos" (Day of the Dead).

Samhain or All Saints Day?
People celebrate Samhain (Halloween) on the night of 31 October to 1 November, but using new and present rituals adapted to each country.
The All Saints Day comes as an attempt by the Catholic Church to annul the pagan festivals of the Celtic people. This attempt, despite being brilliant (according to some experts), has not had the desired impact, and the reunion of families around the table with the goal of honoring the Saints never managed to replace Samhain with the desired success.
Today we have a kind of fusion between the two parties- the Hallowe'en and All Hallows, or Halloween and All Saints Day (Hollow has its roots in the word sanctified or holy). The current version of Samhain on the evening of October 31 to November 1, and All Saints Day on November 1, are exactly the same, honoring the dead and settle down.
actividades de outono, Halloween, mitos,
sources:
http://www.history.com
http://ancienthistory.about.com

Et voilá!
Trick-or-treat?

Enjoy!

Felt door sign DIY

Do you know those Hotel signs? Today we will learn how to do a felt sign to hang in your bedroom door. This is a great idea and you can recycle at the same time.

What we need:

• felts of different colors, depending on the design,
• scissors,
• tracing paper,
• charcoal pencil;
• pen,
• glue, or double side tape,
• cereal box,
• ruler,
• roll of scotch tape.

How to:

1. Choose your design;
2. Trace it with the tracing paper, don't draw the background;
3. Open the cereal box with the scissors;
4. With the tape roll draw 2 circles, one interior and another one exterior;
5. Use the ruler to draw a rectangle exactly with the scotch roll width, as in the picture;
6. Cut the sign;
7. With the charcoal pencil trace the draw to the cardboard;
8. Use your imagination and add the background, we used horizontal strips;
9. Trace the background elements to the tracing paper; ignore any other elements, like the pillow.
10. Trace the bed sheet fold and the blanket strips;
11. Choose the colors for those elements;
12. Trace the felt, use felt back side;
13. Cut them out;
14. Apply the double side tape to glue the background elements, like the image;
15. Do a new tracing for the pillow, chose the color, trace it, cut it out, and apply it in place;
16. Repeat it all over again for the baby, baby elements are: face, hair, hands and body;
17. With the pen draw the face elements, like eyes, mouth, nose, freckles....

NOTE: You can choose other designs; the important thing is to be able to separate the design into layers. First the background, second the middle elements, like the pillow, and finally the most important element, in this case, the baby. Of course you can do all the design, and make the pieces fit like a puzzle, but this will take a lot of time, precision and patience, and the design will not show depth.

Et voilá!
Write DO NOT DISTURB on it!

Enjoy!

Christmas tree string ornaments

Another cool idea to make your Christmas tree the coolest in the neighborhood.

What we need:

• balloons, we only blow it half way, chose the right size;
• string, any color;
• scissors,
• ruler,
• white glue,
• water,
• brush,
• glitter
• small bowl,
• tablespoon,
• tissue painting,
• smmal sponge,
• old newspaper,
• plastic cup,

How to:

1. Cover the work table with the old newspaper sheet;
2. Cut a piece of string with 10 cm;
3. Blow the balloon until its circumference is 10cm, simply place the 10 cm string around the balloon, when the ends touch each other the ballon has a 10cm  circumference;
4. If you want to make several ornaments this 10cm don't need t be exact.
5. In the small bowl mix the glue (3 tablespoons) with water (1 tablespoon);
6. Cut a piece of string with about 6,5ft;
7. If you want to paint the string, now it's the time, place a bit of fabric paint in a small sponge, grab the string with the sponge, next drag the sponge along the string to paint it;
8. Let it dry for 3 or 4 hours;
9. Dip the string in the glue, until it is soaked;
10. Grab the balloon with one hand, and with the other one wrap the balloon with the string, your hands will be full of glue, don't worry water will take care of it later;
11. When you finish press the string end against the balloon;
12. Let it dry for 24h on the top of the plastic cup;
13. In the next day blow up the balloon, and pull it through the holes in the string, cut it in small pieces if you need, don't cut the strings!!!!!;
14. Glue all the ball again;
15. Apply glitter;
16. Hang on Christmas tree!

If you don't have glitter you can reuse old Christmas ribbons. Just cut the ends into small pieces. It's not the same thing but it works.

Et Voilá!
Another Christmas idea!

Enjoy!

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!

Color pencil necklace

Restless Minds brings you another super restless idea, this time from Kate's blog:  minieco.co.uk. Today we are going to use dregs of crayons to do some jewelry.
We saw it the firt time in Artesanato Decor e Culinária blog, from here we linked to Kate's Minieco blog.

Check this out, this pictures show some crayon dreg art:


From Kate's blog:

From Maria Cristina-Bellucci , designer:

This is how Gabrielle Blair did it:
 
We will need:

• color pencils, you can use dregs instead of brand new pencils, that way you will recycle and reuse materials.
• small saw, you can buy it on any hardware store,
• sandpaper, 
• drilling instrument, it can be electrical or manual,fasteners and wire for the necklace, you can buy this at any handcraft store,
• ruler,
• Wooden board, similar to the ones we use in the kitchen.

Note: This tutorial must be done with adult supervision all the time, and always on the wooden board.

How to do the beads:

1. Chose the pencils you are going to bead;
2. With the ruler measure pieces of 5 to 10 mm wide (about in), the beads can be longer or shorter, that’s up to you. The example has 7mm beads, all them must be the same length;
3. Cut them with the saw;
4. Use sandpaper on the wood beads, only sand the side without color, as picture shows;
5. When the wood becomes smooth you can get to the next step;
6. Drill a hole, from side to side, on the bead, as picture shows;
7. Do a few of these beads and  you can do your necklace, with the wire and the fasteners

Et voilá!
Another super restless idea, from your Restless Minds team

Enjoy!

Autumn colors- answer to reader

Marco send us an email, he wants to know why in the autumn leaves are not all the same color:

"Hello, leaves are yellow here where I live, but i saw pictures from another places where the trees have brown, yellow, red leaves... I want to know why leaves dont have those colors here."

Marco, the thing is leaves color is determinate by several variables.

First lets see how it works.

Leaves work as natural factories for nutrients.

Using roots, plants get from the soil all nutrients and water (H2O) they need to live. From the air they get carbon dioxide (CO2). With sun light help they transform CO2 and H2O in Oxygen (O2) and glucose, without them the live as we know it, would not be possible.
Glucose is a sugar, and plants use it as a source of energy, allowing the plant to grow this transformation process is called photosynthesis.
Chlorophyll is a pigmented molecule and has a active role in photosynthesis. Chlorophyll gives the green color to the leaves and, even more important, they absorb sun light and therefore make possible the growing process.

How do leaves change color?
When summer ends and the fall begin, days become shorter. This fact works for plants as a trigger to begin preparing to the winter cold- like other living things.

During winter, there isn't enough light to carry out photosynthesis. Trees get in "stand by" mode and they will live from summer stocked nutrients, slowly the nutrients factories turn off the production. Green Chlorophyll vanishes from leaves. This changes lead to a kind of migratory process of nutrients from leaves to stem; here they will be protected from the winter cold. That way, later when spring arrives, those will be used to form new leaves, and the process will repeat itself
As the nutrients migrate to a safe place, leaves stop producing chlorophyll, and the green start to vanish. This allows other pigments to show their colors, like yellow, brown, red, etc, in fact this colors always been there, they just were not visible in the Summer, because chlorophyll concentration were to high.

Why so many colors?
The range of fall colors is enormous, some of them are hereditary, different tree species show different colors sets, and others depend on temperature range.

Vivid colors can be seen in places with great luminosity but with low temperatures (0 to 7ºC). England, for instance, where the fall is rainy but with temperate clima, leaves show yellows and cloudy-browns.
As winter approaches colors fade away and leaves fall from the trees.
After falling from the tree, leaves can't get water or nutrients and slowly dry, and lose all the rest of pigments.

Marco, you live in a place where the type of trees and the characteristic temperature of your autumn are suitable for yellow colors (probably carotenes- identical to those on carrots).
In other places red colors, scarlet or purple indicate the presence of anthocyanins, this pigments are only formed when the temperatures goes down a bit more.

References: internet images; sciencemadesimple.com

Et Voilá!
Autumn full of color

Enjoy!

Homemade rain gauge

The rain is here, and is causing a huge mess.

In Portugal the higher precipitation value registered was back in January of 1977, in a place called Penhas da Saúde.
When measuring precipitation scientists have a goal, a very simple one, to determinate the water quantity that falls in a given place during a given period of time.

The measure is done by collecting water with a rain gauge, and estimating the high that it would reach if there was no evaporation, no infiltrations, and no draining.
The quantity of precipitation is measured in mm or in, in a given time period in a given area, that means, for example 24in/ft2/24h.
Today we will see a easy way to do this measure... in your own backyard. In fact the procedure is very simple and doesn't require any special material, obviously we will not collect scientific precision data, but its good enough to have a good idea on the procedure.

First of all, this experiment can only be done in the rain season, and because we are not using scientific equipment, is convenient the temperature is low, otherwise the water will evaporate.

We are going to build our first tool on the homemade "meteorological station", the rain gauge

We will need:

• paper,
• pen,
• ruler,
• plastic bottle, with a flat bottom,
• large can, can be a bucket or similar, the bottle has to fit in,
• waterproof pen, an alternative is to arrange water resistant tape where you can write,
• insulating tape,
• shovel,
• a corner in the backyard, that is not protected from rain.

How to:

1. On a sheet of paper draw a graph, the X-axis and Y, on the X-axis mark the day, the days can be different from the day of the month you are in, the important is you know the number of days you experience has. Day1 can be the first day of the test, you can record the duration of the test in the title bar of the graph, for example, "Rain on granny’s backyard- from 10/11/2011 to 10/12/2011", the y-axis is the amount of rainfall in “in” (I advise to mark the bottle not in “in” but in 1/10in or millimeters);
2. Wash the bottle, remove any glue or paper;
3. The bottle is round on top and straight on the bottom, cut it in 2 pieces in the place it becomes straight, its about 1/3 from the top (the neck).
4. Use the ruler and water resistant pen and mark in on the straight part, which now looks like a big water glass, I advise to mark the bottle not in “in” but in 1/10in or millimeters, the more small is the measure the more accurate is the reading;
5. Place the top of the bottle (upside down, type funnel) at the bottom (glass);
6. With duct tape firmly attach both parts;
7. Dig a hole in the "corner of the backyard," this place has to be exposed to rain;
8. Bury the bucket / bin;
9. Place the bottle in;
10. When you put the bottle the experience begin, record the time of the day;
11. Every day, at the same time, and during the entire period of your experience, register on the chart the height of water on the bottle;
12. After each reading, empty the bottle and put it back into place;

NOTE: As an alternative to plastic (PET) bottle can use a tall glass flask and a plastic funnel, the procedure is the same.

References: http://www.meteo.pt

Et voila!

Enjoy!

Clothespins pot, reuse and recycle

Clothespins are a great material to do arts and crafts with the kids, and besides they are always getting broken and we all know how difficult is to fix them.

Today we will see a nice way to reuse the broken clothespins. We will do a nice and colourful pot for plants.

We will need:

• 1 can preferably one of those larger, bean or grain,
• Clothespins, we used wood, but in practice we can also use plastic, depends on the imagination,
• hot glue, we can use other types of glue like white glue or clear glue,
• wire,
• varnish,
• paints,
• brushes,
• 1 nail
• hammer
• potting soil,
• seeds, whatever you want, or use a bulb

How to:

1. Wash the can, remove all traces of glue and paper;
2. Let it dry;
3. Turn the can upside down and with the hammer and nail make 3 or 4 holes in the bottom, these holes will allow the excess water out and prevent your plant to rot,
4. Take away the metal spring from the clothespin, of course it is always more interesting using those who are already damaged;
5. Keep the metal parts, remember that you can reuse them in other crafts;
6. Glue the wood parts around the can, don’t worry if the clothespin is longer or shorter then the can, at the end you will paint it and you  will get creative enough;
7. Sticking them closely, with the flat part in;
8. When you complete the job, attach the clothespin to the can with the wire as in figure, this will ensure that the clothespin do not go off later;
9. Let your work dry for 3 to 4 hours;
10. Choose the colours you want to see in your pot and paint it;
11. When the paint dries, follow the instructions on the package, varnish the clothespins;
12. Let them dry again the varnish takes longer to dry then glue or the paint;
13. Put the soil in the pot, plant seeds / bulbs,  water it and let them and let your seeds get some sun, you may want to place a dish underneath to catch the water coming out through the holes.

Referências: artistshelpingchildren.org
 
Et voilá!
Now, dont damage the clothespin on purpose!
 
Enjoy!