Make a Cardboard Taxi Bank

The last time we visited New York, Chuck got the chance to ride around Manhattan in a taxi.

He absolutely loved it.  Not only did he not have to sit in a baby seat, but he got to ride alongside mom and dad.  Whoa!  Too much coolness.

Now whenever we see a taxi (or really, any yellow car), he calls out, "Taxi! Taxi"

His love for those yellow vehicles and the ever growing pile of cardboard diaper boxes in our apartment prompted me to make him a small taxi bank.

Beep Beep! 

It was a pretty simple craft to make.  Older kids can help with making or assembling the pieces and younger kids can help paint the car once it's built.

Materials:
- Cardboard <-- crap!
- Scissors
- Exacto knife
- Masking Tape
- Packing Tape
- Paint
- Paint brushes
- Mod Podge
- Foam Brush
- Black Sharpie Marker

Directions:
1.  Cut out two identical car pieces and two long rectangular strips out of cardboard.  The strips should be identical widths.  Cut out a small slit in one cardboard rectangle for a place to insert your moola.

3.  Slowly bend and tape the rectangular strips to the edge of one of your car pieces.  Use packing tape to tape the cardboard together.  When you reach the point to where you want the trunk to be, cut out a small opening (for coins to escape.)  (Note:  I kept the non-printed brown side on the outside of the car because I thought it would be easier to paint later.)

4. Now you'll have to be dextrous and tape the other cardboard car piece on top of your structure.  (I used packing tape and tried to tape everything on the inside.)  Then, use masking tape to cover your edges.  (The masking tape gives the piece a less crapty, cleaner look.  Plus, it helped to keep everything attached together.)

5.  Paint your car white.  (This will make sure your colors pop.)  Then, paint your taxi.  You can also use a Sharpie marker to outline shapes or write out the license plate numbers. 

6.  Cover your car with Mod Podge to protect your lovely paint job.  Voila!  Now you're done.

Hmm.... looking back I probably would not have made cardboard wheels.  Instead, I would have made them out of milk caps so that they could really turn.

I added a small rectangular piece to the trunk to give Chuck something to grip.  Eh... he ended up ripping it right off.. so I'm not sure if that was too important to do....

Taxi, taxi!  (Don't worry.  Chuck's leg isn't hurt, he's just likes wearing hubby's leg band.)

Right now Chuck has about five cents in the bank.  Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?  We're hoping that by the end of the year, he'll have enough to buy something from the 99cent store.  :)

Happy crafting!

Make Perler bead bowls (and words)

Today's post is a bit late because my computer died last night.

RIP, dear friend.

I knew that it was going to happen sooner or later (but I just wish it was later.)  Boo.  I also wish that I had backed up my stuff (double boo.)  Hubby's performing some intensive surgery on it, so hopefully we can get my documents and photos back.

OK, enough heavy shop talk... onto today's craft.

When I saw Poppy Haus melting Perler beads to make bowls, I knew that I had to try it too.  Melting plastic beads in the oven?  Too. Much. Crafty. Awesomeness.  Sign me up!

Definitely check out her results, because they were much classier (she used two colors.)  I, on the other hand, went whole-hog color crazy.  Here are my results:

Bam!  It's like a whole bunch of sprinkles and confetti exploded to make this bowl.  We're currently using it to store fruit.     

Two-ingredient homemade ice-cream

What can I say?  The title pretty much says it all.

A couple of days ago, I found Kevin and Amanda's recipe for homemade ice-cream. It immediately caught my eye because it didn't require an ice-cream machine or rock salt.  Plus, you only needed two ingredients to make the basic vanilla recipe.

Say what?  You must be kidding.

Nope.  They were serious.... ice-cream serious.

So of course I had to try it out for myself.  The results?  Take a look below:

It was yummy and had a light texture and super creamy taste.

Chuck ab-so-lutely loved it.

We tried their cinnamon bun ice-cream recipe.  I've put the recipe below, but you can find other yummy flavors on their blog like Nutella peanut butter chip, Krispy cream, and hazelnut mocha fudge swirl.  Yum, yum, and double yum.

Cinnamon Bun Ice-cream Recipe (from Kevin and Amanda):

Ingredients:
2 C heavy cream
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3 T of melted butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1.  Whip heavy cream into stiff peaks.
2.  Thoroughly whisk the butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and condensed milk together in a very large bowl.
3.  Fold the whip cream into your butter/cinnamon/vanilla/condensed milk mixture.
4.  Pour everything into a 2-qt tupperware container.  Cover and freeze until firm.  (I waited overnight.)

Then, enjoy (and feel like a cool foodie because you just made ice-cream from scratch).

Have a great weekend.  See you next week!

Make Batik-style cloth (using glue)

I'm currently still in the process of decorating our walls with colorful and affordable wall art.  After seeing how easy it is to make Batik-style cloth, I thought I'd use the method to create a cloth wall hanging.

Here's my fishy batik wall art:

Are these fish wearing argyle sweaters?  Hrmm....

Materials:
- Cotton cloth
- Paint
- Water
- Paint Brushes
- Blue gel glue
- Saran Wrap (or wax paper)
- Tape
- Pencil, markers
- Paper
- Old tooth brush
- Iron
- Dish cloth

Directions:
1.  Prep your fabric.  (I used some leftover muslin from our rollie pollie bean bag chair, so hubby hemmed it for me.  I also ironed it.)

2.  Draw out your design.   Outline it with a marker to make the lines darker.

3.  Tape a piece of saran wrap over your design (so your glue won't stick to the paper).

4.  Tape your cloth over the design.  Trace your design with the blue glue.  (Remember, the glue will protect your cloth from being painted.  So, any cloth covered by glue will remain its original color.)

5.  Let your glue dry.   (I waited overnight.)

Left- Wet glue on cloth                                       Right- Glue dried by the sun

6.  Add a bit of water to your craft paints to make them a bit more watery and easier to spread. Channel your inner artist, have fun, and paint.

7.  Once your paint dries (I waited overnight), soak your cloth in warm water.  Your glue will start to soften and soon you'll be able to brush it off with your tooth brush.  (My glue lines were fairly thin, so it only took about 10 minutes of waiting before I could scrub and scratch off the glue.  You'll probably have to wait longer if you used a lot of glue.)

8.  Lay your cloth out to dry.  Place a dish cloth over it and iron it.  Then, enjoy your very own hand painted cloth wall art.

And here's what the batik effect looks like up close:

Happy glue batiking!

Psst- Want to see more wall art ideas that are affordable and super easy to make?  Check these out:

• Faux Stained glass
• Painted Twig Wall Art 
• Paint Chip Wall Art
• Coffee Filter Pinata letters
• Egg Carton Wreath

Make Popsicle Bracelets

When I saw Mama Miss's Washi tape Popsicle bracelets, I was completely smitten.  Bracelets... made out of Popsicle sticks?  Super neat-o.  Count me in.

So today I present my version of Popsicle bracelets.  They were really fun to make and brought me back to my summer camp days.

Materials:
- Popsicle sticks
- Craft paint
- Paint brush
- Glasses
- Tupperware
- Water
- Painter's tape
- Drill
- String
- Scissors
- Fine sand paper
- Mod Podge
- Foam Brush