DIY Flying Whirly Copter Toy

Lately Chuck and I have been infatuated with things that fly. That's why we made our cardboard space shuttle a couple of days ago.  So today I took things one step further to create a handmade toy that actually did fly.  Modeled  after a plastic toy that hubby brought back from one of his trips, here's our version of a DIY Flying Whirly Copter Toy.

DIY Flying Whirly Copter Toy

It's pretty neat that the toy actually does fly.  You simply spin it between both hands and the copter flies out and floats to the ground.  Keep reading to see how we made it (and a video of it flying!)

Oil and Colored Ice Cube Science

When you were a kid, did you enjoy seeing how oil and water would not mix?  I always thought that was so neat.  (I'll even admit, sometimes even now as an adult, I shake salad dressing bottles at the store just to watch that happen.  Is that weird?)  Eh hem... anyway... a couple of days ago, Chuck and I played around with this phenomenon.  We placed some colored ice cubes into cooking oil and watched them melt.  The results were just really, really beautiful.

Observing colored ice cubes melting in oil

Can science be dreamy?  I hope so, because that's the best word that I can think of to describe what I saw.  Now Chuck didn't appreciate how the colorful bubbles looked like jewels, but he did enjoy swishing and moving the liquids around.  

Keep reading to see how we played with oil and water!

Cardboard Space Shuttle Craft (template included)

A couple of weeks ago we visited our nearby Science Center and Chuck fell in love with a small space shuttle toy.  Of course, the wheels in my head began whirring and I knew that we could easily transform a  paper towel roll into our very own rocket ship.  So after a couple days of planning, cutting, and painting, we are now the proud owners of two cardboard roll space shuttles:

Cardboard Space Shuttle Craft

Want a ride to the moon on your very own cardboard roll space shuttle?  Then keep reading to see how we made them (template included)!

Ed Roth Stencil1 Stenciled Shirts

Note:  This post is sponsored by Plaid, but the opinions are 100% mine.
 
One of my favorite things to do is turn Chuck's plain shirts, pants, and shoes into unique and fun pieces.  For example, I painted him a pair of Lightening McQueen shoes and stenciled him an  "I heart peeps" Easter shirt. So you could see why I was super excited when Plaid sent me some Ed Roth Stencil1 stencils and FolkArt Multi-Surface Paints to try out.  I loved the stencils' bold and graphic look so much that I used them to update one of Chuck's plain shirts.

Ed Roth Stencil1 Stenciled Shirt 

Keep reading to see how I stenciled Chuck's shirt!

DIY Melted Crayon Artwork

Have you ever seen those cool examples of melted crayon artwork?  You know, the ones where people glue crayons to canvases and then melt them with hair dryers?  Well, I thought they were really neat, but wondered if there was another way to do it.  After some experimenting, I found out that you can directly melt crayons with a hair dryer as you draw on canvas. Pretty neat, right? The melted crayon just glides over the canvas, giving your artwork a different look and feel.  Now instead of making drippy crayon artwork, you can draw any image you like!

I chose to make some spring inspired artwork (because once again, I'm feeling optimistic that warmer weather is coming!)

To see how I made this neat artwork, check out my DIY Melted Crayon Wall Art Tutorial at Handmade Charlotte!  Have a great weekend.