Paper Straw Airplane

Look what we made!

Oh - not clear?  It's an airplane!  And it is a crazy good flier.  Want to see how we did it?

First we gathered the supplies.  Each plane will need a paper straw, a strip of paper approximately 1 inch by 10 inches, a strip of paper approximately 1 inch by 5 inches, and a few pieces of tape.  We used some pretty new washi tape I picked up at Target (yes, TARGET!) but any tape should do.

I don't really have any process shot because, apparently, the paper/tape/four little hand combo doesn't mix well with process shots.  Basically, you loop each paper into a circle and secure with tape.  Then tape one end of each straw to a small circle, and the other end to a large circle.  

If you carefully line up the circles so they're taped to the same side of the straw your plane will fly nice and straight.  If you're off a little the plane tends to fly in a corkscrew pattern, which is also cool.  That was just an observation, no specific studies done.

So now that you've assembled your planes - pick your favorite...

...wind up and...toss!  We found that it's best to give them more of a gentle push into the air than a throw - they seemed to glide farther.  Again, no official study done - just our observation.

We make.  We fly.  And then we rest.

I was inspired by this post which was inspired by this post.  And this kid, of course.  He's pretty inspirational, too.

Cork Stamping (Week 4, Project 1)

This falls under the projects-started-without-a-fully-formed-plan category.

 

I had a few canvas boards, a few wine corks (the REAL cork corks), and the kids were playing nice.

I cut a v shape in the cork, sloppily mixed a few craft paint colors in a dish and got to stamping.

 

 

 At some point a certain little girl got a little noisy so stamping with a baby on my lap turned in to baby fingers smudging paint...

 

  

When I was about half-way through M got interested so I told him when Sister went down for her nap he could make his own.  I got him out his own canvas board and explained how to use the stamp and left him to it.  I thought he'd stamp randomly but he wanted to make "beautiful rows, just like Mommy's."  (I can't make this stuff up!) 

 

 

  

He did surprisingly well.  He got a little bored at one point so we took turns doing sets of three until he decided my stamping wasn't up to his standards.  When they were finished we laid them side by side to dry.  I think his turned out better than mine - the darker thicker paint, the stamping closer together. 

 

 

 

From there I decided to go in an "inspirational phrase" direction - I figured letters would add interest without detracting from our stamping.

Insert WOMP WOMP here.  I won't even show you what happened to mine.  I tried free-hand - BIG mistake.  So I tried to cover it up and bla bla bla big mess.  I gave up.

But the kid's...I'm happy to report we are both very pleased with the end result.  I got some letter stickers on sale at Joanns and kept it simple.  And awesomeness ensued...

 

 

(phrase inspiration from this great print)

 

I was planning on framing it, but for now I think I'll just put it up in his room as-is.  Simple.  Awesome.  Simply Awesome.  Just like my boy.

Free Art (Week 1, Project 2)

My mom picked up this framed painting on the side of the road, along with the smallish ornately framed mirror - so, literally, free! 

 

The painting was a little dull and there was something about it that depressed me a bit.  The frame had really interesting lines and textures, but the finish made it feel dated.  The metallic finish on the mirror's frame made it a bit too "fancy" for my house, but my brain kept seeing it in a flat finish...and made me stash both pieces for probably close to a year...eek!

So while I had the old paint out for the butterfly canvases, I decided to finally do something about these, too.  Baby girl has some seriously bare wall space in her room.  Here's what I ended up with:

 

The mirror just got a simple coat of flat paint and turned out exactly as I had pictured.  It almost looks like it is handcarved up close, now.    I'm happy.

 

I'm also really happy with the large frame - the unified color really did modernize the frame.  The initial, however, I'm not totally in love with.  I used painter's tape for the initial, then went over it with a pearly paint I had on hand for a little shine.  In person it does have a nice shimmer, and I like it enough to keep it as-is for now, but it will probably get another makeover at some point.

 

Behind the scenes: I had to actually get into a little closet under the roofline to get the top "after" shot since the alternate option of running all the way down stairs to change my lens didn't appeal.  My "assistant" held the door for me... 

 

 

...and spied on me.  I love that kid.

Winter Butterflies (Week 1, Project 1)

There's snow on the ground but it feels like spring in here!

To make my first "project" a continuation of a previously started project feels a little like cheating...but it was creative and it looks pretty and it made me feel good.  Hey - I make the rules, I get to interpret them, too!

Last spring, inspired by this post on whatever, we made bigger versions of these pretty butterfly canvases as teacher gifts.  M used watercolors to paint a couple sheets of paper, and I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch to cut out as many as I could.  Then we creased them all down the middle for dimention. 

 

Then we simply hotglued them all "willy nilly" onto the canvases - butterflies in flight.

We had a bunch left over so I've been saving them.  I picked up three of these small canvases on sale and I gave M some left over paint from old furniture projects.  Once they were dry, I wielded the glue gun and he positioned our little friends.  One for Mommy & Daddy, one for Sister, and one more for himself.

Pretty.  Happy.