Print your own temporary tatoos

Custom temporary tattoos are a great idea for a child's party, Halloween, or maybe just to be able to make tattoos of your kid's artwork. Here are step by step instructions on how to make your own using an inkjet printer, including where to purchase the special adhesive paper.

(via Swissmiss and Neatorama)

Weekend project: Shoot your neighbor with your new water mortar

Just so no one accuses me of going soft and posting nothing but plush dolls all day, here is a cool water mortar you can make with a few chunks of PVC pipe, a couple of O-rings, and some assorted hardware. For those of you in colder regions, file this one away, summer will be here soon.

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No mess tie-dye T-shirt

Make your own pseudo-psychedelic T-shirt using sharpie(s), rubbing alcohol, a plastic cup, and a rubber band (and a t-shirt). Find the instructions at Steve Spangler's science website.

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More free printable paper crafts & toys

If you are like me, your heart takes a little jump when you see the word "FREE". I'll write a little more about "free" at the end of the post. But first, here is a small round-up of some cool free printable toys and crafts for your printer to choke on:

mcguirezone.com has a few interesting printable toys, including an Italian villa, cars, a fish tank. These are more like good paper backgrounds while playing with other toys (hotwheels for example)

A link at the bottom of mcguirezone took me to the HP.com activity center which has some excellent toys and crafts. I especially like the Chinese zodiac animals. There is also free printable wrapping paper that could be used to wrap small presents. Gas if over $3 a gallon, save yourself a trip to the store.

The enigmatic sounding ss42.com has some excellent items as well, including Dracula and Frankenstein busts, a dodecahedron calendar, and a "paperang" (think boomerang meets that flying weapon thing in Krull)

dltk-kids.com is an excellent source for seasonal paper craft ideas. Looks like I missed Easter by a week or so, better start getting ready for... Memorial Day? Administrative Professionals day?


My blurb about "FREE" has to do with an book that I just finished called Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions that was not only a fascinating book (it is a lot like Freakonomics) but has an interesting section about the extreme gravitational pull of the word "free" in economic decision making. Dan and some fellow researchers sold two different pieces of chocolate for $.14 and $.01 respectively. Using this data as a baseline, they then decreased the price by $.01 each, making the 1 cent chocolate (a Hershey's kiss) free. Compared to the 14/1 cent group, the ratio of people gravitating toward the free candy was significant. This might seem understandable, but it actually is against traditional economic principles which says that since both items were reduced in price by the same amount the intrinsic worth of the items remains the same. If this sort of thing interests you, check out Dan Ariely's book, it was a though-provoking read. Incidentally, the author has a blog also.

edit (4/1/08): I got home last night and flipped open Money magazine while I was feeding the critter and guess who had a one page mini article?

More cardboard creations

Before anyone asks, no I do not own any stock in any cardboard manufacturers, distributors, or retailers. I do enjoy the ready availability and relative ease of using cardboard to build various things. The cardboard that I use is usually on it's way to the trash bin anyway, so making something out of it is potentially a good thing to do for the environment. That being said, the picture above is one example of a design by Swiss architect/designer/bike messenger Nicola Staubli. It is available for free online, although he gratefully takes donations. In addition to the chair he also offers plans for a stool and rocker. All of these items are designed for kids.

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(via trucdesign.com)

Weekend project - Non-newtonian fluids

Non-newtonian fluids is defined as a fluid that changes viscosity based on strain rate. What this means for us is that you can make a substance that sometimes acts like a liquid and at other times like a solid. A common name for is is "oobleck" which comes from the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. If you mix 1 part cornstarch with 1.5 to 2 parts water, you get an Elmer's glue like goop. You can pour this from bowl to bowl, even scoop it up with a spoon if you move slowly. The fun happens when you move or push on the liquid quickly, at this point the viscosity decreases and it acts much more like a solid, allowing you to push it around, even roll it into a ball (although it turns back into liquid as soon as you stop rolling it).

Here's a couple of videos to get your interest flowing.





If the weather permits this weekend I'll post our oobleck video on Sunday

Ready to move up to the big leagues of cardboard construction?

The building blog Supercolossal has this fantastic play house/lawn art with lots of pictures and the plans to help you build your own, assuming you can find some huge pieces of cardboard. You might want to think about building a slightly smaller one if not. The plans are detailed when it comes to layout and measuring, not so much on assembly, but you can figure that out right?

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(via boingboing.net)

related post: Cardboard castles

Need something to do with all of those leftover easter eggs?

Instructables.com has a pretty cool rattlesnake made out of the leftover plastic easter egg shells.

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Homemade ball track toy

This ball track toy looks like it was built out of stuff that might otherwise have been thrown away. Not only is it good to "re-purpose" would-be trash, but it must be rewarding to build such a cool toy.

(via Zrecommends)

Free printable paper toys

one afternoon Cole and I printed and cut out a bunch of paper armies and re-created the battle of Thermopolae (the battle in the movie 300). Did you know that the battle was not just between the Greek forces (lead by the Spartans) and the Persians, but there were also several dinosaurs involved too. In fact the dinosaurs won the battle, at least in our version.

There are several interesting free printable toys online, here are few. They are a good way to kill off a rainy day or a boring car trip.

http://papertoys.com/
http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html
http://ravensblight.com/papertoys.html (halloween/spooky theme)
http://www.juniorgeneral.org/index.html (build your own Spartan army here)
http://www.papercritters.com/

Cardboard Castles

It’s a cliché: you buy your kid a big present and they immediately go for the box it came in. Why not skip the middle-man and just get your kid a box? You could save yourself a lot of money and still get your kid a great present/toy. One obvious choice is to chop one side of the box off and turn it into a car. You could even paint the box and make it look like a smaller version of your own car (that’s what we did). Another idea is to make a house or castle, with doors and windows. You can even go all out and link a series of boxes up into a castle complex. Mr. Mcgroovy’s box rivets are helpful making an architectural masterpiece like the picture above. The rivets are small (but not too small) plastic connectors that keep your multiple boxes from separating, especially when there are munchkins climbing in and out. Plus they safer and quicker than most other connecting methods and they are re-usable.

If you have an artistic side (or are a perfectionist) make sure you check out the “how to paint a realistic castle texture” page at http://www.mrmcgroovys.com/t-realistic-castle.aspx

The gallery is full of examples of other great ideas. I think the birthday party decorations are especially cool (you can use them for Halloween creations too). The families in my neighborhood are very concerned with birthday galas (they are more than a birthday party – gala seems to be a more appropriate word). With some imagination, time, and hard work you can create something unique for your party without going broke. You might even have enough money left over to get your little angel that pony she’s been asking for…