How to make a pinball machine from a cardboard box

If you haven't watched the story about Caine's Arcade, do it now!

After watching (and crying of course) I read a post about a boy named Ezra, who, inspired by Caine, created a cardboard pinball machine. 

So I was inspired to create my own.

Here's how I did it.

What you need:

- a box

- wooden tongue depressors or popsicle sticks

- tape

- various items for obstacles eg. toilet paper rolls, cottage cheese containers, cd's

- decorating items eg. stickers

Instructions:

1.  Take a cardboard box, cut off the front and tape up all the sides.

2.  Use a scissors or craft knife to cut holes in the sides for your levers.

(I mistakenly cut high at first, the ball just falls under the levers *duh) so cut them as low as possible)

3. Tape two sticks together to form the desired length for each lever. 

4.  Use toilet paper rolls to achieve the desired angle for the machine by taping/glueing them to the back of the box.

5.  Tape or glue a long paper towel tube for the ball dispensor

6.  Tape or glue obstacles



7.  Decorate and Enjoy playing !!!

Happy crafting everyone.

and if you have young children, be sure to check out my new website about Baby Signing. 

How to make a car from a toilet paper roll

This classy car for my wooden doll, was inspired by Mama Jenn's sports car which is featured (with instructions) on  Preschool Crafts for Kids. 

To make it even easier for you to make your own car, I've made a video showing you exactly what to do.  You can see it on here.

What you need:

- toilet paper roll

- paint

- scissors

- pen / pencil OR push pin

- 4 bottle caps (equal size)

- hammer and small nail  OR push pin

- a little bit of playdough

- optional:  a drinking straw OR piece of cardboard & glue

Instructions:
Step One:  paint roll and leave to dry
Step Two:  cut square for driver, and poke 4 holes where the wheels need to go
Step Three:  (optional: put two straws in through the two sets of holes respectively), insert toothpicks
Step Four: make holes in the caps and attach them onto the toothpicks, using playdough to secure them.

 

Now that you have such a cool car, need somewhere to park it...

why not make a dollhouse from a cardboard box.?

Have you run out of indoor crafts for kids?

With the unbearable heat of summer already upon us, I'm always looking for fun kids activities that can be performed indoors.  My kids love art projects, but there are only so many stick portraits one can draw.  Disney Family Fun listed a great Stick Art craft, which allows your kids (and yourself) to engage with nature INSIDE your airconditioned house - perfect!.  

What you need:

- clear contact paper (in South Africa, we called it Fablon).

  (I had a lot leftover from previous projects, but you can also buy from Amazon at the above link)

  disclaimer contact paper is probably not eco-friendly, but I have yet to think of a good alternative.

- scissors

- tape

- hole punch

- cotton or ribbon to hang the finished product (we used scooby doo wire, we had in the craft room).

- leaves, dried flowers, etc  (this part may involve braving the heat outside *sorry*)

Instructions:

1.  tape a piece of contact paper, sticky side up, onto the surface you're working on

2.  decorate randomly with your leaves, flowers, sticks etc

3.  cover with another piece of contact paper, sticky on sticky

4.  trim with your scissors into a circle or other shape, we did one big shape and two smaller ones

5.  punch a hole and thread your ribbon through.

Here, I connected them to suctions caps to hang on the window

Happy crafting everyone

P.S. Let me know if you're successful with a greener alternative to contact paper.

How to make a pencil case from a plastic food bag

I was inspired to try this project after watching a Terracycle youtube video on how to make a coin purse from a plastic food bag.

However, I like taking the easy way out and my bag already had 3 closed sides, I was definitely not cutting new pieces just to sew them back together.

My personal no. 1 rule of upcycling is take advantage of as many seams as you can. (okay so that's for clothing, but why should plastic be different?).

So here's how I did it...

What you need:

1.  a strong plastic, empty, rinsed, food bag.

2.  scissors

3.  a zipper that's a little longer than the opening of the bag

4.  thick needle

5.  color-coordinated thread.

Instructions:

Step 1:  Use your scissors to cut the bag at the height that you want your pencil case to be.
  (admission of guilt: being as lazy as I am, and not owning a ruler *gasp*, I estimated the height on each side rather than measuring equal sides, which is why the final product's a little skew).

Step 2:  Tape the zipper to the edge of your bag. 

Step 3: Hand sew the zipper to the bag with a double layer of normal thread and a thick(ish) needle.
I say hand sew, because if you have kept the original three sides like I did, it would be very difficult and probably impossible to maneuver around the sewing machine.

Step 4:  Sew the edges of the zipper together and tuck them in.

And that's it!  In only four short steps, you have a fully functional upcycled pencil case.

Happy Upcycling!

Remember, I loooove your comments:

Would your kids find an upcycled pencil case cool? or geeky?

How to Save Money by Going Green A-Z (Part Three)

I recently entered the "Circle of Moms" Top 25 Money Saving Moms blog competition.
Although this blog is all about going green, I do believe that being eco-friendly goes hand-in-hand with frugal living and saving the environment saves you cash.
In honor of the Top 25 List, I'm posting a blog-trilogy; a 3-part series on how to Save Money by Going Green A-Z.  Click to catch up on Part One and Part Two.

and now for Part Three...

R - Recycle!  I'm sure you know that recycling is an eco-friendly habit, but did you know there are many ways to make and save money by recycling.   Wise Bread lists 15 websites that will give you cash for your trash.  US & UK citizens can use Recyclebank to earn points by participating in recycling and other Green habits, points can then be used to redeem gift certificates.  South Africans can earn money with Collect a Can or search for other buy-back centres near you.  In Israel, you can return your small plastic bottles and your glass bottles to reclaim the 30cent deposit at the supermarket.

S - Seal your oven dishes with lids rather than foil and use reusable covers to seal the freshness in your salads, rather than gladwrap. 

T - Terracycle your traditionally unrecyclable waste.  You may not be able to take home the money you generate, but you can donate it to your school or charity.  Perhaps you could save money on afterschool clubs if you earn enough through terracycle.

U - Upcycle old fabrics into clothes for your kids.  You can start by reading how a friend and I upcycled old curtains and a tablecloth into a Cinderella dress.

V - grow your own Vegetables.  I'm a beginner at vegetable gardening and aside from being green, healthy and frugal I've found it to be fun and inspiring too.  (See more about my vegetable gardening).

W - use scraps of fabric to Wrap gifts.  If you don't have any scraps of fabric, Katie Redmon has another 8 Eco-friendly gift-wrapping ideas for us.

X - skip your traditional printed family Xmas (or other holiday) card and use recycled gift tags..  Here's a picture tutorial on how to use old cards to create new gift tags.  If you don't have any saved cards to cut up, what about buying a reusable chalk cloth tag.

Y - do what works for YOU, if your eco-friendly habits aren't fun and feel like a sacrifice, you're not going to maintain them. So find one step that seems enjoyable and start there.  (If you're thinking that I only wrote this because I couldn't find a way to make money by going green with a Y... you're wrong, there's also YouRenew.com )

Z  - add a Zipper to a used food bag and make a pencil case.
Here's a picture of a frozen chicken nuggets bag that I turned into a pencil case with a zipper. 
And here's how I did it.

How to turn a pink elephant party green

Since beginning my going green journey, I've done a lot of online research and found so many different ideas and challenges for leading a more eco-friendly life.  I'm especially attracted to the reduce, re-use and recycling concepts and feel that until now I've missed out the perfect opportunity to embrace these concepts - kids' birthday parties.

The most recent birthday party we hosted, was for my 4 year old.  I'm not a big fan of creating  themes for parties at this age, however, I am a very big fan of cakes.  Growing up, my mom let us choose an original cake from the Australian Weekly's original cake book for each birthday.  I have fantastic memories of my and my three sisters' elaborate (for that time) cakes; and I let my daughters choose their cakes from that book too.

In April, 4 year old Eliya chose the pink elephant for her birthday cake.  It's probably my least favourite cake in the book, so I girled it up a bit when I did it, but it still resembles the picture in the book.  The rest of the party kindof fell into place around the cake.

1. Pink-ish decor. 
2. First activity: make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls.  I stapled two rolls together, and punched holes before the kids' arrived in hope of being organised.  I set out different crayons and pencils as well as stickers for decorating.  The kids then chose a pair of binoculars, decorated as they wished and chose a piece of pre-cut ribbon to thread in the holes and tie around their neck.
If you're wondering how this fits into birthday theme:- binoculars - safari - elephant

3. Second activity: ice cookies.  I bought paper cookie 'plates' and after my cookie baking failed, placed a store-bought cookie in each 'plate'.  I then set out several bowls of different colored icing and bowls of decorative sprinkles and gave each child a plastic knife.  The kids loved decorating and tasting.  Please don't ask how this fits into birthday theme:- pink elephant - pink icing?

4. Pink Elephant Cake - see above.

5. Going Home Presents: plastic bags *wince* filled with binoculars, wrapped iced-cookies and a small plastic camera (if you look in the camera you see photos of animals -fits into theme:- pink elephant - safari - animal photos).

A happy birthday girl showing off her creations

And now, to answer the title of this post...
How would I turn this pink elephant party green?
1.  I would use far less disposables and try to use my real dishes, at least for the adults
2.  If I wanted to be adventurous, I could make the cookie plates from old cardboard/paper
3.  I would definitely not buy the goodie-bags, and either just hand out their gifts with no bags, or make an alternative.  I'm planning a future party where I fill a home-made carton wallet with sweets and give that instead of a goodie-bag.
4.  I think the cheap, plastic camera toy was unnecessary.

So hopefully, the next birthday party I plan and post will live up to my going green ideals.

Happy party-planning everyone

How to upcycle a juice carton

Milk and Juice cartons are unfortunately (at least where I live), unrecyclable.  I try to buy these items in alternative, recyclable packaging, however I still do end up with quite a few cartons.

Disney Family Fun has a really cute video tutorial on how to make a wallet out of these cartons. 

So voila !

... here's my first upcycled juice carton wallet

For instructions, and a link to the wallet template click here.

but here are some of my own tips

1. watch the entire video before you begin - my first attempt I skipped a detail and cut off the entire top

2. rinse out your carton first - unless you particularly want a mango-fragranced wallet.

3. if you have more than one child, make more wallets, my kids loved the wallet and didn't want to share.

3. if your cartons are smaller then the Family Fun template, you can just fold and tape it to fit, that's what I did in the picture below.



Happy wallet-making everyone

How to get an eco-friendly free signing time video

What is Signing Time?
Signing Time is a collection of videos that use music, songs and interesting visuals to teach American Sign Language (ASL).  Signing time is aimed at babies, hearing children, deaf children, children with special needs and anyone who enjoys music and wants to learn some ASL.

What is my Signing Time story?
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I heard that teaching babies signing can be beneficial in various ways.  Babies can understand and have a will to communicate before their facial muscles are developed enough to speak.  By teaching them signs with their hands, they are able to communicate much earlier.  Babies that can successfully communicate (even on a basic level, "milk" "more" "no more" etc) will be less frustrated, which translates into less tantrums.  Additionally, owing to them already having developed skills of communication from a very young age, they often learn to speak earlier. 
When Eliya was born, I felt that there were many reasons to try signing with her.

However, I had very little background in Sign Language and although we signed up to an online program to learn sign language for babies, it wasn't really working.  Then, a friend of ours introduced us to Rachel Coleman and Signing Time.  We LOVED IT.  We bought the set of Baby Signing Time DVD's and watched them all the time.  We tried to incorporate signing while talking to Eliya, although we often forgot, and probably relied a little too much on the DVDs.

My husband and I are both South African born, English speakers.  We moved to Israel (made Aliya) and our children were born here, and placed in an Hebrew environment from a very young age.  Most bilingual kids, from what I've read and definitely from what I've seen amongst our bilingual friends, start speaking a little late and often have some difficulties.  My children, especially Eliya, both started speaking on the earlier side of the spectrum and I credit signing time with that.

If you're wondering why I'm crediting signing time and not myself (being the amazing mom that I am :-) ), I can give you a few reasons.  Firstly, Eliya's first words, were words that appear in the signing time DVDs.  Secondly, when a young child speaks, it can be difficult to decipher what they are saying and to differentiate when it's a 'baby babble' word or a real word.  In our family, we had to differentiate between 'baby babble', English and Hebrew.  This could have become very frustrating for Eliya.  Thanks to Signing Time, when Eliya realised that I didn't understand her word, she would just use the sign in conjunction with the word, and that would help me to decipher her sound.  This meant that her words could be understood which encouraged her to use more and more words and speak more and more. 
So Thanks Signing Time.

What does Signing Time have to do with Going Green?
Two Little Hands Productions are now offering a new convenient and eco-friendly way to purchase their videos - Signing Time on Demand. 
The manufacture of DVDs contributes heavily to pollution, and 1.6 billion dvd's go into landfills every year. With Signing Time on Demand, you can help your kids and save the planet while you're at it!
Basically the way it works is that you download the program for free, and can then buy Signing Time videos through the on Demand system and watch them on the computer without the need for a DVD.  Another plus is No Scratched/Broken DVDs !   Also, what I love is that through the on Demand system you can copy your videos to your iphone (no cables needed) and watch anywhere and everywhere on your phone.
For more info and to try a free introductory video, go to Signing Time on Demand.

How to make a kitchen from a cardboard box

Yesterday I spent the afternoon, building a kitchen... for my kids... from a cardboard box.

I found my inspiration on the Disney Family Fun site. and made a few adjustments.

Their plan is for a double unit, one part stove, one part cupbard & sink, but I wanted it to fit into my kids' plastic outdoor house.  The house could only fit one box, so I combined the sink and stove units and sacrificed some cupboard space.

Materials:

large cardboard box  (I used an old moving box left behind after our kids' stuff swap.)

colored tape  (I couldn't find any colored packing tape, so I got the kind they use for electric cables)

craft knife (I put too much strain on my splice precision knife, -my fault, I still recommend the knife,- and found that a sharp scissors, and kitchen knife can also work if neccessary)

rimmed bowl (I try to avoid going out to buy MORE stuff, so I used an extra one from my kitchen)

soap dispensor pump (apologies to my sister Shiri who has no dispensor for her soap now)

plastic caps (I used ones without holes)

nail & hammer

screws & plugs (honestly, I didnt even use the plugs in the end, as the screws were stuck into the thick cardboard, but depending the thickness of your box, perhaps have them in case)

stay-tab from top of soda can (do you have a better name for it?)

CD's

permanent marker

Instructions:

1. turn cardboard box upside down

2. outline rimmed bowl on the top of the box, where you'd like your sink to be, and then use a craft knife to cut a circle about 1cm smaller than the bowl's diameter, then place your bowl inside. Consider using glue or tape to keep it in place.

3. make a small hole for a faucet and place the soap dispensor pump inside

4. draw a rectangle for the oven and use craft knife to cut out the top and sides of the oven.

5. use permanent marker to appropriately decorate the stove burners and stick them onto stovetop with superglue or glue gun.  I also put a piece of red tape under each of the burners, which gives the impression of a 'hot working stove'.

6. make holes in the caps, insert the screws and then push them into the box to make the knobs

7. use colored tape over hard jagged edges and for decor.

8. attach a stay-tab or alternative to just above the oven door with a screw to keep the oven door closed.

(Warning: after looking for a picture of a stay-tab, I saw several warnings regarding how they are choking hazards, if there will be small children playing with this kitchen, I would suggest using something else to close the oven, eg. a rectangular lid, that can swivel from horizontal to vertical thereby keeping the oven closed)

Enjoy making your own!

How to make a dollhouse from a cardboard box.

I grew up in a house with four girls, a big dollhouse and lots of plastic dolls.  I have great memories of playing with the dollhouse with my sisters and wanted the same for my kids - without buying an expensive dollhouse and plastic dolls which would probably end up destroyed in the dumps polluting the environment that I'm trying to save.

So I did a bit of research online, and decided to make a dollhouse from a cardboard box.

(I must admit that I found so many different examples of cardboard dollhouses online, that I'm not sure who to credit for my final design.)

Items needed:

a big box

scraps of wrapping paper

glue

tape

furniture magazines

Instructions:

Step 1: Find a box (I used the box from my sewing machine).

Step 2: Cut off the top 2/3 of the front side of the box.

Step 3: The bottom 1/3 that's left can be laid flat to represent the garden, and the bottom of the box taped shut.

Step 4:  Use the top 2/3 of the front that you have cut away to make the upper floor (second storey) (you may need to further cut it to size).

Step 5: Use strips of remaining cardboard and tape to reinforce the upper floor, ( I later added a piece of cardboard as a divider between the bottom 2 rooms which further reinforces the upper floor.

Step 6: Tape down old wrapping paper as the wallpaper/carpeting for each room.

Step 7: Cut out pictures of furniture and decor (eg. clock, closet etc) from magazines and glue onto the walls

Step 8: Spraypaint roof and outside of house (I still haven't done this...), paint garden green...

Step 9: Fill your house with furniture, we used furniture that we had been given as gifts, sand toy as the 'bath', I made a fridge from a small medicine box.  Check out this link for a great way to make recycled doll furniture.  (I already had furniture given as a gift, so I just modified those instructions for my toilet seat.

The dolls in my house are a great alternative to plastic dolls (which break easier and I'm assuming are harder on the environment than these wooden dolls).

A friend of mine bought them for me from Etsy and we used craft koki's (markers) to color them.  You can also go to the general Etsy page and search wooden dolls to buy already-colored dolls, however I recommend doing them yourself - its fun and cathartic. 

I've since found that you can buy a variety of wooden people cheaper on Amazon  (using specifically the above link to amazon helps support my blog).

Hope you have lots of fun with your dolls and dollhouses, let me know how they turn out via  twitter or facebook.

This post is also featured on:

Fun green things to do with kids



Yesterday our city, Modiin, held a book swap where everyone was invited to bring old books or dvd's in good condition and to choose other ones to take home from the collection.  We took 5 items and were told we could 'on our honor' take home 5 alternate items (ie. there was no tickets or checking involved).

I took some healthy snacks in my bag and the kids and I had fun choosing books and a dvd. 

There was also a nice activity run by volunteers from the ecological farm in the area. 

We took pinecones and a fistful of local clay (I think it is collected from the riverbeds) and made porcupines

Instructions: how to make the porcupine, take a pine cone and lay it on its side, squash a fistful of clay onto the side of the pine cone, leaving a lump near the pointed side of the cone. Mold the lump into the shape of a nose and smooth all the sides.  Finally, take a stick and poke holes for the eyes.