Thursday, July 03, 2008

Independence crafting

Tsia is done with preschool for the summer (Does school finish this late everywhere? Growing up, we were always terrorizing the neighborhood by Memorial Day, as I recall), so I'm experiencing life as a full-time stay-at-home mom and simultaneous corporate mogul (yeah, right) this week. The stay-at-home part has given me an excuse to do normal things like grocery shopping, going to the playground, playing games, and doing little crafts: the sorts of activities I haven't had much time for during the past year while launching a small company. And I'm loving it, never mind the stress levels as we're preparing to go to press with the fall line. That stuff waits until after bedtime for a week or two.


Today we made pinwheels. Remember these? We made loads of them as kids. You could, of course, use fancy scrapbooking papers and the like, but we went a bit more organic here, decorating our own papers with markers and crayons.



Tsia likes to do her own cutting, of course (she's three!), and she's quite good at it. So I drew the lines and she cut many of them. Independence, indeed.



We used map pins because they're shorter than regular sewing pins so the points don't stick out the other end of the pencil eraser. But I have to say that our pinwheels don't spin very well. We tried gluing the corners to the center to see if that might help, but no matter how much we blew they didn't make much movement. Maybe we should have used a heavier cardstock?

No matter. The pencils themselves are much more fun to draw with when they have a decoration on top. And now I know how to use our extra chopsticks, too! They would make terrific "magic wands" for the pinwheels, and I wouldn't lose all my trusty old Mirado Black Warrior pencils to the craft bin either.

I think I know how we're spending our Independence Day weekend, now that Miss Independence has caught the pinwheel bug. I'll report back if we make any breakthroughs on the spinning front.

11 comments:

  1. That is a great idea. And I just bought a huge bin of pencils at a garage sale last weekend. The kids could make things all day and this is one we haven't tried. Thanks!

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  2. what a lovely idea!!! I haven't made pinwheels in ages. SO much fun :) Adding that to the summer craft list. :)

    Kristin

    http://homegrownrose.typepad.com/reclaimingthehome

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  3. Maybe you can try to first take a pinboard-pin (sorry, I´m not sure about the right English word for it) so the hole gets a bit bigger. Then insert the map-pin and it should spin easily. Hope it works!
    Great paper you created!

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  4. sounds like fun.
    a good summer thus far....
    hugs

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  5. Anonymous7:51 AM

    ah, i wish we'd finished school too! 2 and 1/2 weeks left! nice pinwheels.

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  6. Cute pinwheels! We have been working on balancing work and play this summer. I think we're finally getting there, even though I'm still way behind. (By the way, yes, I do believe that is getting out of school late.) Enjoy your summer!

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  7. Anonymous12:58 AM

    Oh my word! I love it!

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  8. The paper might be fine, but maybe you need the length of the sewing pin to give the paper room between the eraser and the head of the pin. Not sure if it will work, though. Just don't stick them through the back of the eraser. The pinwheels are so cute!
    Anna

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  9. what fun! we'll have to try this this afternoon! tsia is so adorable.

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  10. If you put a bead (like a pony bead, I think they are called, bigger than an seed bead) on the shaft of the pin between the wheel and the pencil, that gives the wheel more space to turn.

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  11. I really like these... they are so colorful:)
    Shelly G.
    shellys.hut@gmail.com

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