Dino Party Time!

Recently, I was asked to help plan a dinosaur party for one of our Kaleidoscope Kids. Of course, I jumped at the chance! I knew it'd be a ton of fun to make this little girl's 3rd Birthday a blast!

Her mom is pretty darned crafty, so for an activity she created dino tails for each attendee. She used brightly colored sheets, which she cut into triangles and sewed together. Along the top seam she sewed ribbon in, to look like spikes. She stuffed them with newspaper and attached ribbon to hold them in place around their kids' waists. At the party, everyone used sparkling foam stickers to decorate their tails. It was a big hit!

To complete the dinosaur outfit, I made a pair of dinosaur foot stamps. I simply used a template of a foot to trace the shape onto some scrap plywood. Then I used a jigsaw to cut it out and a bit of sandpaper to take off the rough edges. I painted the tops of the feet with acrylic craft paint. Once that was dry, I traced and cut the template out of craft foam. Using E6000, I attached the foam to the bottom of the feet and trimmed as needed. I weighted these with a book and allowed them to dry overnight. In the morning I just attached elastic with a staple gun, so that kids could slip their feet into the elastic and wear them as "shoes."

At the party, I squirted Crayola Sidewalk Chalk Paint onto plates and had the kids step into it while wearing the dinosaur feet, then they stomped around making footprints on the pavement. The younger children needed some help getting the hang of it, but once they did, they created tracks everywhere!

After we were done playing dinosaur, it was time to dig for dinos. First we cracked open "rocks" that contained miniature dinosaurs inside! To make the rocks, I used a recipe I found at Surviving a Teacher's Salary. Simply combine the following:

1 cup used coffee grinds

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/4 cup sand

up to 3/4 cup water

I doubled the recipe to make 12 rocks. Be very careful adding water! I added too much at first and had to add more flour. To make the rocks, I just grabbed a chunk of dough in my hand, placed the figure inside, and wrapped the dough around. It'll be sticky. Then I shaped it and place it on a lined cookie sheet. I baked them at 170 degrees for about an hour, flipping them once, until they were dried well.

The day of the party, we used tongue depressors to crack open our rocks and find the prize inside.

The last activity was a dinosaur treasure hunt. I used a long, low rubbermaid bin (the type for storing clothes under a bed) and filled it with two 50-pound bags of  multi-purpose sand. Then the all kinds of dinosaur figures, special rocks and plastic plants were hidden in the sand. Our young paleontologists just LOVED this activity. The older kids enjoyed identifying all the dinos!

When the fun was winding down, the mom brought out her fabulous dinosaur cake. She cut her's free hand, but there are great cake pans available that make it even easier.

Finally, we handed out gift bags. The bags were just plain white paper gift bags, which I sprayed with liquid watercolors (green) and some Perfect Pearls Mist (heirloom gold). Then I used a metallic bronze Sharpie to write each child's name on the bag. I used dinosaur foam stickers to decorate the bags. Inside I added a "Prehistoric Fern" plant and a handful of stickers. 

Mom also made sure each attendee got a super cool dinosaur temporary tattoo as well.

It was a really fun day, and I thank the Kelleher Family for making me a part of it!

Blinky Birthday Card

I know lots of kids love making special cards for parents on their birthday. Actually, I know a lot of adults do to! But what do you do when you have a hacker husband and you want something that really says, "Wow!" Well, in my case, you add some LEDs.

The finished card, with an embossed and decorated envelope.

For this you'll need cardstock in red and black, a printer, a paper cutter, an X-acto knife or something similar, a glue stick, 2 LEDs (I used ones that blink), an old mousepad, a tack, a coin battery and some duct tape.

Making the card is easy. I created a graphic (in GIMP) using the Android robot and added a present to his belly. In my case, I cut it from red cardstock using my digital cutter (a Sillhouette, which I love), but you can print the graphic and use an X-acto to do the same thing. I sized it to fit a standard 4.25" x 5.5" card, which I made from textured black cardstock. I just used a glue stick to paste the robot to the card.

Click for the full-size image, and right-click to save it. 

The card before LEDs.

To add LEDs you'll need two blinking LEDs and a coin battery. I pulled both from a "Learn to Solder Skill Badge" from MakerShed that I had laying around, but you can buy the same thing at RadioShack.

To place the LEDs in the eyes, I opened the card and laid in flat on an old mousepad. Then I used the LED itself to determine where I wanted the holes for the leads. Using a tack, I punched the holes and inserted the LEDs.

On the inside of the card, I traced my coin battery in between the leads. Then I bent the positive leads (the long ones) against the paper and cut them so that the met inside the circle I'd drawn. I trimmed the negative leads a little as well, though I left them long to account for the thickness of the battery. I placed the positive side of the coin battery (marked +) on top of the positive leads and then bent the negative leads over the battery. I little red duct tape, pressed well for good contact between the battery and the leads, sealed everything in. I didn't bother with a switch (though that'd be super cool).

All that was left was to add a cheesy birthday greeting to the inside. :)

Quick, easy and impressive. To "turn off" the battery, you just need to loosen the tape a bit and let the negative leads lose contact with the battery. This isn't a card I'd mail, by the way. It'd get damaged and the blinking envelope might put more suspicious postal workers on high alert.

If you like the music in the clip, it's called "Stardazed" by a band called "Virtualizer" and is available for free on Last.fm.