Monday, October 10, 2011

Making lanterns

First paint a piece of watercolor paper and let it dry. Then oil it with vegetable oil, massage the oil in until you see the paper become transparent. Gather your supplies. This is a half sheet of 11"x15" paper.


Fold the corner over to get a 7.5" square.


Cut excess off.



Fold diagonally the other direction.



Fold in half length wise, and then again width wise.



Off set the corners, matching the length and width folds with diagonal folds.


Fold the corners down.



Open folds.


Cut the corners off, and now you an octagon.


Make sure you have 16 segments, you may need to half some of the larger segments if you do not have 16.

Fold up a section of four segments matching to the angles.


Continue around.



Open up and do the same to the other octagon points.
Looks the same but you will see triangles in the center this time of the framed area.


Turn over.


Fold down on the line.


Repeat folding down the triangles around.





Finish shaping.



Enjoy!



Science Fair

We found a science fair on Saturday, and it was free. I decided I would take the girls, and it was awesome. We made slime, brush bots, chap stick. We taste tested popcorn for saturated fats, and tried dry ice cheese puffs. We saw lots of crazy bugs, and even pet a giant beetle. The favorites were the brush bots and the slime.

This was the kit they used for the bristle bot, but I am going to try to see if I can find the stuff locally and do a tutorial on it.
Aren't their bots the cutest!






And the slime! The girls love the slime!



Ingredients: ½ cup glue and two Cups Borax
1. Mix ½ -cup water with ½ cup glue. In a separate container, mix ½ cup water with 2c. Borax (Borax can be purchased in the laundry detergent aisle).
2. Now, stir the Borax mixture while slowly adding the glue mixture.
3. It should immediately come together to make slime. If it isn't quite right try adding more of the Borax and water.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Nap struggle




Oh the joy of having a toddler that thinks she is too big to nap. Her brain wants to be awake but her body is so tired. And then when she finally succumbs to the sleepiness it is to late to nap, so I have to fight her to stay awake.
Sigh, deep breath because this child is making me seriously consider spiking my coffee.