Sailing Out of the Box!

When I was approached with an awesome idea from Tinker Lab about getting creative with a cardboard box, I knew straight away that this was something we were IN for! She is celebrating her blogging anniversary and what a great way to celebrate! It's one big blog party!! We have been wanting to make a spaceship for quite some time, but when the time to truly decide came around, the ideas were flying around like crazy!!


Gabriel: More Railroad and Car track like we made before:
http://michellescharmworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/craft-in-minute.html

Autumn: Wagon to pull kids and animals in

Roman: Circus Train

Gabriel: Roller Coaster

Roman: Race Car

Autumn: Space Ship

Roman: BOAT!!!

The Boat was obviously the winner and this is them working on it!
It is meant to be a child led activity and I am only there to help with the sharp stuff and to finish out an idea they have. Gabriel can be seen in the above photo gluing on the waves, they brought out our blue blanket that we usually keep in the car for outdoor activities and such. Roman is inside holding the glue on the dials and Autumn is fixing up the flag. They had a rough time with the flag and went through many different materials, before settling on a dowel that I happened to have! (first they tried paper towel tubes, then a wire hanger)

First things first, the little guy insisted it be named after him! hahaha!!! The Roman it became, and then it turned into a lesson as after my oldest wrote the name Roman insisted that there was NO Q in his name! The lower case A looked like a Q to him!

They put in a site scope because this started out as a pirate ship, if you look to the extreme right of the boat, you can see where it started to tear when they tried to get 2 of them to fit in the boat! haha

We used toilet paper tubes and old Disney World maps to make 3 sets of binoculars, when it became a whale watching boat (and penguins!!). They were able to do these themselves after I made the holes for the laces to go through and tied the knots.

Finally, they settled and it has remained a fishing boat! We were in the Dells and they saw some people fishing from their boats as we took a boat tour and I'm pretty sure that's where they got the idea from! I cut the fish, as it was cardboard and drilled the holes to make the fishing poles. They hooked on the paper clips and glued down the magnets!

All in all we have had a blast and the best part? This boat and 'river' have stayed in our living room for over a week and the kids keep playing with it almost daily! Please check out the linky and join us on everyone's cardboard box adventures!!!

~Michelle!~

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Craft Show Tips....

I did a tiny little craft show this weekend up in Dekalb, IL. There were seriously about 15 vendors and were in the parking lot of a Caribou Coffee shop. The turn out however was EXCELLENT! It goes to prove that LOCATION is everything! It was on a MAIN road where everyone driving saw the tents and signs, it was at a coffee shop where everyone getting coffee had to pass us to get in, it was in a parking lot of a strip mall where we were pulling in people from other shops too! Yay! So when you sign up for one make sure it's not in a nowhere location! (This I tell you from experience! I MYSELF got lost on my way to my very first craft show!! If the vendors with maps can't find it, who can???)

Bring business cards! Bring LOTS of them and preferably bring a holder for them! (I left mine at home and it was WINDY!!!!!! A great tip I have is to print a coupon of some sort on the BACK of your cards!! (use a coupon code) Then you know when people from the show are buying things! This past weekend I used a code with the workd Caribou*** on it and so far I have had THREE sales from there! How cool is that? It's great knowing where they are coming from.

Have a tent! Seriously, if the rain comes down your stuff is safe AND if it's a beating hot day, you are in the shade! It was a crazy day on Saturday! A bit chilly in the early morning during set up, but then it got rainy as the show opened and then in the afternoon it was hot hot hot! (OH and it was verrry Windy! So be sure to weigh your tent down!)You don't have to get a big, fancy EZ-Up tent right off the bat, you want to test the show waters first before you make such a large investment. The one I am using in this show is a simple, green one with no sides from Target. It was on sale for 18.88. I use water jugs to weight it down. Simple and re-usable! More tips to follow tomorrow!!!