Garbage Bag for the Car

I have wanted to make a hanging garbage bag for my van forever. What I have been doing for the past 5 years is hanging a plastic grocery bag off the arm of the driver's seat. The kids can't reach it though. I have tried to hang it between them but still the garbage doesn't make it in the bag. The big car seat makes it nearly impossible to reach around. So I have been either picking up their drink containers or they have been passing them to me when they are done. Not a great solution but I didn't have trash all over my van.

When Anjeanette did her EE Awareness post and talked about what she could make to share, she mentioned an embroidery hoop barf bag. She got me thinking with the embroidery hoop idea. So I have been thinking about how I wanted to put this together. This is what I came up with.

I am using a plastic table cloth. You could recycle an old one that has a tear and just cut out the good part. I had to go and buy one at the thrift store because I didn't save my torn table clothes. I am going to try not to use this as an excuse to save everything under the sun, just in case. I will be strong and only save what I have ideas for at the time. I think I can, I think I can. Anyway..... I purchased plastic embroidery hoops instead of wood because I want to be able to wash them off if I need to.

First of all you will need to measure the inside ring off the embroidery hoop. Then add about 1/4 inch for seam allowance. This will be the width you need for your bag. I decided that 20 inches was a nice length for my bag (the bottom edge will be rolled up twice to close it).

Take each piece and fold it right sides together and sew along the edge. You will have two tubes. Now turn one tube right side out. Place one inside the other with the wrong sides together.
I am using bias tape to cover the raw edges. Since the plastic is fairly thin I wanted to add some strength to the edge of my bag. Sew down the center of the tape. When you get near to where you started sewing cut your bias tape a little longer than needed. Fold the end under and sew to hide the raw edge of bias tape.

Here is the top of my bag. I did the same with the bottom of the bag. Do not sew the bottom of your bag closed at this point. Or I guess you could but then you wouldn't be able to use the neat trick I have planned.

Cut a length of bias tape to make your hanging strap. I sewed mine down the middle to hold it all together. I then sewed it to the inside rim of the back of my bag. I folded my strap up at a 45 degree angle so there is less stress on the stitching when I hang it. Be sure to go over the edges a couple of times to make sure y0ur stitching won't come undone as the bag is filled or in case your child pulls on it.

Now for the bottom of the bag.....

What you see here is Velcro with adhesive, both sides together. I have removed the backing on one side and stuck it to the front edge of the bottom. What you see is the backing to the second piece of Velcro. I like to keep the sides together like this while I am positioning it that way I am sure that they Velcro will line up with itself.

Remove the backing.Now roll it up one more time and press the Velcro into place.

Open up your Velcro and press to make sure you have a good bond. I decided to use the self stick Velcro because I wanted to sew through the plastic as little as possible. The neat thing about closing the bag like this is that you can just open up the bottom of the bag and shake out the trash or crumbs. Also when you want to wash out or rinse our the bag you can be sure to get it good and clean.

Now put the inner hoop inside the back and the outer hoop with the bolt at the back of the bag on the outside. I am placing mine about 2 inches below the rim of the bag. Tighten up the hoop.

Simply tie the bag around the head rest post of the front seat. Don't worry if the hoop is pressed on it simply goes flat against the car seat. I plan to make a second one for behind the driver's seat. That way each child can reach a garbage bag. My 5 year old really liked the idea and happily showed me that he could reach it. Also by having it hang on the post closest to the driver, I can easily put trash in it as well. I like that the hoop holds the bag open and that the hoop can be removed for cleaning.

Katrina

Anjeanette chiming in here...Katrina! I know I already told you this, but I love it!! And I love it even more in person. Such a great idea. I love everything about it.

Tags and Prizes for 4th Of July Carnival

Since we were having so many fun carnival games we knew we had to make up a cute prize station. We each brought some small prizes and filled up glass jars with them. We then tagged them all so that you would know what was in each jar. The kids had so much fun filling up their bags with all of the fun prizes.
To make the tags for the prizes I cut out fun designs from a 4th of July printed paper. Then, I cut out those same designs, only smaller and on white paper. I then ran the white designs through my xyron machine to turn them into stickers.
I just matched the smaller designs with the bigger designs.
Next, I cut a slit on the top and bottom of the tag (just outside of where the white design is). This will be for the ribbon to slide through.
I cut some ribbon long enough to go around the mouth of the jar, through the tag, and have some left to dangle a bit from the bottom. I wove the ribbon through the tag, with the ribbon going behind the tag so it wont cover the words on the front of the tag.
Then, you put your loop around the mouth of your jar, and your tag is ready to be labeled.
This section was our old-fashioned prizes. Candy lipstick, button candy, marbles, and candy sticks (we grew up with them being those candy cigarettes, they've brought them back but just as candy sticks with cute packaging, which is the only way would would want to pass those on!). Other prizes were dinosaurs, necklaces, bouncy balls, wet balls, 4th of July toys, party blowers, medals, army guys and lots more. We shot for each of us to bring one jar full, but we all went overboard (especially Nana!). I alternated the ribbons, red then blue.
I could not believe when I found this dot candy! I so used to LOVE this candy. My kids really enjoyed it as well.

Rebecca

Fourth of July Ice Cream

For last week's Tuesdays with Dorie we made peach ice cream. Neither Anjeanette nor I had ever made ice cream before and it was quite the adventure. We didn't have an ice cream maker (though I've been asking for one for ages!) and so we followed David Lebovitz's guide to making ice cream without the maker and it turned out FANTASTIC!

We then decided to make blueberry, strawberry and vanilla ice cream for our Fourth of July carnival (so we would have red, white, and blue). We were going to make mint ice cream as well but someone around here really likes to eat the peppermint candies and there wasn't any left over for the ice cream...but I'm sure the mint ice cream would be delicious as well if you can get your candies to last that long. We had made up a big batch of the ice cream custard, and then we simply added it to our fruit flavorings.

My husband was initially concerned about the texture that homemade ice cream would produce, but once he tried some his worries were dispelled. The secret to making great ice cream without the maker is to stir the custard mixture occasionally while freezing and we discovered that using an immersion blender to do this works the best.



~Erika

We linked to the following parties:  ABC and 123, Someday Crafts,

Fourth Of July Balloon Dart Game

I started out with a white foam board that I already had. You can get white foam board at your hardware stores. You could also use a cork board or something similar.
I cut out a template of a star. You are going to use the relief, or outside, of the template. Because the board is already white, I spray painted the stars red and blue. I had a separate template for each color. I figured out a pattern in my head and went with it.

Notice on my board that I have color on more than just the stars. I didn't want a stark board and wanted more color on it. So, when I sprayed the stars I held the paint can farther back so that there was overspray on the rest of the board. I really like how it turned out!
I used water balloons for this game. I blew up just the red and blue ones. Then, I had wanted to use cute thumb tacks that I spray painted for this. However, we found it is best to just tape the balloons up! The tape worked like a charm!
Just add your darts and you are done! Because I'm using real darts, and they are sharp, we will be making sure there will be adult supervision with the darts at all times! I don't want someone getting hurt from this game!

Rebecca

Bean Bag Toss Game for Fourth of July Carnival

You can't have a carnival without a bean bag toss game! Here's mine.

First, you will need to make some cute star-shaped beanbags, complete with embroidered patriotic words in red, white, and blue of course!

A tip here on making star shaped bean bags; leave the tip open to fill the bag. I first tried by leaving a side open and that was much harder to sew up the hole after the beans were in it. But by leaving the tip open, you can just smoosh all the beans to the rest of the star and sew up the hole easily! My sisters and I made some MakeAMixes and I was lucky enough to keep the rest of the beans that we didn't use. So, I always have whatever size of beans I need, for my bean bags. For this one the smaller beans worked perfectly.

My finished bean bags.

Now onto making the part you toss the beanbags into. I took a box that I had on hand (everything I used was from things I had on hand).

I used a circle cutter on the inside of the box to cut out 3 holes. I set it to the largest size of hole that it could make.

I wanted a red and white striped game. So, I pulled out my red wrapping paper (that is white on the underside). I covered the whole top and sides of the box in the red wrapping paper and used spray adhesive to tack it down securely.

I then cut strips of the wrapping paper and sprayed the adhesive on the red side. Then, I layed the strips out somewhat equally to give nice red and white stripes.

Next, turn your box over to cut the circles out of the wrapping paper. I made cuts into the center of the circle, with a razor blade.

I cut it like you would a pie, into 8 wedges. Notice the rain drops? They eventually ran me off our lawn to finish this project or you would get better lighting and nice grass as the background for these photos. Let's just hope this rain falls today and is out of here for the weekend (when our carnival is planned)!

I finished up under my patio. I sprayed the same spray adhesive on my inside wedges of wrapping paper, and just folded them back. I like the look this gave when it was all finished.


Now stand back, toss the bean bags in and enjoy!

Rebecca

4th of July Bowling

The possibilities are endless when you have some empty bottles on hand. This is similar to my ring toss game but I have made a different game board to set it all up on. This time I used the "Betsy Ross Flag" as my inspiration piece. Her flag had 13 stars in a circle on a field of blue with the 13 red and white stripes. I changed this a bit to suit the game. It would be really hard to try to knock down all the pins if they were set up in a circle formation.

For this you will need:
-12 bottles (13 if you want to put one bottle in the middle of the circle)
-1/2 a sheet of poster board (you can make the ring toss game board on the back and make it a double sided game)
-Some scrapbook papers, stickers or whatever you want to decorate your bottles with
-double sided tape or glue to attach the embellishments
-A star shape to trace and cut out 12 stars (markers for where the bottles should be set up).

I made 7-1inch red stripes. Because I wanted my bottles to be arranged more or less in the center of the game board I decided to extend the field of blue all the way across the top of the poster board. I glued down the 12 stars in the same arrangement I wanted the bottles to be set up in. This will help the kids to be able to set up the game for themselves. I recommend using contact paper to laminate your game board. That way it will last longer.

For bowling balls I decided to use some wiffle balls that we already have and they happen to be in red, white and blue!! These are the kind that come with plastic bats for young children learning to hit a ball with a bat. You can also get them with out the bat. You can use any ball you have around the house. Just be sure that it is small enough that it is still a bit of a challenge to knock all the pins down. For an added challenge fill the bottles with water. The more water in them, the harder they will be to knock down. Another idea is to fill one full of water for bonus points if they knock it down.

Draw a line on the sidewalk and give them a "bowling ball" and watch them have lots of fun.

This is my 5 year old doing a victory dance after knocking down most of the pins. He had a great time testing this out for me.

This would be a great thing for students to make for a school carnival. If you want to set up more than one lane, just lay a piece of wood or some other barrier on the ground to separate the "lanes."

Katrina

Easy Handmade Rubber Band Shooters

We have a lot of boys in our family. I think that it is a little harder to find fun activities for boys than it is for girls....but this is just my opinion as a mom of boys. We don't have guns in our house. So when Rebecca suggested we make these, I was a little hesitant. But I did just make a whole bunch of whips for my Son's Birthday party this summer...so why not this too?!

These are easy to do with your kids with a little supervision needed. My boys loved helping make these and can't wait to play with them this weekend at our little carnival.

You will need:

-12 inch dowels

-wood clothes pins

-spray paint

-glue (we used E-6000)

-Rubber bands

-Hack saw (fine tooth hand saw)

We spray painted the dowels in blue and the clothespins in red.

Carefully drag one end of the dowel along the saw. You just want a little groove for the rubber band to sit in. We found it was easier to move the dowel and not the saw.

If you are a real crafter, you will have E-6000 glue at your ready. If you don't have this glue, you are not a true crafter (or you don't want to kill yourself with the toxic fumes that come forth from it.) I'm fine with some toxic fumes for the craft cause;) Glue your clothespin about an inch from the end of your dowel and the opposite end of your groove with the clipping part of the clothespin pointing towards the groove end. Let the glue set.

String your rubber band in the groove, pull it tight and clip it into place in the clothespin. When you are ready, shoot and aim!! You release the rubber band by pressing on the end of the clothespin (releasing the rubber band).

A rule in our house is always no aiming above the waist. It doesn't matter what we are playing with, it can never be aimed above the waist.

Anjeanette

In our house the rule is "you don't shoot people or the pets". We provide them with other targets such as empty plastic bottles or have them draw their own targets on paper. Then we tape the targets to the wall.

These are so simple and quick to make. On a rainy day, assuming you have clothes pins and a stick and the E6000 glue, you could make a couple of these with your kids. While the glue is drying, you can raid your recycle bin and have the kids make their own targets.

Katrina