Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Blue and Gold Awards


Since our pack doesn't give out the Tiger patch or any other award for Blue and Gold, I thought it would be awesome to have our boys take something home to represent their hard work. So the little ones are being made into necklaces that the boys can choose to wear. The bigger ones are awards for our den leaders.


We had a tree that was cut down by the electric company...they left all the wood there laying on the fence. So my brother In law came by with a chainsaw and cut a lot of it off the fence and this is the pile we kept. So I had my husband use a table saw to cut some thin slices off for our boys. Next we sanded it to get it smooth.  Then I went to Hobby Lobby and used a 40% coupon to by a wood burner. It didn't do exactly what I wanted...and I had to experiment with it. But I found out that when I drew on the wood, then used the burner over it, it turned out dark. 

See how the word Bear is lighter than the actual picture of the bear? That is because I didn't draw the word first with pencil. I also drilled a hole for the necklace part..
On the back of the "pendant" I wrote the pack # and the child's name. Made it easier to keep track of who I might forget. 
Every picture, bears, tigers, ect, was hand drawn using the picture at the front of each book. So every bear looks a little different, every tiger looks different, ect. Not one is made the same, even though I used the same picture for reference. 
Which I actually love!
The bigger one is made the same with the den leaders name on it and the boys names on the back. It has 2 holes to help hand on the wall if they want. I put Modge Podge on it to seal it...which is why they look so shiny. 
I was going to use twine for the necklaces but it is just too rough...but I will use it for the den leader awards. 
Oh, and because most materials I already had, this didn't cost the pack almost anything. 
If you don't have the wood at home, you can always buy this same kind at Michaels or another craft store. Just remember to have your coupon ready!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Make a Castle out of Recycled Material

When I mentioned to my son that he had to make a castle out of recycled material, he wasn't all that enthused. Then I mentioned that he can use Daddy's gold spray paint for it and he wanted to make it right away.
We used a coffee box from Sam's as the base of the castle. He wanted a draw bridge that went up and down and some towers. Easy and simple design.

He was allowed to use his Daddy's drill to make the holes in our door to pull up the draw bridge. He was really excited about that!

Then he used a knife to cut out the door that he drew. Of course I helped and I had to keep showing him how to hold the knife. It was a good lesson on knife safety.

He got it open! Ok, for the towers I helped a little more by cutting the next box's corners out to fit the box. He helped a little bit on this by telling me what to do...lol

We used all glue to glue the towers on. I let him do it twice and I burned myself so I just did it so that he wouldn't get hurt. Then he got worker gloves on and did the rest..lol
Next we finished the dr bridge by putting string on it and running it to the back of the box. You had to pull the actual bridge down but you could pull the string to close quickly.

The golden castle is done by spray painting it gold. Next step was to bring it to the pack meeting. Everyone loved it and said how cool it was. They even asked him go on stage and talk about how he made it. I was excited because it is good practice for talking in front of a crowd and he did a great job!
He talked about how he made it and what tools he used. And he loved it! Hopefully this will help. Make sure to have fun with it and so will your scout.

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Thank you!