More bi-carb volcanos and a bit of a science day

Joplin loved the other day's 'experiment' and wanted to do it again this morning. I had seen a slightly different way to do it so we thought we'd try this way today.
I saw this idea here - we didn't exactly stick to measurements but this was the gist..


Combine 1/3 cup water, 2 tablespoons bi-carbonate of soda and a squirt or 2 of washing up liquid in one cup. Put this cup in a sandwich box or other container.
Mix around 5 tablespoons vinegar with a few drops of food colouring. We used red to start with.
Pour vinegar and food colouring into cup containing bi-carb etc.
Watch foam eruption happen and little boys amazement!

He wanted to do it straight away again so we used the same containers and added yellow colouring. We then did it again with green.

Just as we were finishing I got a phone call from our friends telling us that our local museum was having a  science day that day. Perfect! We met them there and had loads of fun with all the experiments. The highlight was actually the fantastic slime experiment we had actually done before at home. Always a big hit! Basically the recipe is:-

In one bowl: mix 4oz pva glue with 4 oz water and 1 tspn food colouring

In another bowl: mix 1/2 cup water with 1 teaspoon Borax (this is a cleaning agent used a lot in the US. In the end I bought it v cheaply on ebay - a little goes a long way and has tons of uses so might be worth keeping in. NB Borax substitute found in Robert Dyas does not work)

Mix 2 bowls together and an amazing reaction occurs! Squish and drain off excess liquid and you will be left with wonderful slime. Keep in a zip lock bag and keep playing! Keeps for months - or until you get sick of it... does not come out of carpet!

We then had a adventure to the park on the way home!

Eruptions with bi-carbonate of soda and vinegar!

We had a bit of a 'science experiment' today!
I managed to find a massive tub of bi-carbonate of soda in the local cash-and-carry so I thought I'd put it to some use.

I sprinkled some in the bottom of a sandwich box then dotted food colouring on top. 

The boys then filled up medicine syringes with vinegar and dropped the vinegar into the sandwich box. 

The coloured fizzing 'volcanos' looked great and I loved watching the boys' reactions!

They then had a play with the syringes and a good stir up of the mixture - it soon became a black grainy slush which Eden loved putting his hands in! 

Good fun was had by all!

Milk jugs and pompoms!

The simple things please the most! After Joplin's 5 (yes 5!) bowls of cereal today another big jug of milk was done. When I couldn't cram the jug into the full recycle bin I  was reminded of an idea I had seen on pinterest so decided to up-cycle it instead. A minute with some scissors, and a very simple finger pompom with some scrap wool later we had a new toy!
It took a while for Joplin to get the hand but he was very pleased with himself when he got the pompom in! Eden had a bit of fun shaking it around, then took the logical route and just put it in with his hands - obvious really! He then had a good shake with it before realising what a good weapon it would be to get his brother with! Boys will be boys!

Vinyl messenger bag from comic books

Fuelled on with enthusiasm from my Thunderbird wallet I thought I'd have a go at a messenger bag. I thought for a while about dimensions, then realised these were pretty much decided for me with the size of the comic book pages. I laid 6 pages out as shown - the arrows on the second picture show the top of the page. 

I then sandwiched the pages in between 2 sheets of vinyl. I smoothed out the bubbles and creases then sewed it together. 

I made one line of stitching on the vinyl outside of the paper (no. 3 straight stitch - large so as not to rip the vinyl) and one line over the paper as seen in the close up. 

I folded one side 1/3 of the way up and then sewed along the sides. I then turned inside out. I'm not sure if I would do this step again another side as turning inside out very slightly damaged the paper by creasing it. It might be better to expose the seams. Anyway the creases didn't really show in the end so I'm still undecided what would be best.
I added a strap and reinforced the bottom with  a strip of strong cardboard wrapped in comic book and vinyl.

Joplin loves it! He has put all his Thunderbird toys in it already!

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!

Sewing with laminated paper, and vinyl wallets from comic books

I have been wanting to try out sewing with paper into useful items for a while now and so with a birthday pressie needed for my Auntie I thought I'd give it a go.
I printed and laminated an old style airmail envelope bearing her birthday and address (blurred on photos).  I was limited to what could be done with an A4 sheet so I thought a pencil case could work. I folded it to show front and back envelope sides then sewed in a zip. This was a little tricky as the laminated paper didn't have much give, but with my zipper foot and sewing with the zip open it went in Ok. I then sewed up the sides. I stitched over the zip ends a few times then trimmed it with scissors.

I was pleased with how it turned out but ideally I wanted something with a bit more flexibility. I thought I'd try vinyl.

I scored a good find on ebay this week - a huge stack of Thunderbirds magazines! 87 in total for just a couple of pounds! Whilst I'm sure Joplin (and Dan!) are going to be over the moon with them and will fill a few birthday and Christmas pressies for the next 40 or so years, I figured the enthusiasm would fade certainly by issue 80, so I thought I would upcycle the last few into of some use!

I thought I'd start by a small card / business card holder. I cut a strip of comic book one width wide - approx 8" X 3". I roughly cut the vinyl to cover the whole thing X 2 and an extra couple to cover each end approx 2.5'' over. I sandwiched the  comic book in-between the vinyl and laid the extra pieces either end.

I sewed along the vinyl on the edge of the paper and then over the paper and the vinyl. I made it quite a large stitch (no. 3) so the vinyl wouldn't rip. 

It came out quite well and seems pretty strong and durable. 

Your comments make my day! Do let me know what you think!