Kids Craft Show

Kate, Jenna and I turned up on the day itself to support their efforts

as well as the efforts of the other kid-vendors. Kate and Jenna went shopping!

Emily and her friend Rena each picked a craft product to sell, then got together to make them together. Rena's idea was the barrettes in the picture above that Jenna is browsing (and buying). Emily wanted to make a gender-neutral toy. She looked through her collection of craft books and found something in this library cast-off:

this race car

In the process of making them, Emily learned that one must sometimes adapt the given instructions in order to ensure the workability of a design, or risk utter frustration. Here follows Emily's tutorial, with all the resultant fine-tuning.

To make one car, you need

• Glue
• Two twist ties
• Four buttons, preferably equal in size, and at least 1" in diameter. If you are using two different sizes, pick the larger ones for the back wheels so they are like real race cars.
• One clothes peg
• 2 short bits of a not-too-narrow straw, just a little longer than the width of the clothespeg
• One small button

Thread one twist tie through a pair of buttons and a straw bit, as shown in the series of photos below.

Keep the twist tie relatively loose until both buttons are secured. Then rotate the buttons in opposite directions to tighten the ensemble. Be sure to ensure the twisted twist tie can still freely move inside the straw and that the buttons do not touch the ends of the straw.

Loose Tight

Here are the cars made by Emily and Rena.

End of story. Except Emily also decided she needed a ramp for display purposes and to enhance the presentation at her table. So we brainstormed and she sketched this race car track.

Which I built.

Very easy. It's a long piece of cardboard, whose sides are folded up to create walls. Another long bit of cardboard was glued on its side to make a middle partition. There's also a back wall made with a broad rectangle of cardboard that wraps around the walls of the track to create a backstop as well to keep the walls upright.

That end bit was also useful for supporting the Start banner

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