Fun with dowels?!?! Yes, ma'am.

Yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby. Alone. No kids. I spent an hour wandering aimlessly. I filled my cart with supplies. I spent $30. I love that place.

For that, I'd love to give a big shout out to Grandpa Kenny for opening the daycare even though the Super Bowl festivities may or may not have gotten the best of him the night before. Props, bro. You da man.

Anyway. While watching the Packers kick some football butt on Sunday night, I got an idea for a project.
This morning, after Avery left for school and Kendall went down for a nap, I settled in to make it happen.

The suspense must be killing you! Alright, alright. I am making shadow puppets on a stick. What, huh?! You just wait. They are pretty awesome.

Here's what you need:

Sheets of black foam, stencils, a pencil, scissors, super glue, and wooden dowels.

You may want to do this project without any little people around. It really isn't something that small hands can help with. Avery is only four and her scissor skillz aren't steady enough for this. Also, super glue + little people = a large problem.

So, since there are no little people, it's perfect time to watch those dvr'd shows. I recorded "One Born Every Minute" on Lifetime. LOVE IT! I highly recommend that show. It is a hospital who records every step of the birthing process but it is hilarious. The nurses are hilarious. The patients are kooky. Check it out. I have no idea when it is on, my dvr pays attention to that for me. What a good assistant.

Back to the project.

Start tracing your animals. I used Avery's animal stencil cards. She uses them a lot as can be seen by the scribbles on the stencil that are a result from an unsteady hand. But she can trace a mean seal. Project, Stacy. Focus. Sorry.

I used a dullish pencil. Doing that, the pencil did not actually write but instead made an impression in the foam. This made it very easy to cut the animals out.

I also wanted some dino friends to use. I did not have stencils for that, so I went to bing.com and searched for dinosaur stencils. (Google was NOT working. Silly site.) I found this:

I used these as reference and free-handed four of them onto the foam. I also tried drawing an octopus. I failed miserably.

Next, cut all of your shapes out. My hand was sore after all that cutting. My thumb developed a bit of a twitch. It probably didn't help that all I had in my belly was a giant cup of coffee. The shakes were inevitable.

Now, glue all of your shapes onto the dowels. I found it worked best to put the glue directly onto the shape and stick the dowel in it. Press the dowel down for a few seconds to secure.

Stand them up to finish drying. I used a tall terra cotta pot that will be used for a project in the near future. Stay tuned for that one, folks.

A bouquet of shadow sticks. Lovely.

Here they all are:

Dinosaurs.

Animals from Down Under and some jungle friends.

Arctic animals.

Farm animals and pets.

African safari.

Here is a T-Rex in action:

RAWR!! I did this hiding under a blanket in the middle of the morning. It is not as spectacular as it will be in a dark room. Plus, it is not very easy to hold the flashlight, stick, and camera while keeping the blanket over your head. I am surprised I didn't get hurt.

In case you are curious, here are the stats and notes for this project:

1. This project was CHEAP!!

It was $.79 per black sheet and I used 3. (Hobby Lobby then had them on sale for 25% off that.)

The dowels were $1.99.

I had all the other supplies, but I did see that stencils were very expensive at Hobby Lobby. I did find a container full of about 20 animal shaped cookies cutters there that were only $9 and those would have worked wonderfully for this project.

I am pretty sure that Wal-Mart would have had all the supplies to do this project as well, but I really wanted to go to the Lobby.

2. Make sure you scissors are sharp. It will make them glide through the foam sheets like they are butter.

3. Don't make your shapes to intricate. They should just be basic outlines that are obviously recognizable of what they are representing. I also wouldn't make them very big so they don't get floppy on the dowel.

4. It took about an hour and a half to do this project from beginning to end.  That even included stopping to listen to Kendall tells stories and sing while up in her bed. And yell, "DADDY!" Also, there was one trip up by here to find a thrown nukey. Just nap already, girlfriend.

I can not wait to try these once it gets dark. Avery has a nice spot on her wall for us to try. We are going to pull up a beanbag and go at it.