Upcycled Twirlers

Upcycling! It's a buzz word. At least it is in my head. And now that it's such a big deal to me, I think twice before I throw anything away. For example, a few weeks ago, I had to buy my 2 year old some bandaids, and of course she had to have the Disney Princess ones. It occured to me as I checked out that she had no idea what was inside the box, and just liked the box itself. And who says that's a bad thing?

How many times have you heard a mom say, "I don't know why we buy them expensive toys, because they just want to play with the box!" I say, let them play. Here's how I used the princesses from our band-aid box. These "Twirlers" are so easy to make, you can probably do the craft with your child!

You can do this with anything that is made of paperboard. So many products are printed with our kids favorite characters, and this could be so fun! Bandaids, cereal, yogurt packaging, etc. I think we'll start a collection of "twirlers."




You need:

• Paperboard cut-outs of something awesome (no bigger than a few inches wide/tall)
• Colorful plastic straws
• Transparent tape
• Clear contact paper/laminating sheets (optional)
• Scissors (pointy sharp ones)

The steps are so simple, it's hardly worth writing down, but since I didn't take pictures, here I go:

1. Cut out around the character. 

2. Sandwich the cut out in contact paper/lamination

3. Cut out the lamination, leaving 1/4-1/2" of lamination around the edge

4. Cut 2 1"slits down one end of the straw, directly across from each other, like so:

Cut on dotted lines

5. Slide character into slits and secure on both sides with tape

6. SPIN! (See diagram below)

My sweet girl loved this. We call ours "dancing princess twirl wands" (what a mouthful!). I got some great shots of her, then accidentally deleted them (doh!) but these will do. She's still playing with them 2 days later, which outlived many things Santa brought. Don't chuck the box, mom! If you make these, please let me know! farbeyonddesigns@gmail.com. Thanks!