Summertime, and the Living is Thrifty–Stef from girl.Inspired

Hey, everyone! I am thrilled to introduce today’s guest. Stef’s blog is total eyecandy. I could just sit there and sigh dreamily all the live-long day. Her projects often just scream dreamy&girly, and she always just blows me out of the water with her attention to detail. You can tell she puts a lot of thought and a lot of love into everything she does for the girls that inspire her, and in turn she is an inspiration herself. Today’s gender-neutral project definitely does not disappoint!

 

Hi there!  I'm so excited to kick off Laura's Summertime, and the Living is THRIFTY series.  I'm Stef and I usually blog over at girl.Inspired.  Today, though, I'm going to share a SUPER thrifty, SUPER fun project that is sure to keep your kiddos (and you!) occupied for a good chunk of a hot, summer afternoon!  I put together the "Build-a-Robot Kit" at Christmas, but the recent summer heat definitely called for pulling this out of the closet and giving it a go! 

 

 

If you have eager little ones like me, you'll want to put together this kit ahead of time.  The possibilities are endless, really, for the materials you can include in the kit.  I collected supplies from around the house including toilet paper rolls, cardboard boxes, styrofoam balls, tin foil, felt, pipecleaners.  I had to pick up some nuts, bolts, and springs from the hardware store, but if you're gutsy, you can just raid your hubby's tool chest!!  One can of metallic silver spray paint later and I had a very flashy pile of robot-makin'goodies. 

 

 

When we were ready to make our robot, I manned the hot glue gun and I let the girls do the creating.  They just told me what they wanted to use as the neck, legs, etc. etc.  I invited them into the operating room (garage) and they got a kick out of observing the surgical drilling of large holes where they could screw in the nuts and bolts.  Other nuts and bolts, we just glued right onto the box.

 

 

My five-year-old crumpled some tin foil into a heart and then wrapped a red pipe cleaner around it; the heart, of course, is my favorite part. 

 

 

Our robot continues to hang out on our kitchen table and he makes me smile every time I look at him.

 

 

So, how will your robot turn out?  And will it compete with your three-year-old's desire to cover herself with Hot Wheels tattoos?