Aluminium Foil Dress Up

Every now and again we make silly stuff out of tin foil. Makes a change from cardboard for me (people are beginning to think I am fixated with making things out of the cardboard I pilfer from Costco and I can't have them forcing me into therapy over it before I have built the international space station!). Like cardboard it is of course 100% recyclerific, especially so if you use the 100% recycled foil in the first place! Speaking of which, Reynolds had a deal on it's 100% recycled foil on earth day, where you could print out a coupon, buy the stuff and then post the recipt back with the coupon for a full rebate. Nearly FREE FOIL! Whooo!

I haven't posted about the foil before, because I've been dreadful at taking photos when we do this. I have a couple from last year when we made wands and tiaras and bracelets, but the pics are rubbish and the kids are in their PJs, because they wanted to wear it all to eat their breakfast the next day...

I did get a few pics from the hats we made last week though. The kids scrunched up a sheet of foil a wee bit and then rolled it flat with a rolling pin.Then we folded the circle in half and bend over the rounded edge to seal it like a calzone. Then they cut along the straight edge of the semi circle, to open up the Admiral Nelson style hat. I folded over the edges for them, so there was no chance of a sharp bit of foil nicking them. You can make bowler hats quite easily by scrunching a few sheets over a head or an appropriate sized bowl too.I give you this seasons fashion in anti government mind-probe-wear for the clinically insane. Très chic? Mais non!
While they decorated the hats with stickers, markers and punched holes in them to thread laces and pipecleaners with beads, I decided to try and make a sombrero for Cinco de Mayo. I laid out four strips of foil into a kind of nearly octagon shape and scrunched them down over a bowl, then we rolled the brim flat with the rolling pin and I shaped the head bit a little more by hand. My oldest decorated it with sharpie pens.

Both kids loved how humungous it was. It's still hung up in the kitchen. I am a little sad that it is too small for me. I really like how you don't really need anything other than a roll of tin foil. I mean there's no glue, no tape, no string required unless you want to decorate your creations. I want to scrunch some foil onto a couple of pairs of the girl's shoes to make temporary sparkly genie shoes with curled up toes next, and let them glue on jewels or pom poms or something. I'll try to remember to post a pic if we do that.