First off, gotta give credit where credit is due. The idea for this larking around came from a post from a while back by Zakka Life, showing how they made lightsabres for her son's birthday party out of toilet roll tubes and modelling balloons. Absolutely fab idea! I've been holding off on trying this with the kids until the nights were drawn in and the weather was icky, so that we could experiment with using LED flashlights with it and maybe do a spot of Jedi light painting.
The modelling balloons that I had were kinda skinny little ones, so I had to tape them into the loo roll tubes to work. Also, the flashlights that we had were those little flat LED ones, like this...
So I cut each toilet roll tube in half, so the length of the tube was shorter and you got a brighter result. You wouldn't have to do that if you had a regular shaped torch/flashlight though.
We've done this three times in the last week with three different groups of friends ranging in age from 2 to eight years old, and they all absolutely loved it! No one is going to get hurt fighting with balloons, and the photos that came from a long exposure with the lights off are too much fun entirely. It looks like we have aurora borealis in our livingroom! 
We've done this three times in the last week with three different groups of friends ranging in age from 2 to eight years old, and they all absolutely loved it! No one is going to get hurt fighting with balloons, and the photos that came from a long exposure with the lights off are too much fun entirely. It looks like we have aurora borealis in our livingroom!
It's impressive to note just how much leaping around was actually going on, because the longest exposure photo in this lot was eight seconds!
I made a couple of giant lightbulbs too, that the kids rather liked as nightlights.
I made a couple of giant lightbulbs too, that the kids rather liked as nightlights.
For the cost of a packet of modelling balloons, this has provided a hunormously mahoosive amount of indoor entertainment. We'll be doing plenty more of it while we wait out the heavy rain that the next month or so usually brings.
46 comments:
best words ever!!! haha
"hunormously mahoosive amount"
will try!!
YES!!!!
very suggestive aren't they?
Whoa!! Great!! - again.. :D
Hey, wow that is so so so cool!
Official Star War's fanclub ?:-
Wow! These are amazing. My boys will love making these! Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic fun - I like the night lights too! Now to find our flashlights and purchase some modeling balloons...
LOVE that!
How cool! This would be so much fun on a dark summer night. Thaks for sharing this with us.
Love this. Will definitely be trying it next time we host playgroup. And the photos are truly amazing...
-Abby
What gorgeous pictures! I have a good mind to try this for myself (even though I am allegedly an adult)...
This is so cool! Esp considering the extreme Star Wars fans we have at this house.
As always, thanks for sharing!
SO cool!!!
cool pictures!
I think I love the giant lightbulbs just a little bit more than I love the lightsabres. I think because they are round. I have to do this with the kids. They had so much fun over Halloween with those $1 cylume sticks - this is so much cooler! Thank you again for the brilliant idea!
I Stumbled on your blog just a few days ago. So many fantastic ideas! Thanks for sharing them!
Very funky!!
Wonderful photos!
AWESOME!!
These look so neat, I know the kids will LOVE doing this. Almost as much as they love making lego cars (with paper, as per your earlier blog), but probably not quite as much as my youngest will like his batman cape once I'm done.
Thank you for all this.
Oh my WORD! So very cool - and amazing photos!
How much fun is this! My boys have never even seen Star Wars, and they'll still love this.
Super cool idea. I was looking through the Family Fun magazine today and noticed that they had a whole page dedicated to the hot dog/spaghetti thing you did with your kids last year. Just thought you'd like to know :)
Absolutely great, the long term exposure photos are beautiful.
Trop génial !
I would have adored to play with the laser saber!
I'm going to manufacture one of themfor me ... for my daughter !
Merci pour cette excellente idée.
Vous êtes fabuleuse!
I am so gonna try this to ward off the winter woozies in our home...
You and Zakkalife = pure genius. I like the mod McGyver lamp at the end!
I feel just a bit silly for asking this, but are modelling balloons different than balloons that you can pick up at the supermarket? I really want to make a night light for my son's space room now!
Hiya kiddycrafting peeps. It's really good to hear that lots of you are going to give this one a whirl! It was a good activity for minimal input and maximum entertainment that's for sure.
JHill, the balloons we used that I refer to as modelling balloons are just the ones that you can get to make balloon animals with. The really long skinny ones. The giant lightbulbs at the end were little water balloons.
I got my modelling balloons as a gift from my mum in the UK, but I just restocked and got more from Target party favour aisle and they were something like $1.30 for 25 of them.
Please, please come and let us know if you try this out. I would love to see other people's lightsabre battle photos too! The kids were amazed that they had created the patterns in those photos.
Hi! I make a good part of my living making balloon "art" for children and Adults alike! (I am in the states) I LOVE your idea! I plan to steal lit...or use it as a part of my ongoing "research" for fun and impressive stuff! WOW! I am AMAZED! In my "kit" I have 4 or 5 THOUSAND balloons of various sizes, shapes and colors. Tell anyone who asks that Sempertex or Pioneer make the BEST colors and virtually ANY color you wish!
If anyone needs assistance on creating shapes from Balloons, let me know and I will do what I can. IF possible, I will make a couple of my sculptures and light them using your idea! Let's see what happens!
Papa Balloon
BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!
Great idea to add the lights to the lightsabres. And I loved all the great pictures you took.
Thank you for sharing a link to my site. I really appreciate that.
cheers,
Jessica
you are so awesome! what a fabulous idea, adding light to them!
Just letting you know that we made some balloon and torch lightsabers, and I posted about it. Link is here:
http://nurturingthetenderyears.blogspot.com/2010/01/amazing-fun-balloon-and-torch.html
My boys had an immense amount of fun. Thank you for the great ideas, as always!
My husband would LOVE this!!
Really cool. The kids got it going on!
I do lightpainting and might just try this. It is such a creative idea. thanks for sharing.
What a fantastic way for my little star wars fan to 'battle it out' with his friends. Thanks for posting!
This is SO ADORABLE!! We will be doing this on "L" week. And, I'll post a link onto my blog in coming weeks, for SURE! cowsgomooandducksgoquack.blogspot.com
i am lost for words. just simply, that you are indeed a credit to your teaching profession as well as a fantastic mother! i believe you are teaching and nurturing a whole new generation of children(and some adults) to become creative and explore their minds as well as surroundings. if you had been my teacher," i coulda been somebady, i coulda been a contenter" once again great job!!!!!
What a terrific idea! I do star wars birthday parties and I'm a balloon artist. I am going to put them to use immediately!
Jim Manning
Jim@JungleJimBoston.com
www.JungleJimBoston.com
Have you heard? Jungle Jim is also Santa Jim, featured on The Today Show, MSNBC and the cover of the Boston Herald. Check him out at www.SantaBoston.com!
These are awesome and I so love the awesome photos taken of the kids playing with these. So colorful and artsy!
Nice job!
HI, I made these and wanted to share my result, my blog is in spanish and I'm new as a blogger. I gave you credit for the idea, my younglings were very happy.
http://www.conlatropa.com/
Love your blog
Heck-a-cool!! Can grandmas do this too?? lol
Heck-a-cool, can grandmas play too? lol
Post a Comment