133) Rainbow Wand

I'm not sure what exactly it is about rainbows, but I feel like most little kids are born with an inate knowledge and love of rainbows. I don't remember ever teaching the girls about rainbows, I never had to they somehow already knew all about them. It sort of goes without saying that anything that has rainbows will be a hit in our house (and in the houses of most of the other little kids we know.) So when I saw a Rainbow Ring in the book Eco Friendly Crafting with Kids by Kate Lilley from Mini Eco I knew it was something the girls would love. Just as a side note, this book is filled with so many cool, fun kid projects, this is just one of many I can't wait to try. The rainbow ring in the book is just that a wooden ring, but since I didn't have any wooden rings, I went with an old wooden spoon instead. I had bought a few old wooden spoons last year at the thrift store for another project but had never used all of them. I was pleasently surprised by how well they worked out.

I started by marking five holes in pencil onto the wooden spoon where I wanted the ribbons to go. I then carefully drilled holes where I had made the marks. I was pleasently surprised by how easy it was to drill into the spoons, the wood on both spoons I made was very soft. Once I drilled all the holes I cut each of the colored ribbons the same length. At first I just put the ribbons through the holes and tied them, however with only a little bit of play the ribbons begin to come undone. So I went back and put the ribbons back through and rather then trying them I hot glued the end to the rest of the ribbon which seemed to hold up a lot better. The girls have loved playing with them. I have found in the house they can sometime get a little tangled but they have been prefect for trips to the park or running around in the yard. The ribbons flow behind and make such a cool rainbow, that I can't help playing with the wand myself. After a lot of playing one of our ribbons has started to fray a little at the bottom, so if I make another one I will probably hem the ends of the ribbons with a little glue just to keep make sure they last a while.