Thursday, December 3, 2009

Recycled Robot!


My son was attending a Rocket/Robot party and the handmade party invitations were inspirational enough to get us started.  I knew I wanted to recycle the invitation somehow on the robot (it was just too awesome to throw away) and that the empty Trader Joe's coffee cans I've been collecting under the sink could finally be put to good use.

I got some wire and some contents from the junk drawer (correction: the junk that had overflowed out of the junk drawer and now had it's own plastic container) and went to work.  My son loved getting out all of the hardware, nuts, bolts and random AV pieces my husband had been collecting over the years.  While he was working on his "work, complete with screwdrivers,  I threaded the arms and legs.  I poked a hole in the top of the can and brought the arms and legs together and twisted the connecting wires so they were secure.

I got a tuna can from the recycling bin and washed it (this was pretty hardcore to remove the smell.  so, I soaked it overnight and cleansed it with copious amounts of soap and vinegar),  nailed a hole in the top to thread the appendage wires and added some eyes, ears, nose, mouth, antenna, glued and modge podged the party invitation on the coffee can body and voila!  Recycled Robot!  Problem:  My kid didn't want to give it to his friend when we were done.  I went recycle bin diving once more and made him one, too.

This project may have been more fun for me.  The cool thing is that we'd always wanted to make a robot but just never got around to it.  This party, the love of rockets and robots, and an awesome handmade invitation was the impetus!  I want to make more, they make cool kid's room decor.

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