Sword for The Spider Ninja!

A new attraction is opening up at Winterground Fairlands! "The Adventures of the Spider Ninja"  It's an exciting attraction with Spider Ninjas, and various challenges and action and probably a lot of running around with swords.  This attraction required costuming to create something all new for the cast members.  Shown in the picture is Jasper with his uniform.  The ninja mask and spider outfit were created by Pam the Costumer specifically for Jasper's small frame.

The new swords were built using various corrugated cardboard products.

The blade was made by rubber-cementing three layers of cardboard together, with their "grain" going in different directions for strength.  The blade actually continues through the hilt and into the handle, much like a real metal sword.

The handle is just a piece of thick cardboard tubing originally from wrapping paper.  It has a smaller diameter and is stronger than paper towel tubing to accommodate the cast member's smaller hands.

The hilt was a paper towel tube, with a round hole on one side to accept the handle, and a rectangular hole on the other side to accept the top portion of the blade.

Once the blade is pushed through the hilt and into the handle, everything fit very snugly, and didn't need any additional adhesives... but just in case, and for extra strength, the hilt was loaded up with lots of hot glue, and additional glue was added around the joints from the outside.

A couple coats of plain 'ol black spray paint and then the fine detail work could be done.  Jasper added some spiders he made out of Perler beads and the sword was completed!

Jasper's Play Table

For Xmas, Jasper got a Plan Toys "Eco Town" (along with their parking garage and cars and such.)  We had it on the floor for him, but he was constantly walking over it, causing the play mat to fold up on itself, the town to fall apart, and so on.  We wanted to get a table for him to play with it on instead of it being on the floor.  Looking around, we found that the Plan Toys table was about $150 and didn't really have enough room for the parking garage, and such.  I knew I could make one less expensive, although not as "pretty".

The design is based on just simple 2x4 construction, held together with drywall screws (aka the duct tape of screws.)  I wanted to make it larger than the Eco Town, which was roughly 4' by 2'6".  I measured what the town + parking garage would take up, which was approximately 3' by 5'.   I was in a toy store recently and vaguely measured the height of a toy train table at the bottom of my knee, which is about 18" up from the floor.

Here's the basic sketch I made late on Friday night.  It shows a basic 2x4 frame that is 3' deep by 5' wide, with four 18" tall legs.  I decided not to put in any additional cross bracing as it is so short that they wouldn't really do much.  If i were wrong, i could always add them later.  Also, the way this is constructed, I can easily replace the legs with longer ones later, making it a standard table/work surface height.  One of the things that we wanted was to have a lip around the outer edge, so that cars wouldn't roll off to the floor.

I bought all of the wood the next morning, and even had them cut it in the store, so that I would only have to drill and screw it all together later that day.  Here's the full parts list:

- two 2x4, cut to pieces:  5', 2'9" (2'9" + two thicknesses of 2x4s = 3'), leftover
- one 2x4, cut to pieces: 18", 18", 18", 18", 18", leftover (one extra leg, because why not.)
- one 1x3, cut to pieces: 3', 3', leftover (for the lip)
- two 1x3, cut to pieces: 5' 1 1/2", leftover (for the lip, with added width for the side lip)
- one piece of 1/2" 4x8 plywood, cut to 5' by 3'
- One box of 2 1/2" drywall screws for connecting 2x4s into 2x4s
- One box of 1 5/8" drywall screws for connecting 1x3s into 2x4s
- finish nails (i had some leftover from before)

Total cost of materials was $54.  Quite a bit less than they sell the single-purpose table I could buy.

Construction was straightforward.

First, I attached the 5' 2x4s to the 2'9" 2x4s, using the plywood top to help line them up, since I'm an idiot and don't own a framing square.  Each one was connected at the corners using two 2 1/2" drywall screws, with the wood pre-drilled with a countersink so that none of the wood splits.

Once the top frame was completed, I put the plywood on top of it and starting in one corner, countersink-drilled holes and used the 1 5/8" screws to hold it on.  Once I finished one corner, I lined up the frame with the top for the next corner, and worked my way around it to get the frame to line up, square, with the plywood.

Next, with the table upside-down ("top" of the table on the floor), I drilled and screwed in the 18" long 2x4s in each corner, to act as legs.  I kept the top of the 2x4 against the plywood, and attached two screws into the 5' long front rail, and one screw through the 2' 9" long side rail.  This serves to hold the leg without it wobbling, and to additionally hold the frame together.  In the future, It's 3 screws to remove the legs, to replace them with longer legs.

Next, I added the 1x3 side rail lip.  I started by lining up the 3' sides. I used a piece of scrap 1x3 to get the proper height. It sticks up 3/4" above the table top.  After I got the 3' side on, I moved to the 5' 1 1/2" length and got that attached, lining it up with the first side... all the way around.  Once I nailed this on, It was basically complete!  A few more nails in the future, or perhaps using screws to hold on the lip might be necessary.

Just a detail showing the corner construction.

Jasper seems to like it a lot, and I think it will last for many years to come.  I may need to build a rolly-box to slide underneath it to store toys, but that's a project for another day.

Art Clips

Pam pointed me at an article in the book "The Creative Family" by Amand Blake Soule, called "Art Clips".  The basic concept is that it's a bulldog clip, attached to a board of some kind, which you attach to your wall.  You can then hang up your kid's artwork or whatever from the clips easily.  She suggested that we do this for Jasper's playroom, to hang up his works.  I checked out the article, and then bought some materials.

I decided to make strips, which would be mounted to the wall, each one having bulldog clips mounted on it.  I arranged it so that the screws that hold the bulldog clips secure it to the wall through the wood strips, just to simplify things a bit.  I bought 1x3 pine stock, some finishing washers, ordered some bulldog clips, and dug out some 1 5/8" drywall screws leftover from another project.

The wood strips were painted with the light green we used in Jasper's room

The space I needed to fill was approximately 16' and change.  I was going to put in two 8' lengths, but decided instead to do four 3'6" lengths.  Each one has four holes, drilled at 3" from the end, then every 12", with a 3" gap on the other end.  

The screw goes through a finishing washer, through the back tab of the bulldog clip, then through another finish washer, just to raise it all off of the board a little.  I started the screws into the wood strip, then held it up on the wall 11" down from the ceiling and secured the screws through the wood strip and into the wall behind it.  These are all mounted through some old panelling glued to drywall, so it should be ridiculously secure.  It also will only be holding up some pieces of paper, so I didn't need to worry about getting anchors or to secure these into studs or anything like that.

I mounted the strips with a 6" gap between them, all centered on the wall.  This means that each of the binder clips end up 12" apart from each other.

Add some art, et voila!  We all love the results!