Pinterest Fail: Hula Hoop Rug

I stumbled across a pin a few months ago. It showed how to weave a rug from a hula hoop and t-shirt scraps. It incorporated things that I love: weaving, recycling, and kids crafts. So of course I saw it and had to try it.
It was a huge fail.
Since the instructions say to use a cut up t-shirt for the warp too it quickly stretches out of shape. This causes you to end up with a bowl shape instead of a flat circle. While following the how to didn't work out it was a good idea--it just needs to be done slightly different. Instead of using t-shirts for the warp use plain muslin fabric; it won't stretch out of shape causing the rug to be misshapen. Also, I'm clumsy and have slipped on rugs that weren't backed so I'd suggest putting some rug backing on the underside of the rug to prevent it from sliding.
Now that I've gone over how it can be done better, I guess I'll show you the monstrosity I ended up with. D wanted a rainbow rug which I won't attempt again. Even if it hadn't ended up being a misshapen mess I still wouldn't like the thick stripes of color. For version 2.0 I'll pick 3 or 4 colors, cut the strips, throw them all in a bag, and pick at random as I weave.

Just Add Water Paint Pages

When I was a kid I had coloring books with colored dots on the page. I'd swipe a wet paintbrush across the dots and I could paint the picture. A month ago I bought one for my son but it was a big let down. The colors were pale and pictures were printed on each side of the page so the water being used on one side ruined the other. I'm always looking for new craft ideas (thanks to Pinterest I'm finding tons) and I found this post on making watercolor paint pages earlier this week.

I made a Joann's run and luckily the one near my house has a good selection so I was able to find watercolor paper and watercolor paints.

The watercolor paper was 9x12 which is a little big for my 3 year old (he tends to make smaller pictures) so I used my rotary cutter and ruler to cut the pages in half so they'd be 6x9.

Once I had some cut I laid them out so they'd overlap with only an inch at the top of each page showing. This isn't necessary but it was much quicker to be able to make a bunch at once instead of one at a time.

Next I added a dot of paint, starting with red, to the top (or bottom) of each page.

After I was done with red I did the same with all the other colors.

After I finished adding all the colors all that was left was to let the pages dry. Once dry they can be used with a damp paintbrush. Dorian loves playing with these now. Next time I make a batch I'll need to do it after I put him to bed since the entire time they were drying he was asking every 5 minuutes if they were ready yet.

Here he's using one of the full 9x12 sheet I originally made (he decided he'd rather swirl the colors together than make a picture).