Toy Car Garage Makeover for Older Boys

Where did my baby boy go? The days of him playing with toy cars and cuddling soft toys are well and truly gone. He just turned 9 a week ago and he’s right into army men games, fighting ninjas and battling zombies. All things I don’t have an absolute clue about. Because he’s right into these battle type games, I thought I’d make over a toy car garage into something that was more suitable for him.

We’ve been through a couple of these toy car garages over the years. I never pay anymore than $2 for them from the thrift store. They might be a little worse for wear and missing a few pieces but they still work the same, allowing the kids to park cars and move them around. (Isn’t that what they do?)

He just didn’t use it for his cars so I had a bright idea. (Didn’t I tell you I’m the ‘ideas girl’? All the ideas and never enough time.) I knew he had a few military helicopters, tanks and that sort of thing and going by one of the video games he plays, there is always burnt out buildings in the jungle that they have battles in, well I think they do. After a couple coats of grey spray paint, I drew a letter ‘H’ with a ruler and traced a circle around to resemble a landing pad for a helicopter.

I had a couple of pill bottles with expired medication in so threw that out and spray painted them black and wrote ‘OIL’ with a white chalk pen. The small stones were from the garden which I glued on with craft glue.

The ‘POISON’ drum was just a small trinket I picked up from my local tip shop which I spray painted black. My skull and crossbones are looking a little dodgy but you get the drift.

Because these video games he plays always seem to be set in run down, abandoned buildings which are covered in graffiti, I decided to give drawing graffiti a go and although a little amateur, you get the message.

I surprised him with it just before his birthday and he was blown away. He absolutely loves it. I picked up some more ‘awesome’ soldiers from the local discount variety store for a few dollars and it keeps him occupied for hours.

 

He’s so into army stuff he wanted to get dressed up as a ‘bandit’ from his favourite video game, “Rage” (I think it is) for Halloween. Again, another dodgy attempt by Mum to replicate a costume. The most important thing is that he loves it. That ‘thing’ around his neck was a knee-high stocking stuffed with newspaper and wrapped with gaffer tape plus more gaffer tape around his legs. Don’t you just love the thongs? That’s Halloween in Australia for you!

It’s all about reusing what you have, making do and thinking outside the square or, in my case, trying to keep up with the kids and what they’re into.

 

 

"Stella & Luna" soft bat toys

Just before Easter, I was going a little ‘batty’ with all the soft bunnies and chicks that were to be had in every store. My daughter had also developed an interest in bats, of all things. Not the most common thing for a little girl to like. I guess they can be a little cute. Anyway, we got the famous book “Stellaluna” out of the library, about the baby fruit bat who loses his Mum, and this prompted my girl to write a story/activity book.

Okay, so she spelt “tomb” incorrectly

She created a story called “Brittany and the Bats” (Brittany being a little girl, not a chipmunk). The above is the second book but the first book, which I can’t find, was a story/activity book with a short story, colouring in page, word search, find the differences and bat jokes like “what does a bat learn at school?” The alpha-bat of course! The above is the second in the series and called “The Lost Tomb of Doom”. I think there’s been a lot of “Alvin & The Chipmunks” and “Indiana Jones” DVDs being watched lately for her to come up with these names.

Anyway, I don’t know why but I’ve always loved making soft toys. I made some dinosaur toys out of drawings my daughter did when she was about 3 or 4 and I just like seeing things go from 2 dimensional to 3. My daughter loved it too.

I had a flashback to my teens when I made stuffed, plush horses. I don’t know who for or why but I made heaps. All different colours with colour coordinated hooves and manes made from wool. Could’ve been the start of the My Little Pony craze. Not sure. I was a little too old for My Little Ponies and have no recollection of them at all.

These guys are really easy to make and you can make them as big or as small as you like. You’ll need to cut two pieces of the body and 4 wings from felt or a stiffer fabric. You can use googly eyes or sew on buttons for the eyes and small pieces of white felt for the ‘fangs’. Sew these on before sewing together.

My daughter wanted one called “Stella” and one called “Luna” so I had to make two and just used old scraps of fabric from my stash. Is it weird that I don’t like cutting up perfect pieces of fabric to make little things like this? You’ll also need two pipe cleaners per bat.

For the wings, sew together leaving an opening on the longer side. Turn inside out. Insert the pipe cleaner into the top, cut off the excess and sew along the top. This will encase the pipe cleaner and allow the wings to be bent.

With right sides together and wings on the inside of the bat, sew together, leaving an opening at the head to turn right side around. Stuff with stuffing and hand sew the opening together to finish. (Sorry I don’t have any pictures of this.)

I wonder what will be next? A centipede? An octupus? Probably some newly discovered bacteria knowing my daughter. I was really pleased that she helped me do the hand sewing on this project and stuffed both the bats. She’s learning more and more about sewing and loving it. Check out this narrative of “Stellaluna” from Youtube. Its a really lovely story.

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