Isn’t this LED beautiful with its leads bent around in loops? I finally broke out the conductive thread and velcro for a soft circuit. And, man, that velcro is expensive stuff. $16.50 for a foot long strip 1″ wide.
Also, two thumbs up for the spinach, cream cheese and sardine sandwich on whole wheat. Maybe it could have used a little honey.
Rebecca has played memory on the computer, but I wanted to introduce it in the ‘real’ world. So I drew these pictures if anyone else would like to make a simple game too. (There are only enough matches for a three year old.) I printed the file out, stuck a sticky laminating sheet on the top, and glued a thick scrap booking sheet on the back. The cards came out impressively sturdy, I guess it is the scrap booking paper. We had fun playing until Rebecca lost. We really really need to work more on loosing!
I wanted to coat dried leaves with mod podge (originally from here I guess) to play with my daughter, because it sounded like lots of fun – it makes the leaves soft again. But there, that makes the leaves soft again – but glues are often plastics, and that sounds like plastic softeners, doesn’t it? Which sounds like phthalates (phthalates are plastic softeners). So I try to figure it out, and it seems by looking at the patent (3,616,005 – listed on the bottle) that Mod Podge likely has dibutyl phthalate in it as the softener. (In addition to the MSDS (material safety data sheet) listing vinyl acetate which is somewhat carcinogenic.)
And yet, it has the “AP nontoxic” seal on it, because all nontoxic means is unlikely to cause problems if used according to label. It does NOT mean it is okay if your kids eat it. The MSDS sheet even says: “INGESTION: Not an anticipated route of exposure. Small amounts are not anticipated to be harmful.” Comforting.
So now I’m trying to figure out what exactly is in the other kinds of white glue. Seems white glue is usually some form of polyvinyl acetate. Which Wikipedia says cross-links in the presence of boron compounds like borax, to make gak. I’m learning things today. There may be other chemicals that borax makes crosslink to form gak, but all my gak forming white washable school glue is probably mainly polyvinyl acetate, and it probably all has di-butyl phthalate in it, because that is the cheap way to do things.
I hate our synthetic chemical world. (Not that there aren’t plenty of natural poisons, like many houseplants our kiddies could be eating.)
But now I’ll go try to get over my panic attack and go to bed…
We like playing with Gak. We make the borax and glue kind, which is kind of like silly putty, but ours is a little closer to the jello/snot end of the spectrum than putty. You can blow bubbles in it, break it, bounce it, stretch it, let it drip off the table… and apparently you can cut it with scissors. Not my idea…
Filling it with tinsel also wasn’t my idea… But I fully accept that it was very interesting. We could have made more, but I had more fun dripping it out of the tinsel.
Here is the recipe we use, we got it from the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose:
1. Mix 1 cup hot water and 1 1/2 tsp. of Borax until dissolved. Set aside.
2. Mix 2 cups of clear glue and 2 cups of warm water together in a plastic bowl. (We use 1 cup hot water and 1 cup of washable tempera paint for color, and a glass bowl.)
3. Using a metal spoon, slowly pour Borax mixture into glue mixture while stirring quickly. Stir until the mixture leaves the side of the bowl. Gak will be sticky.
4. Knead until Gak is not sticky. The more you work with it the easier it will be.
We leave ours on the kitchen counter (in a plastic container so it doesn’t dry out) for months. If you use washable tempera in the mixture eventually (after a couple months) it goes runny and you have to make more. If you just use water it eventually gets solid, or sticky, I can’t remember, our friend made it that way. But in anycase, it lasts a good long time, probably it will be full of dust and hair before it goes bad.
Gak is fun, but remember that Borax is a poison, you don’t want to inhale the powder, and you don’t want to eat it. So if you think your children might eat this I wouldn’t really recommend making it. We first played with it in the Discovery Museum’s under 5 room, so I’m not sure what to think.
Today, through Kiva.org, I loaned $25 to a woman in Tanzania to support her used clothing store. Join me in my December drive to give a helping hand to people in poverty.
I was going to do a giveaway, but I decided to start a December Giving drive instead. Not really giving money, but loaning it. Micro loans specifically, with Kiva.
World poverty is an unfathomably large problem. But if everyone reaches out to give a hand to another person, well, we would be somewhere better. I’m not feeling very allegorical I guess!
Here, go read How We Can Help Alleviate World Poverty in Three Easy Steps. Feeling more inspired now? So I’m taking part in the Blog with Heart Challenge, not because I want to win something, but because I want to give, and Kiva seems like a really good way to make a difference.
I’ve started by loaning $50 to a craftswomen in Peru to buy wool. Wouldn’t you like to do something like that?
The Blog with Heart Challenge is about getting blogging communities together to make a difference, and encouraging each other. So I’m encouraging you to fund a micro loan with Kiva, and join the One Inch World team. (Current balance zero, because I made my first loan before I started the team… oops.)
how you can join the challenge – (it only takes two minutes)
Step #1 Register: Go to www.kiva.org and register.
Step #2 Join the One Inch World lending team Scroll down and push the ‘JOIN TEAM’ button.
Step #3 Lend: Click on LEND in the navigation bar. Choose a group or person you would like to lend to, read about them, and click on the LEND NOW button.
Step #4 Boost your team: On the ‘My Basket’ page. In the upper right hand part it says: “Count towards team:” put the name of your blog team in the box below.
Step #5 Pay: Click on ‘CONTINUE’ and you’ll be taken to the secure payment page.
You don’t have to add your loan to my blog portfolio, but if you do, I’ll send you a copy of the pattern I just finished, Soft Linkable Car Pattern. Fun, right?
I’ll be funding micro loans and reminding you all month, but you know you’re so excited about helping that you’re going to go to www.kiva.org and fund a loan right now! 
Scatter brained crafty mama. I craft with a little bit of everything, during those precious nap time minutes.
I reply to all comments by email, and if you leave a link to your blog I'll definitely check it out.
Feel free to link to my projects and use images from this site if they link back here.
You are currently browsing the One Inch World blog archives for December, 2009.
