I’m always inspired by Valerie over at Frugal Family Fun, she’s constantly coming up with cute and creative ideas that involve office supplies. So yesterday, when I took a trip to Staples (after my wireless card jumped off the bed and broke into 43 pieces) I made sure to take a quick spin around looking for crafty goodies.
I hit the jackpot! Have you seen those Magic Nuudles Bloxx? They look like a fantastic craft material and I love the idea of exploring sculpture with them but they’re a bit pricey. I found a cheapo option in shipping supply aisle – cornstarch packing peanuts! They’re not quite as colorful, but for $10 you’ll get more than triple the amount of fluffy fun. Of course…an even cheaper option is to hang on to your packing peanuts when receiving mail!
A damp sponge was just the right amount of moisture for Claire – a little goes a long way in getting these guys to stick together. If you are too generous with the water, the result is sad and disintegrated noodle goo. Claire added on lots of file sorting stickers and I helped with a bit of pink yarn for the tongue. And voila! A cool magic nuudle style snake sculpture! I can’t wait for Claire to try some more shapes, right now she’s only interested in sticking them together end to end. I suppose we’ll slowly work our way up sculpting the Eiffel Tower, heehee!
I’ve got a book on hold at the library by Sheila McGill-Callahan called The Last Snake in Ireland. It’s a perfect literature connection for this activity and Saint Patrick’s Day! We’ve read it before and its a hoot to read out loud.
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Chalk In My Pocket 
I thought that was made out of honeydew melon at first! So creative. My kids would love this!
<3
Risa
Funny because I was just going to start to investigate to see if those packaging foam things worked like the magic nuudles! I didn't have any, but didn't want to buy a huge bag of these things so I was hoping to get a package in the mail with these! WE have a million of these snakes made from magic nuudles too! My daughter finally branched out to flowers after a month or two! I really would like to check out the book you are suggesting! My daughter is obsessed with snakes ! (not the real ones!) SHe has 2 stuffed ones, and at least 5 or 6 other toy snakes! I was thinking when you mentioned office supplies that you would be creating a project with paper clips or post it notes!
@Melissa – Have you ever seen the post on Frugal Family Fun where she used post it notes to create a spring mural? LOVE IT!
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2010/03/easy-spring-mural.html
And don't worry – a paper clip craft is soon to follow 😉
@Risa, that cracked me up! I can't wait for melon season to arrive…yum!
Good to know about the cornstarch packing peanuts. Looks like a fun project my little man would like. Love your blog, I nominated it for the Versatile Blogger Award. You can get the detail here: http://puppydogtails.blogspot.com/2011/03/versatile-blogger-award.html
I never would have thought of “gluing” those pieces together. Usually I dread getting mail that's filled with these things, and now I'll welcome it! This also looks like a good lesson for Claire to figure out just how much water to add to make them stick together. And what a nice tie-in to St. Patty's day. Keep them coming, Regina!
I can't wait for the paper clip craft 🙂 hehe. I love this – do you think it would work with the styrofoam peanuts? I think I may have some around here somewhere….
And of course, I'm excited to feature this on my weekly High Five! – but this week is a special High Ten! because I'm behind and couldn't narrow down the choices.
High Ten! Friday
Thanks for the great idea!
Jamie @ hands on : as we grow
Fun recycling craft!
such a darling project!
I am having a giveaway on my blog. $38 store credit + free shipping from busy little hands to select any cute backpack for kids from her store. Check it out!
http://houseonashwelllane.blogspot.com/2011/03/38-store-credit-free-shipping-giveaway.html
Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn. I love the snake! What a great way to use the peanuts.
Super craft idea, we have those other ones, cant remember name of but they are quite expensive! This is a great recycle version
Brilliant idea! Thanks for linking to Something for the Weekend! I did a post way back about maize modelling and how my teens now do it with Wotsit cheese puffs!
http://christinemosler.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/amazing-maize/
Those packing peanuts are an amazing alternative to the craft version – who would have thought that they would work the same way? I'm trying this!
P.S. I see on your side bar that you made yarn hearts – we tried that project from Family Fun but it didn't work out well for us. Yours look great.
What a great idea. I'm going to try this with my daughter.
Oops – sorry about leaving too many comments. I didn't think the first one “took.”
Oh how fun and original!!
Adorable
Oh my gosh… from the picture I thought that was made from grapes. That would be fun too, wouldn't it! So cute!
Thanks for sharing at the For the Kids Friday Link Party! I look forward to having you back this Friday!
That’s genius — you could use a piece of thick spaghetti for all the grapes!
What fun! I love seeing Valerie's ideas, she is super creative! And your snake is fantastic!
Thanks so much for linking up to Made by Little Hands Mondays! What a great idea! I also think it is fantastic that you connected it to a story! Love it!
Totally cute. What kid wouldn't love these?!?!
great snake!
We were delivered a whole box of packing peanuts around some books we ordered at Christmas. Not sure if we had more fun with the books or packaging!
Adorable, and what a great idea! I'd love for you to submit this to the M&T Spotlight at http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight
We sell those packing peanuts at our creative reuse center asd part of an art kit… more than magic noodles and the kit is $5.00.
Here is a link to our info on it…
http://www.recreate.org/recreate-blog/2011/1/19/eco-friendly-packing-peanuts-awesome-afternoon-of-crafting-f.html
You can buy them here…
http://www.recreate.org/art-kits/
Oh, and we are a nonprofit, so you are supporting a good cause!
truly brilliant! so nice to “meet” you and thanks for sharing on Craft schooling sunday, I hope you'll be back again soon!