Week 34 {tiny paintings project}
This Week: BEAR BELLS
Bear Bells are meant to let a bear know you are coming when you’re hiking. Nothing worse than a startled bear. They aren’t proven to work, but are nonetheless very popular, in a “why not be extra protected” way. This kid’s camp craft version, makes getting geared-up fun.
I used a cordless drill in the instructions, but if you want to take this craft project camping, bring a swiss army knife with an awl, and carve out the holes.
FIG. 1 Supplies: 1/8” craft plywood (from an art supply store), 7 cable (zip) ties (I used 8” but 6” would be easier to work with, just drill smaller holes.), pencil, 3 tiny s-biner or carabiner clips, Tacky glue, glue brush, masking tape, felt (or ribbon or decorative duct tape), nine ¾” jingle bells, coping saw, printout, wire cutters, scissors, 100 grit sandpaper, drill, and 5/32 drill bit.
FIG. 2 cut out all the artwork just outside the black outline. Trace around the badges with a pencil, on the plywood.
FIG. 3 cover the back of the plywood with masking tape, so it doesn’t chip when you saw.
FIG. 4 Slowly and carefully cut 1/8” to 1/16” outside the line.
FIG. 5 When you come to an inside curve, notch it out.
FIG. 6 Take the tape off the back. Wrap a piece of scrap wood with sandpaper, and smooth out the badge edges.
FIG. 7 Erase the pencil lines
FIG. 8 Glue the badge art to the wood. Put a more tape on the back of the wood where the holes will be. Drill out the holes. Remove the tape.
FIG. 9 Optional: make some decorative ribbons ½” wide and 3” long, to hang from the plaid badge. Glue on the symbols. Glue the ribbons to the back of the badge, as seen in fig. 13.
FIG 10. To put the bells on the plaid badge, thread a zip tie through a hole from back to front. Put a bell on the tie.
FIG 11 Thread the tie back through the hole and pull the bell tight to the surface of the badge. Thread the tie through the lock and pull it tight.
FIG. 12 Snip the tail end off with the wire cutters.
FIG. 13 The back of the plaid badge.
FIG. 14 The bells hang down from this badge. So don’t go back through the same hole with the zip tie. Start like fig. 10, then bring the end around under the badge and through the lock.
FIG. 15 For the oval badge, start like fig. 10. Then add two more bells. Go back through the loop of the center bell, and then through the lock. Put the clips through the top holes, and hang the bells from your backpack or zipper-pull.