2. Make it for Your Home

Indian Note Pad

An Indian makes an interesting drawing, and a note pad makes a useful item, so they ought to make a very good project together.

Trace an Indian with a pencil on a piece of stiff card­board. Make it from 6 to 8 inches tall. Be sure to in­clude feathers, and other things common to an Indian of early days. He might even be holding a bow and arrow. Color the picture with crayons or water colors. Now cut the Indian out.

For a pad, you can either make your own from blank slips of paper, or buy one at the store. Be sure the pad is shorter and narrower than the Indian. Poke two holes into the top of the pad. Attach the pad to the center of the Indian on the colored or painted side, by running string through the pad holes and through two holes in the center of the Indian. Tie it in back. Your Indian note pad is ready to serve you.

Hang it on the wall in the kitchen, above the telephone, or in your room.

Cookie Tray

What is more pleasant to look at than a trayful of homemade cookies? But of course the tray must first be made. Here is how you can make a tray that will serve cookies, cold drinks, or anything else that you wish to serve.

Cut out a piece of flat wood, 9 by 12 inches in size. Plywood is excellent, though you may use any kind of wood you have about. Sandpaper it until smooth. For a border, nail pieces of rope all around the tray, about 1/2 inch in from the edges. Make two smooth blocks of wood, about 1 inch square and 2 inches long. Nail them at each end to serve as handles.

You may decorate your tray with pictures, or paint a design on it. A coat of varnish will give your finished tray an attractive appearance as well as protect it from wear

A homemade tray makes a good gift.

Shelf Trimming Paper

Here is home handcraft at its best. Every home has shelves. Here is an opportunity to add a touch of prettiness to them. You can decorate the shelves in your room or in the kitchen or anywhere else where it is needed.

If the shelves already have shelf paper on them, you can make your own designs on the overhanging borders. If there is no paper at all on them, you can make the en­tire shelf paper. To do this, simply measure the length and width of your shelf and cut your paper accordingly, allowing enough paper in the width for an overhanging border of a reasonable length, according to the height of the shelf. Usually, two or three inches is good.

You have your choice of several methods of adding decorations to the overhanging borders. A simple method would be to cut out colored pictures or designs from old magazines and paste them on. In this case, gather pic­tures that form a similar theme. For example, for a sea scene, you could clip pictures of boats, fishermen, fish and the seashore. For a forest scene, you could use trees, lakes and animals.

A good final touch would be to cut a wavy edge on the bottom of the border piece.

Tube Vase

Artificial flowers look better when displayed in a vase made especially for them. You can make an eye-appealing vase in just a few minutes of your time.

Make a cardboard tube about 5 inches long. You can use a paper tube such as one used in packages of waxed paper.

Or, you can make your own by rolling stiff card­board and fastening it together with cellophane tape. Now take a thick piece of cardboard, such as that used in a grocery box. Make a circle of cardboard with a diameter of 5 inches. Cut a hole from its center the same size as the tube. Now set an end of the tube in the hole. Fasten it in place with both glue and cellophane tape. Cut another cardboard circle of the same size and glue it onto the bottom of the first one.

Paint your vase or decorate it with crayons. Or, you can clip bits of colored paper and paste them all over the vase and the base.

A Lantern

While paper lanterns have many uses, they are so pretty that it is worth while to make one just to admire it. You can, of course, hang your lanterns about the class­room for decoration and you can use them as party or­naments.

Start off with a piece of colored paper about 9 by 12 inches. Fold it over lengthwise so that you now have a double page of 41/2 by 12 inches. Mark off a line 3/4 of an inch down from the side where the two original ends of the paper meet. In other words, this line will run below the unfolded 12 inch edge. Now make a series of 1/2 inch parallel pencil lines on the double sheet. Do this by mak­ing 1/2 inch marks along the line you have just drawn and also by making 1/2 inch marks along the folded edge of the double page. Now cut upward on these lines from the folded edge to the lines above. Open your paper and paste it in the shape of a lantern. Paste a paper loop at the top for a handle. Decorate your lantern by pasting on small paper cutouts, such as stars or half-moons.

Window Silhouettes

Here is an attractive handcraft project that will make some of the windows in your home or classroom look much prettier. These silhouettes should be placed in windows where they will not interfere with the enter­ing sunlight. So that you can always clearly see outside, it is best to place them around the edges of your windows.

Take clean pieces of paper, such as poster paper. Use dark colors, so that your pictures will stand out against the light glass. Now draw and cut out various silhouettes, two or three inches tall. You can trace your outlines from magazine pictures. Paste four or five silhouettes on the inside of each window. Do not use too many of them and do not place them too close together. They will stand out in an attractive display if they do not crowd each other on the window.

As for the subjects of your silhouettes, try keeping each window with a different subject. For one window you might have a jungle scene with trees, bushes, a lion and a native. For a Western scene, you could include a cowboy, a horse, an Indian and a tepee.

Swinging Birds

Cut out two birds from stiff cardboard. Brightly color them. Make a hole in the top of each and run lengths of string or thread through and tie them. Now take a stiff piece of wire about 18 inches long.

Place tape around the ends for safety. Tie the ends of the threads to the end of the wire so that the birds are suspended and balanced. Tie another string to the center of the wire and tie it to a high fixture or the ceiling.

Shelf Tree

A shelf tree makes a delicate decoration for your room. You can also use it to display knickknacks that are not too heavy.

Make a cardboard circle about the size of a plate. Now make four more cardboard circles, each one somewhat smaller than the one before it. You will now have five cardboard circles of different sizes. These circles are your shelves. Color or design them. Now get a stiff card­board tube or a wooden rod, such as a broomstick. Make it about 1 foot long. Color or decorate it. Now make holes in the center of your cardboard circles. These holes should be just slightly smaller than the tube.

Force the plates onto the tube with the largest one at the bottom and the smallest one at the top. Evenly space them. Make them secure by running nails or pins through the tube beneath a shelf.

Make a base for your shelf tree with a stiff piece of cardboard. Make a hole in its center and place the bottom of the tube into it. You can secure it with both glue and cellophane tape. If you do not have thick cardboard, you can keep the trunk of your shelf tree in place by setting it inside a low box with a hole through its lid.

Wastebaskets

There are few things around the home or classroom more useful than a wastebasket. Why not make one or two for the kitchen, bathroom, or for your own room? A wastebasket can save lots of picking-up time around the house.

You can make a simple wastebasket out of a grocery carton. Get one of a size that will fit the room for which it is intended. Usually a kitchen wastebasket can be made fairly large since it receives a wide variety of papers and cardboard. Cover it with colored paper or wallpaper. Or, you can cover it with pieces of brown paper sacks, and then draw designs or paste pictures on it.

Of course these cardboard wastebaskets will not last too long, so you might wish to make one from a wooden box or a super-sized tin can. This should also be painted or decorated in the same way as the cardboard one. For handles on this heavier wastebasket, nail or bolt spools on the sides.

Novelty Shelf

This is called a novelty shelf because it not only is a novelty in itself but you can use it to display other novel­ties you have made. Since it sets against the wall, you can place many small items on it, such as standing figures or photographs.

The shelf is made of flat pieces of wood, nailed to­gether in interesting designs, and set against the wall

You can nail a back to the shelf if you like; however, the wall itself will serve as a back.

Get several flat pieces of wood. They can be about 1/4 of an inch thick and 3 or 4 inches in height. The lengths will vary, according to the shape you fashion from your pieces. For example, a simple shelf could be shaped as a square by nailing four pieces of equal length together as a square. You would then hang it on the wall and set your novelties on the upper and lower shelves. But you can make all sorts of designs. Try one of these: Two squares, with the upper right corner of one touching the lower left corner of another; a small square setting inside and on the lower shelf of a larger square; two triangles with a straight piece of wood running across their tops.

Wall Shelf

This is another one of those projects where you can turn your imagination loose when it comes to size and shape. The wooden shelf should be of medium size, per­haps just large enough to hold objects of medium size. The shelf piece can be any attractive shape. You can select any one of the following ideas.

Circle; square, with round edges; triangle; oblong with zig-zag edges; V-shaped; shaped as two wings; diamond shaped; long and narrow. Do not allow any shelf to stick out from the wall more than a few inches.

Cut your shelf from wood, then nail a supporting piece up and down beneath it. Paint or shellac it and hang it on the wall with regular fasteners.

Mirror Silhouettes

Take some dark colored paper. Black is excellent, though you could use a dark brown, green, or red. With a pencil trace any kind of a design or outline that you like. Cut them out and paste them on the face of the mirror. If you wish to hang the mirror silhouette on the wall, paste the mirror onto a colored cardboard frame. Press a thumbtack into the back of the cardboard and tie a short piece of string to it. Hang it on the wall.

Silhouettes that cover an entire mirror might include a cat sipping milk, or a vase with different colored flow­ers or a ship at sea. For decorating the edges of a mir­ror you can make stars, snowflakes, small flowers, small flying birds, butterflies.

Leave-a-Note Box

Make a piece of wood 6 by 7 inches and about 4 inch thick. Make it into a shape of an open-faced box by nailing sides on it about 3/4 of an inch high. Now cut out a small flat figure of a bear, or any other animal you like.

Mount the bear on top of the box with brads or small nails. Paint the box a bright color, such as red or orange. Paint the bear a darker color, such as black or brown. However, leave an unpainted space across the body of the bear. With bright paint print the following in the space: Leave-a-Note.

Fasten a small pad of blank slips of paper inside the box. A simple thumbtack at the top will hold it. Tie a piece of string around the end of a short pencil and loop the other end around the thumbtack. Nail your leave-a-note box on your front porch and it is ready to serve your visitors.

Book and Magazine Rack

Get a solid grocery carton of medium size. Remove the lid. Use the lid or another piece of cardboard to make a partition in the box. Partition the box by plac­ing the cardboard across the center.

This can be set cross-wise or length-wise, according to the length of the cardboard you have handy. This partition can be held in place by leaving a few short tongues along the sides and in the bottom of the partition and forcing them into slots cut into the box. Glue these tongues before setting them in the slots.

Clip interesting colored scenes of the outdoors from old magazines. Paste them all over the sides.

A Lawn Marker

Take a piece of wood about a foot square. The exact shape does not matter since the marker will be cut out of this piece. However, the wood should not be too thick. Now decide what kind of a marker you wish. A bird would be a good subject. Suppose we make a parrot, since a parrot has many pretty colors? Find a picture of a parrot and set it before you.

Trace or draw an out­line of the parrot onto the wood. Now cut out the parrot outline. Paint the bird according to the colors in the picture.

Nail the parrot onto a rod or stick about 3 feet high. Place the rod in the lawn in a convenient spot.

Tin-Can Craft

Indoor sprinklers:Just poke holes in the bottom of a tin can and use it to water your indoor plants. Hold the can above the plant and pour a glass of water into the can. You can now evenly water your plant.

Indoor plant containers:If you decorate your cans attractively you can use them as containers for indoor plants and flowers. Plant some seeds and watch them grow in your tin-can containers.

Picnic salt and pepper shakers:You can make handy salt and pepper shakers by punching holes in the top of cans with removable lids. Make small holes for pepper, larger ones for salt. Decorate the outsides.

Party rattler:Use a can with a cover that slips off. Fill it with pebbles and cover it with colored paper. It makes lots of noise at any party. These can also be made for use in a rhythm band.

An Easy Footstool

Get a wooden box about l1/2 feet long and 9 or 10 inches wide. The depth can be anywhere between 8 and 10 inches. Now get four square pieces of wood to serve as legs. They should be about 2 inches square and about 8 inches long.

If the box has a cover, remove it and nail the four legs into the open corners. (Since the legs are 8 inches long, insert them about halfway, thus giving you legs 4 inches long.) Drive the nails from the box into the legs, rather than from the legs into the box. Turn the footstool over on its legs and you are ready for the finishing touches.

If the wood is not smooth, you can sandpaper it. Paint or stain it any attractive color and it is ready for use.

Hanging Flower-Box

Use a medium sized wooden box for this project. One about a foot square is a good size. Remove the lid from the box and set it on the ground, open side down. Nail two pieces of flat wood across the ends of the box. These pieces will serve to support the weight of the box. Turn the box upright and insert eye-screws or strong nails into each of the four projecting ends of the cross pieces. At­tach a piece of wire to each of these eye-screws. Bring the wires together to a point one or two feet above the box.

The wires can support the box when they are fastened to something.

Paint your flower-box and you are ready to plant your hanging garden.

Animal Book Ends

Find or make two square pieces of wood. They need not be exactly square, so you may wish to simplify your work by simply sawing off two ends from a piece of lumber. Smooth the pieces. Now trace the outlines of two animals on a piece of paper. You can make them identical, such as two horses, or make one horse and one deer or any

other animals you wish. Cut out these outlines and lay them onto a flat piece of wood. Now saw out the animal outlines. However, leave extra length on the feet, so that you can sink them about a half inch into the blocks. Make holes in the tops of these blocks and mount the animals onto them. Glue them so that they will hold fast.

Paint or shellac your finished book ends and they are ready for service.

Bottle-Cap Markers

Why not build a house marker so that visitors can easily find your house? Get a flat piece of wood. A piece about 4 inches high and 12 inches long will serve the purpose-To give the marker more eye appeal, make a V-shaped cut in both ends of the wood.

Now take a pencil and write the numbers of your house on the wood. Make sure they are evenly spaced. Now nail the bottle caps over the numbers. Use just one nail in the center of each cap. Set caps of different colors next to each other.

You can also build a name marker in the same way. Trace the family name on a piece of wood and nail the bottle caps over it. Set it in a place where visitors can easily see it.

A Gadget Box

Take any medium size wooden box and partition it with stiff cardboard. You can make these partitions sturdy by cutting halfway down the sides and slipping the slots to­gether. You can fasten the ends of the cardboard where they touch the sides of the box with short strips of cello­phane tape.

If your box has a hinged cover, you can achieve a novel effect by placing the label for each section on the cover itself. You can then tell just about where to look for an item before the lid is lifted. Label the sections, thumb tacks, rubber bands,and so on.

To make your gadget box more appealing to the eyes, paint it or cover it with decorated paper.

Spool Shelf

Here is an interesting novelty shelf that you can make with spools, 3 flat pieces of wood, and some cord or thin rope.

Make your pieces of wood about 12 inches long and 21/2 inches wide. Make holes in the ends. Make shelves from these by setting a piece of wood on a table and setting two spools, one on top of the other, at both ends. Now place another piece of wood on top of these spools. Now add two more spools and finally your top shelf. You now have three shelves supported and separated by the spools.

Run cord or thin rope through the sides—through the holes in the wood and through the holes in the spools— so that the shelf is held together. Make knots in the cord at the top of the top shelf and at the bottom of the bot­tom shelf so that the shelves are held more securely. Leave a loop at the top so that the shelf can be tacked to the wall at the top of the loop.

Paint, shellac, or varnish your spool shelf. Hang it on the wall. (You do not need a backing for the shelf since the wall itself will back it.) Use it for displaying knick-knacks or novelties.

Bird Cage

Make two cardboard circles, each 6 inches in diameter. Use thick cardboard, such as that on a grocery box. These are the top and the bottom pieces of your cage. Now make a number of cardboard strips that will serve as the bars.

Make them 2inch wide and 7 inches long. Color both the circles and the strips yellow. You can decorate them with darker colors if you like. Fasten the ends of the bars to the cardboard circle that will serve as the bottom of your cage. Set them upright on the edge of the circle about 2inch apart. Glue or paste them. A thumbtack through each one will not only add to the appearance but will make the bird cage stronger. Now make two paper birds. Color them. Make two tiny holes in the other cardboard circle and suspend the birds from the holes by pieces of string. Set one bird higher than the other. Make another hole in the very center of the circle and knot a piece of string on the bottom side. This string will suspend the cage when it is finished. Now fasten the top of the strips to the circle in the same way as you fastened the lower pieces. Your bird cage is complete.

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