Dyed Easter Eggs

So I didn't last the entire month doing teen tech stuff. Honestly, I kinda forgot there were more than 4 Tuesdays this month, and so I didn't plan as far enough ahead as I should have. However, with Easter coming up this Sunday, it wasn't hard to figure out what to do with them. Everyone loved dyeing eggs, don't they? One of my coworkers directed me to Martha Stewart's website where she has tons of different ways to decorate eggs.


The first way, (and not found on Martha's site) is of the hippie tie-dyed variety. You can find those tie-dye egg kits at the supermarket, but I wasn't really satisfied with the way they do it. The kit that I bought had you putting the dye on, but then rubbing it around to make it look tie-dyed. Lame. So I searched online and found some hints. If you dip a paper towel in a water and vinegar solution, wrap it around the egg, and then drop the color onto the towel, the colors bleed and have a much more realistic effect. When done with your design, take the paper towel off and let the egg dry.

The second technique is marbleizing. Basically, you dye the egg in a light color and let dry. Then, make another darker colored dye in a shallow pan and swirl a bit of oil in it. Take the egg and roll it once through the oil and dye and then pat dry! Easy as pie!

The third (and coolest) technique we used was silk tie-dyeing. You can go to Martha Stewart to get the tutorial. The basics are this: Blow out the eggs (Idk why she doesn't say this, but why put all this work into something so beautiful just to have it destroyed?). Take the egg and wrap it in the silk. Wrap that in a bit of white cloth and secure with string or a rubber band. Pop into boiling water for 20 minutes. Take out, unwrap, and presto! Beautiful eggs. The blue one on the right was made with a singe piece of silk - the white parts are where the fabric creased and it didn't touch. The bottom two on the right were made using several ties (the skinny end) and wrapping it around the egg.

How did the teens like this? Disappointingly, I only had one come today. However, with Spring Break looming this weekend, it's to be expected. My girl really liked dyeing the eggs, though she wasn't too interested in the marbleizing or the silk ties. However, after she saw the results of mine, she wanted to do one. Luckily we had just enough time that she could, but seriously? I kinda wanted to strangle her. All in all it's been good so far - and hey, after blowing out a dozen eggs for my teens to use, I've now got enough quiche to last a week.

Teen Tech Month: Week 4

This week's project: felt iPod/mp3 player/cell phone covers! I was super psyched for this one, but was a little underwhelmed by the response I got. My first group wanted to make them, but maybe had a bit of trouble in the execution.

I set out paper and card stock so they could sketch and make templates before they cut (thereby saving tons of felt being wasted by making wrong cuts or drawing directly on the felt and not liking the design and scrapping it). I told them what it was for, but they didn't listen. I had one girl place her design smack dab in the middle of the felt and cut it. Alright, I didn't clarify that ahead of time, so I corrected her - no problem - except on of my other girls wasn't listening and not only drew a design in the middle directly on the felt, but she messed it up and had to draw another - again, in the middle of the felt. This might normally not really be an issue, but with these holders, it takes a lot of felt from one sheet to make, so she rendered that sheet useless for that purpose. This was a day for banging my head against a wall. (To make envelopes- just take a long sheet of felt, width a little larger than your iPod, fold in half, and glue along two sides)

The first girl (who is also the youngest - she's 10), kept saying she didn't know how to do it, and was just in general not trying very hard at all. I had to hold her hand through the entire thing. Then my kid who's, well, special came and since he doesn't have an iPod and wouldn't know the first thing on how to make much of anything, I started cutting out a finger puppet for him. After I was done with his, I thought it was really cute, so I made a Domo puppet for myself. (Domo finger puppet not pictured b/c I don't know what happened to him). It was a difficult program, and I wasn't looking forward to Thursday.

Thursday crowd didn't really want to make iPod covers either. I suspect this has more to do with their ludicrous idea that any thing Apple makes is junk, rather than lack of wanting to craft. I took out my Domo finger puppet and showed it to them, and some of them got on board. One kid made a whole set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (really basic, stylized puppets, but cool). Once they got started, they really got into making them. I decided to to Spongebob and I think he came out quite nicely.

I guess you really have to know your audience for this one. If your teens are as obsessed with their iPods as I am, this is probably a good project - otherwise I'd skip it. I searched a lot online for a great assortment of felt colors, but for the most part I wasn't satisfied until I found Felt-O-Rama. They have a great variety pack of recycled eco-felt for only $15. I used Liquid Stitch to hold together, but it takes a long time to dry (and teens are often impatient), so I would use a hot glue gun instead.

Teen Tech Month: Part 3

Just so you're not wondering what happened - we played video games. I don't have pics, and since I already covered gaming in another post, I won't really talk about it much here.

I did discover an awesome game that one of my teens brought - Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics. Sweet! They had a great time watching the Joker's bizarre moves and antics. I suppose there could be some debate, as this game was probably rated M for Mature, but I'm fairly certain they're all above 16 at least I wasn't too worried. I did stop them from playing one of the other games they had brought that was a lot worse.

Teen Tech Month: Part 2

For our second week we did the most low-tech thing possible: video game sprites. I still counted it though, as we were making video game characters. For a more detailed explanation on how to make them, you can read my post called 8 -bit love, or go to the4yablog.com. She's got a pdf you can download and everything. Be forewarned that one of the links, for smashworldforum or something like that doesn't work anymore, and though I tried finding the emblems on their new forums, I couldn't.

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Never fear! I searched tirelessly and found a couple of other great links! There's a bead sprites forum full of people doing this very same thing. Great resource for pictures. All you have to do it use their designs and count the beads, and voila! Sprite recreated! The other is and 8-bit gallery on devianart. I couldn't print out the pics, but if you have a laptop, you can always pull up the site and use that for a reference while you're crafting. I'm so inspired, I think I'm going to make a set of Mario magnets for a couple of friends who are getting married (don't worry - I'm getting them a gift card too).

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So far, these things have been a hit, and the teens have made some really amazing stuff. One of my girls did a Sailor Moon character (she changed the colors) that looked amazing. Unfortunately, she finished late and I was cleaning and didn't get a picture of it before she left. so far the consensus seems to be that they can't wait to do it again. This is definitely a program I will use over and over again.

Teen Tech Month: Part 1

I know it's really Teen Tech Week, but rather than having to cram a bunch of cool stuff into one week, I've dubbed March Teen Tech Month at my library and am doing one tech-related things a week.

The first thing we did was an online scavenger hunt. The questions were as follow:

Teen Tech Scavenger Hunt

1. Go to Twitter and write down 3 trending topics for right now


2. Go to Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org) and click on their Teen section. Name at least 2 topics in the index there you can click on.


3. Go to our library homepage. Name 3 of the databases you can search from home or the library.


4. Using our library site again, find and write down the Dewey Decimal number for Customs, Etiquette & Folklore.

5. Go to the Kids section of our website. Find where you can search for books that have been made into movies, and list one that was made into a movie during the year you were born. (Write down the year you were born as well) (http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies/ is the website we link)


6. Look on our website. Who is author we’ll have coming to do a talk at the end of the month?


7. Look up http://teenfire.ning.com. Write down out what event is going on March 18. (While you’re there, you may want to explore. Or come back when you have more time)


8. Go to www.the4yablog.com and find an activity or craft you’d like to do (Note: You will probably have to look at the archives and other posts to find one you like)


9. Go to our website. Find the elibrary database. Do a search of just newspapers and magazines on the topic “teen pop culture”. Look at the first article that comes up and write down the MLA citation for it.


10. Go to www.fantasticfiction.com. Look up Lemony Snicket. What are the 6th and 11th books in the Series of Unfortunate Events? Whose pseudonym is Lemony Snicket?

Now, a lot of these are specific to our library's website, www.ccpl.sirsi.net, but you could adapt them for your own library. These were all written with the idea of getting teens familiar with some of the stuff we have available online, as well as things out on the web. (Whether any of them remember any of it is an entirely different issue.) We had a number of earbuds left over from summers past, so I gave those out to the participants, and the winner (most right in the least amount of time) won a $15 iTunes gift card. The kids had a hard time with it, but they didn't complain too much - it was good for them - they were building character.

Super Kawaii! Candy sushi!

That's right folks - I tackled candy sushi and lived to tell the tale! This is certainly one of the messier programs I've done recently, but one what was definitely a hit. That's not all though- I also made Domo-kun cupcakes with my teens during that same program. It was sugar overload!!! (Ha ha and then I sent them home to their parents)

Things needed for candy sushi:
-Fruit Roll-ups or fruit leather
-Marshmallow fluff (or you can use butter and melt marshmallows)
- Green Sour Punch Straws (for wasabi - I used green icing though)
- Gummy fish (I used Swedish Fish)

- Chocolate syrup optional (for soy sauce)

-Rice Krispies or other rice cereal

If you know how to make sushi, then there's really no explanation necessary. In case you don't, make it was follows:
-Mix together a couple of tablespoons of marshmallow fluff and about a 1/4 cup of Rice Krispies.
- Spread out Fruit Roll-up on a piece of wax paper, and spread marshmallow mixture on it, leaving about a 1" gap clear on one side of the roll-up.
-Place fish and any other ingredients in the middle of the rice, and then roll up, starting on side with the rice, and finishing with the blank side.
- If you have the time, it wouldn't hurt to put it in the fridge to allow the marshmallow to set up. Otherwise, take your roll and cut it up into bite-sized pieces. Enjoy!

I am lucky enough to have a coworker who owns a lot of sushi dishes and chopsticks, and she lent them to me for this program. There were a few teens who had never used chopsticks before, and trying to show them was an adventure. I personally think it's too much sugar and wanted to puke after eating it, but they loved it!

On to the cupcakes! These are really simple, and as I had only a picture to look at, kinda had to make it up. You will need:
-Chocolate cake mix
-Chocolate frosting
-Chocolate sprinkles
-M&Ms
-Fruit Roll-Ups
-White Icing (You may omit this and the Fruit Roll-ups if you're lucky enough to get your hands on some fondant. I was working on this at the last minute, so I couldn't get that). I think you can figure out what to do with this if you look at the picture. Just take the cupcakes, cover them with icing and sprinkles, and then add M&M eyes, and a mouth w/teeth. Traditionally, Domo has brown eyes, but my teens used all sorts of colors for theirs.

Super Kawaii!