Summer Boost
Activity:
Robot Decoration
Want to spruce up your walls without spending a lot? Show your child how to make this fun vinyl robot. It’s quick to construct and easy to remove or transfer from wall to wall. The only thing mechanical about this craft is the final product. There's no telling where the design will go and making this vinyl robot is sure to take her imagination to new heights!
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What You Need:
- Pencil
- Paper
- 1 yard of blue vinyl self-adhesive contact paper (available at hardware stores)
- Black marker
- Scissors
What You Do:
- Have your child draw a robot with pencil and paper. It can have some details but shouldn’t be so intricate that you won’t be able to cut out and shape each piece. If she needs some ideas, have her look online for pictures of robots. She'll be able to find something that will spark her imagination.
- Next, have your child flip over the contact paper to the “wrong” side (the side with writing on it) and draw her robot again, larger, in black marker. When drawing, remind your child that she has to draw the robot in reverse—that is, if a sprocket in her drawing was on the left side, she should draw it on the right side on the contact paper since the robot will show up on the wall in reverse.
- Using the black-marker outline as a guide, help your child cut out each piece of the robot. If you make a wrong cut, it’s easy to fix—you can form each piece separately from a new bit of contact paper or even overlap pieces of contact paper when sticking them on. Make open shapes in pieces if necessary by spearing the scissors through the contact paper and cutting out the inside shape.
- Find a clean patch of wall in which to apply the robot. Starting with the head piece, help your child gradually peel off the contact paper backing. When the backing is removed, discard it and stick the piece on the wall. Assemble the entire robot this way. If a piece sticks in the wrong place or your child doesn’t like the way it looks, simply peel off the piece by nudging at it with a fingernail, and then re-stick it elsewhere.
Robots are just the beginning as far as vinyl wall art goes! Contact paper is available in a wide variety of block colors and prints, so encourage your child to decorate a whole room with vinyl wall accents and designs.
