April Fools' Day Portable Milk Spill

Happy April Fools' Day! I've never been one to do practical jokes but this one from Instructables seemed easy enough (and not life-threatening, like some "jokes" out there). It's easy enough for any kid or kid at heart to make, it's portable, and scary enough to look realistic but not so scary that you'll need a defibrillator on hand.


All you need are four things:

#1 - A piece of glass (which I took from a picture frame)
#2 - Elmer's glue
#3 - A bar of soap
#4 - A knife

First, coat one side of your glass with soap. The soap will act as a lubricant and will make it easier to remove the "spill" once it dries.

Next, draw out your "spill" with the glue. The thicker the spill, the easier it'll be to come off once it's dry. I tried not to make it too cartoony (which is hard because you don't want a blob but you want it to look realistic), however size and variance is completely up to you.

And then, the waiting game. I let mine dry overnight because after 7 hours, it was still sticky.

Once it's completely dry, use your knife to poke the sides and peel it off the glass.

If your spill is not completely dry, then it's going to stick to the glass and you'll end up having a big hole in the middle. Lesson learned: be patient!

However, if you did it correctly, you should be able to place it on top of anything valuable - keyboards, laptops, iPads, your kid's homework... whatever will look the most realistic! Have fun and be prepared to face the consequences... like payback!

TOTAL COSTS: $5
$2.99 for Elmer's glue from Michael's
$2 for IKEA picture frame glass
X-acto knife and hotel bar soap already on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 5 minutes + overnight (and then some if need be!)

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
I've never been one to be a.) patient or b.) good at practical jokes so I'm not surprised with this outcome. However, if you're patient, you should be able to pull this off with flying colors!

Paint on Elmer's Glue - Worth It?

Ever see a photo on the internet with a description of what to do and wonder what the final outcome is supposed to look like? Well, I came across this one on Pinterest with the description, "Elmer's glue on canvas. then paint over it." Seemed simple enough, but what did it look like? Well folks, I tried this one out for you and here's what I found:

After glue dries

Before glue dries

First, I took a small canvas and Elmer's glue and tried to make the same design they did. However, I discovered that the thicker the area, the more the details started to melt away. If you try to do this, be careful not use too much glue or it will start to spread.

After waiting 24 hours, I went to see the results... and as you can see in the photos, it doesn't look at all like the first photo. The glue, while 3-D in some areas (mainly the bottom right corner), it was practically invisible in others. So that's problem #1.

Problem #2? If you can't see the glue, how on earth are you supposed to paint over it?! So here's what it looks like if you paint around the glue and here's what it looks like when you paint over.

If you paint around the glue, be sure you have a tiny paintbrush if your glue design was detailed.

If you paint over the glue, you can come up with some fun designs that will (hopefully) end up being 3-D but it's up to you how you want to paint over it. I ended up just swirling the paintbrush around and after it dried, got some nice see-through effects:

Ultimately, I don't think painting over Elmer's glue was the bees knees. I suppose anything you make that could be monogrammed would be a nice gift for someone, but I think you can skip the glue part, especially because it takes so long to dry.

TOTAL COSTS: About $12
$2.99 for 5oz. of Elmer's glue from Michael's
$1.99 for 2oz. bottle of paint from Blick Art Supplies
$6.60 for a 4x6 canvas

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 30 minutes + 24 hours to dry
10 minutes to glue design
24 hours to dry
15 minutes to paint

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
But really, unless you're going to use a LOT of glue, this may be one of those things on the internet best left on the internet.

How to Make a Bouncy Ball with Household Items

We're getting close to the holidays and what better gift for a kid than their own bouncy ball! Ok, maybe in this day and age, the kid will probably be disappointed because there isn't a screen on it, but you could always use the phrase, "Back in my day..."

I saw this post by Come Together Kids and thought I'd give it a try. Here's what you need:

*Borax (something you should definitely have on hand - great for a lot of different projects!)

*Cornstarch (good for baking)

*Food coloring (I used a normal green and a neon green to show you the difference)

*Elmer's Glue

I followed the instructions step-by-step and here are a few tips I can offer.

#1 - Don't try to stir with toothpicks. Use a plastic knife or a tongue depressor... something you can stir with that won't break but that you can throw away.

#2 - I kept stirring, thinking that the mixture would completely solidify but it never did. When I eventually stopped, it was half liquid / half solid. I squeezed as much liquid out as I could, patted it dry with a paper towel, and kept rolling it into a ball. The original post says it'll be sticky but it was far from that. It did eventually dry out.

#3 - Speaking of drying out, the darker green ball ended up being too dry and started crumbling. The lighter green ball didn't crumble at all until I tried to make it bounce. So I guess if you do this project, try making multiple balls and see what results you end up getting!

The burning question is: did it bounce? Well, see what you think...

Did you notice the pieces of the ball flying off? I think the highest I could get it was 2" so you probably shouldn't try to play Jacks with it...

Survey says: don't waste your time. Go the store and buy your kid some actual bouncy balls.

TOTAL COSTS: Free
All ingredients I already had on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 30 minutes
Time may vary depending on the number of balls you're trying to create

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5
It's not hard to make but it is difficult to get it to do what it's supposed to do... bounce.