Tips n Tidbits

Perler Bead Snowflake Ornaments

Timmy’s Perler Bead Aztec Snowflake (2012)

Here are some of the snowflakes Matt, Kelly and Timmy created last December using a little vacation time and a lot of Perler Beads®. They didn’t follow any templates for these, choosing to come up with their own designs instead.

For bird ornament ideas, check out these other designs by Kelly and Timmy: http://www.tipsntidbits.com/2012/02/happy-valentines-day/.

Note: Though Matt’s name is included with the photo credits, these amateur shots are mine. (That’s probably obvious to those of you who have seen his professional work.)

Matt’s Perler Bead Super Snowflake (2012)

Kelly’s Pastel Perler Bead Snowflake (2012)

All images © Matthew and Liesl K. Bohan | TipsnTidbits.com

Build Your Own LEGO Leprechaun Trap

They’re here!

For those of you who wanted to know how to build the “phone booth” LEGO trap pictured above, originally posted in 2011, we now have instructions to share.

Matt used LEGO® Digital Designer to create step-by-step plans for building this trap, and you’ll need to download that program in order to open them. Fortunately, it’s free—and fun, according to Matt.

As you can see from images of those plans below, Matt changed the colors in a few places and added some embellishments, including the green flag and hats. (We don’t have these items, but you might!)

If you want to try this on your own, here are the links you’ll need:

TipsnTidbits.com 2011 LEGO Leprechaun Trap

LEGO® Digital Designer

Have fun and let us know how it goes!

Doodle 4 Google 2013: There’s Still Time!

Don’t miss your chance!

If you hurry, you can still enter this year’s Doodle 4 Google contest. The deadline is March 22, 2013, and the theme is “My Best Day Ever…”

The winner’s artwork will appear on the Google homepage, and the winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a $50,000 technology grant for their school, and more!

As you can see from our 2012 entries, shown above and below, last year’s theme was “A time when…”

You can find the current rules here: Doodle 4 Google Official Rules.

Have fun and good luck!

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

Long time, no see! I’ve been offline for a while, but this weekend’s requests from two moms prompted me to share this post. Mind you, the majority of the work for this one fell to Matt. Let me explain…

Two years ago he built an amazing LEGO Leprechaun trap. Although we didn’t catch any of those sneaky little Irish fellows with it—or with last year’s trap (simulated in the computer images on this page), his design has garnered some interest since it was posted in 2011. For the sake of the mothers who contacted me this weekend saying that they’d like to make this for their children, Matt agreed to come up with instructions.

He initially intended to use photos or video but decided to go with LEGO® Digital Designer instead. The images on this page are from those plans, and you can access the instructions by downloading this file: 2012 TipsnTidbits.com LEGO Leprechaun Trap.

In order to use them, you’ll need to download LEGO® Digital Designer as well. According to Matt, it’s “a free program that is great fun.” You can load the .lwf file into that program and get fantastic 67-stage step-by-step instructions.

Give it a whirl and let us know how it goes. And may the luck of the Irish be with you!

Note: The instructions are for the trap pictured on this page—the one that was still assembled from 2012. We do not have instructions for the 2011 “phone booth” model posted here. Perhaps after this one is disassembled…

Happy Valentine’s Day

OK. I confess. I don’t really have a post relevant to Valentine’s Day, but it is high time that I replace the “Merry Christmas!” headline that has greeted visitors for the last seven weeks.

So, what should I share? We’ve certainly had plenty of content this year, just not a lot of time to post it. (Where do some moms come up with the time to post 5 days a week?!) Matt recommended funfusion, so I’ll give that a whirl, and—bonus!—you or your children might even be inspired to make something for Valentine’s Day. ‘Tis a little late for this year, though. (Sorry ’bout that.)

Without further ado, here’s a sampling of what can be done with limited screen time and an excess of Perler Beads®. Kelly and Timmy use the pegboards provided but create their own designs. As you can see, birds are still a big deal at our house.