snow speeder

It’s all Star Wars all the time!! (at least to my little bud, it is)

While my 4 year old friend is not making these projects all by himself, it’s the time we spend together.. digging through the recycle bin, tearing the tape, looking through books.. that makes doing projects together so much fun!

Not only that, but he truly cherishes his homemade toys. His x-wing fighter has been smooshed, squished and stomped on, but it still flies missions alongside the store-bought ones.

While I don’t expect everyone to have the same items we used, after reading through the rundown below, I hope you get some good ideas on how to fashion your own.

Here’s the rundown: The bottom of the snow speeder is a discarded plastic tray from dog bones. We used an awl to pop some holes in it and thread the orange straws through.

The top is a juice bottle bottom, cut with a sharp kitchen knife. The top and bottom are joined in the back with clear packing tape. We put 2 layers on the outside, then 2 layers on the inside, to create a hinge, so the top opens and closes.

We jazzed it up with some craft foam strips, and in the very back is a broken Nerf bullet.

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Now hit up the recycle bin and make some fun!!

When my young friend started pretending his Star Wars toys were parachuting in the other room, I instantly remembered those cheapo plastic parachute toys I used to get from the gum ball machine as a child. They were so much fun! So I dug through the cabinets and constructed this quickie craft…

The steps are outlined below. Click to see a larger, more detailed image:

It’s true, one of my young friends is a little Star Wars obsessed, thereby explaining the influx of Star Wars themed crafts on the site. This one, of course, was recycle-bin inspired… with much of the art direction by a 4 year old boy.

We used a water bottle, 4 toilet paper rings, a styrofoam supermarket tray, some pipe cleaners and masking tape. Lots and lots of masking tape!

Using a sharp knife or a craft knife, have an adult cut 2 seat holes, one for your pilot and one for the co-pilot (see last pic). Using masking tape, cover the sharp plastic edges where the bottle was cut.

Cut the styrafoam tray into 4 wings of similar size. Loop a piece of pipe cleaner through the end of each wing, and twist together to form lasers.

Attach the toilet paper rings to the bottle using masking tape, as seen below. Then add the wings.

Cover the entire ship with masking tape, then add accents & details using stickers or permanent marker.

After much play with this ship (notice the broken wings) I was told that R2D2 needed a seat… so make sure you give R2D2 a seat!! Also, to make sure our Jedi did not fall into the bottle, we taped a small piece of pipe cleaner inside to form a seat that he straddles. You can see part of it in the last two images.

Supplies:

- paper towel tube
- toilet paper tube
- aluminum foil
- clear packing tape
- black electrical tape (or black magic marker)
- red sharpie (permanent marker works best!)
- scissors

1. Choose the color construction paper you want for your lightsaber blade, wrap it around the paper towel tube leaving 1/2 inch of paper overhanging on one side, securing paper with a small piece of tape, and then tuck the excess paper into the top of the tube.

2. Wrap a piece of aluminum foil around the toilet paper tube to create the handle. Use a piece of aluminum foil that is slightly larger than the tube, so that the overlapping foil can be tucked into the tube at both ends.

3. Embellish the handle with a stripe or two of electrical tape & draw a button on with red marker.

4. Pinch-in the bottom of the lightsaber blade and insert it into the top of the toilet paper handle, pushing firmly until the fit is snug.

5. Laminate and secure the entire lightsaber by covering it with overlapping pieces of packing tape. Using lengthwise strips of tape, that are about 3/4 of an inch larger than the project, on each end, tucking the ends over and into the tubes each time a new layer is applied. Will take 3-4 long pieces of tape. *If doing this project with a young child, or as a party-activity, this is a good step for the adults to help out with*

(click on an image to enlarge)