Jan 16, 2010

Glow in the dark walls, lightsabre update and a few thank yous.

I just wanted to give you a little update to the lightsabre post, because a lot of people have been asking about the little round LED push lights that we used. We only used these because I had four of them and the kids would all get something that was the same. It's a lot easier and looks a lot better if you just have a regular torch/flashlight, because the little bit of toilet roll fits better and also you can switch it on and off easily. Here's a decent one that we made with one of our earthquake kit torches and some electrical tape. Much better looking!

I also need to say quite a few thank yous, because there was some kind of new year blog award awarding frenzy it seems. So, thank you to these people below...

If there's someone I've missed then I'm very very sorry. I'm a bit burried under the emails that have been coming in since 2010 kicked off.

Lastly, and I hope you've stuck with me to here. I want to show you the fun we've been having with our new glow in the dark livingroom wall! Yeah, we painted a wall in our rental property with glow in the dark paint. I figure we can just paint over it when we leave right? There's a huge glow in the dark wall in the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and the kids love it. They have a big fixed strobe light that goes off once every 20 seconds, that creates your silhouette on the wall when you stand in front of it. The kids think it's awesome! Now we can do that at home with a camera flash!

We also wanted a kind of giant homebrew version of the Crayola glow station thingy, and for the cost of the toy, we got enough glow in the dark paint to cover a wall. The hubbins put his electronics knowhow to work and made the kids some great little UV light pens to draw on the wall with. Next i want to see if I can get some images laser printed on acetate, so they can "burn" them on the wall with the camera flash

You can read more about the wall, the light pens he made, and see more pics over on his blog Fangletronics.

12 comments:

  1. My gosh, you never cease to amaze! This is utterly stupendous!

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  2. Are you kidding me?!? Too,too cool.

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  3. This is the coolest thing! I so want to put a glow wall in my basement!

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  4. Oh my, soooo cool! This will be our next project. We also made Dino Island, complete with vinegar/baking soda eruption. Pic of our version here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=881702&l=d38240f45b&id=1454597025

    And, a question for you. Your brownie-cake that you make for kids birthday cakes -- would you share your recipe? I know you've said brownie+extra egg, but can you give specifics? I'd love a sturdier and more frostable kids' cake recipe. Thanks -- our whole family loves your blog; the resident seven year old asks what you are doing daily.

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  5. OH MY GOD. I don't dare show this to my husband or there will be a glow-in-the-dark wall in my house by tomorrow morning. What a genius idea!

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  6. this looks SO fun! Can't wait until we're at our own house to do it.

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  7. Awesome! I can't believe how cool it must be to live at your house!

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  8. This is the most amazing idea ever, the glow wall!! DD 3 got the Crayola one for Christmas and all the kids love it. I wonder if I can convince DH that we need to have a glow in the dark wall?!?

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  9. i love visiting your blog! we made these light sabers last week, and they are a huge hit! thank you for sharing your talents.

    melissa

    link to my post about your cool idea...

    http://darwinandmelissa.blogspot.com/2010/01/lightsabers-and-shutter-speeds.html

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  10. You're always inspirational! Here's our glow in the dark project linking to yours:
    http://www.playingbythebook.net/2010/06/14/glowing-in-the-dark/

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Thank you for your comments.