Melting Rainbows

Last Sunday we did a cool art project I saw on Pinterest. It was easy and a BIG hit. Simply hot glue your crayons to a canvas and melt with a blow dryer. Awesome.

The Ellie Badge

During the holiday movie extravaganza that has gone on around here, Connor and I watched the movie "UP!". Here's the e-mail I sent to my friends on the issue contrasting Connor's reaction to this movie and to the action movie "Avatar" that we had seen two days earlier:

We watched "UP!" last night. I'd like to kill myself. He was so upset. He was sobbing like I've never seen him sob. He just kept saying "It's so sad, Mama" over and over again. I had to stop the movie until I could get him calmed down. Apparently, the destruction of obviously imaginary blue jungle people is no match for the death of a beloved loved one. And now, I have to find a bottle of grape soda with a metal cap because Connor really needs an "Ellie badge". He had to sleep in my bed last night--still sobbing--to go to sleep.

In the movie, Carl and Ellie, who share a lifetime of love, meet when they are kids and she pins a "badge" on him to signify that he is a member of her club. The badge is a grape soda bottle cap on a giant safety pin. Connor was particularly fixated on it. He would not let me stop the movie credits because he was sure that they might show the "Ellie Badge" again. I promised to get him his own.

So, yesterday I went on-line to look for the image of the badge. In the course of that research, I found out a few interesting facts:

1. Many other parents have been on a quest to do the same thing. Make the Ellie Badge.

2. Costco gave a way actual Ellie Badges with the movie "UP!" when it was originally released on DVD. You can buy one of those badges now on eBay for the low price of $265.

3. People really really really loved this movie. The number of posts in the blogosphere on it are astounding.

I started out with just printing it out, coating it with packing tape, and using double stick tape to adhere it to the boy's chest. When presented with this pale imitation, he was happy enough, but wanted to know where mine was "because, Mom, you're in the Ellie club, too". But I had no time yesterday to do more---except, pick up a nice fourpack of FeverTree Tonic water with some nice gold metal caps.

Yesterday I got serious.

I shrunk the image to fit using Photoshop, used special metal glue to attach it, and used a non gloss mod podge to smooth the image to fit the caps. I found the giant pins at Harris Teeter (unbelievably, as I was sure I'd have to go to a fabric store) and attached them by creating foam loops that are mounted on the back with that special metal glue.

Connor hasn't seen them yet. Today we'll have a pinning ceremony for our own little Tate brand of the Ellie Club. I'm sure you'll see me at Target wearing mine.