X-ray Overlay

Did you ever make these when you were a kid?  I absolutely loved making them when I was about 10 years old.

I recently made a couple for the boys, at first just a freehand dinosaur, and another a few days later at Ruben's request when he saw a picture of a cheetah skeleton in one of his library books.

All you have to do is fold a piece of typing paper in half and draw your animal on one side, pressing down hard with your pencil.  Then open the paper and draw bones inside the outline impression.

If you want to color it in, use colored pencils, but do it faintly or it will be hard to see through.  Then hold it up to the light!

Some other overlay ideas are:

Draw something other than bones inside, like what your animal ate for dinner!

Make a monster or fictional character... what kind of bones would it have?

Draw an outline of a body or head and put something surprising inside.

Write some words on the top sheet, and make them say something else when you hold it up to the light.


Please leave me a comment and let me know if you try it, I'd love to see what you do!

Kissing Thaumatrope

A few years ago, I thought that it would be so fun to make Joe a kissing thaumatrope for Valentine's Day.  Like so many of my BRILLIANT ideas, I promptly forgot all about it.

Until recently, when I saw this thaumatrope-on-a-stick on Made by Joel, and it reminded me that I had to try it.  Even though they're not done, I'm showing you my work in progress now, just in case you want to use this idea to make your very own thaumatrope valentines.

Are you wondering what I am talking about?

On one side it looks like this:

On the other side it looks like this:

When you spin the stick, it looks like this:

Movie magic!  Persistence of vision!!!  Kissing!!!!!  Does it get any better than this?

I'm making some for my three little Valentinos, too.  Isn't it funny that no one in my family even asked what I was doing when I said, "Here, stand against the wall and let me take a picture of you kissing something."  They all just did it.

If you do make your own, please send me a picture!  Wouldn't they make sweet wedding invitations or favors?

Materials:  Paper, cardboard, double-stick tape or glue, round chopstick or kebab stick, photo prints or drawings of kissers in profile.  Line them up carefully so that they work together when you spin the stick, and test it out before you glue!