tutorial Tuesday - recycled magazine page kite

I desperately want to be one of those cool bloggers who has themed posts. So, to start with, I am going to be posting a cool little tutorial every Tuesday.

Today's tutorial is for a cool and EASY kite you can make with kids THAT ACTUALLY FLIES! (If you've ever tried to make a kite before, you'll know that this is kinda a big deal).

Materials:

• tape
• old magazine or A4 paper
• bamboo skewers
• scissors
• hole punch
• stapler
• string
• plastic carrier bag (not shown)
• ruler or straight-edge (not absolutely vital)
• hole re-inforcers (optional)
• rotary cutter (optional - I have a special one I use just for crafts/not fabric) 

Steps:

1. Choose a colourful page from you magazine and carefully tear it out:
   
2. Fold the page in half width-wise, keeping the colourful image you picked on the outside and crease the fold well:
   
3. using your ruler or straight-edge, make a diagonal crease in the page starting about 3cm from the folded edge on what will become the 'top' of the kite and ending about 6cm from the folded edge on the 'bottom' (as seen in the picture): 
   
4. Crease the fold well and open the kite along the fold - it would have been helpful to stick a bit of tape on it at this step. You should get something that looks like this: 
   
5. Now measure your bamboo skewer and cut with the scissors so that it spans the widest point of your kite:
   
6. Tape it in place (extra hands help!):
   
7. Cut a second skewer to tape on perpendicular to the first one - tape them both in place securely:
   
8. At this step, you're going to flip the whole thing over. Punch holes in the flap about 1-2cm from the fold, 3-4cm from the top and bottom (I forgot to take photos of this part, but you can see where the holes are in this picture):
   
9. If you're using them, this is the step where you'll put on the hole re-inforcers:
   
10. You're almost there!! Your kite will need tails to keep it flying upright - we found the perfect balance for ours was 6 strips. To make the strips, you'll want some old plastic carrier bags. one at a time, lay the bag as flat as you can get it and, with scissors or a rotary cutter, cut the bag in 2-4cm strips width-wise. You'll want these pretty straight, but the don't need to be perfect. Each strip will make a loop of plastic, snip it to make a strip or streamer.
    
11. Staple 3-4 strips to each side of the centre flap (here we started with one on each side and then needed to add more to keep the kites from spinning wildly). Add a piece of string that connects your holes that has a bit of slack and then tie your main line to that. Your main line should be about a metre. too long and you'll be dealing with a tangled mess. Smaller kids should have shorter string:
    
    
    
    You're done! Take your kite outside and start running.
    
    
    These kites are great for kid because they will fly with the smallest bits of wind and if they break or are lost - they are really easy to replace! I've made these many times with my own kids and with groups of kids and they are always a huge hit - BONUS: these kites can be used anywhere, unlike bigger kites you can use them in the yard or running down the street
    
    
    
    
    xxoo