My Project for the Week

Meg's cheer squad has a competition against other local squads tomorrow. They've practiced EVERY night this week so it's been a very busy week.  I've spent the last six days making spirit sticks for the girls. As with most projects, things always take longer than you anticipate.

I started off with Christmas garlands (teal from Lowes and white from Walmart) and some Halloween garland (black/silver from The Dollar Tree) and white pvc sprinkler pipes (Home Depot).  I spray painted three 30' lengths of pipes black (Krylon for plastic), taped them off in a spiral using painters tape and and added another coat of Krylon in teal.  Randy then cut the pipes in 16" lengths to make the batons.  I glued 3/4" end caps, spray painted black, to the ends of the pipe using E6000 adhesive.  The poles each then got sprayed with a clear coat to help minimize chipping.  (Krylon)

I cut the garlands into various lengths (20" - 25") and tied the ends off with ribbon from my stash to prevent fraying.  In addition, the white garlands each got 4 jingle bells, two bells attached to each ribbon end.   I tied the three garlands together with strands of white and black grosgrain ribbon using just a basic knot.  Around that knot I tied a silver ribbon with another four jingle bells, two on each end.

Using E9000 adhesive I glued the center knot to the front of the pipe and then wrapped the ribbon around to the back (adhering with glue there as well) and tied the ribbons into a tight knot.

The bottom of the base cap has their initials in white GinX rubons.  (My favorite rubons of all time and yes, I'm still hoarding.)

You can see a portion of the grosgrain ribbon that isn't visible in the first photo here.  Also the blue on the pole is photographing a wonky color.  In actuality, it's a pretty teal color that matches the garland perfectly.

This angle shows the initials at the bottom.

Easy-peasy, right?  Well, yes and no.  There's shopping all over town for inexpensive materials.  There's drying times between paint coats.   There's lots of measuring, cutting and tying.  There's threading ribbon through tiny jingle bell holes...not an easy feat with arthritic thumbs.  Then there's touch ups for paint that leaked under the masking tape.  You get the idea.  Plus.....there's 17 to make! Yeah, even assembly line fashion and a little help from Meg, the project took all week. Meg thinks they're beautiful so it's worth the effort.

So that folks was my week.  Off to another football game.  Go FALCONS!