Make Your Own Jazzy Guitars

What can I say… it’s been a while! Max recently reminded me that we haven’t done any crafty things in absolute ages. I take full responsibility for this as pregnancy number 3 has taken its toll on my energy levels and my sense of creativity.

Alas, I am happy to report that the fog has lifted and we’re back to thinking up crafty things to keep us occupied over these hot summer afternoons…

The upside of me lolling on the couch all afternoon is that the kids themselves have been getting a lot more creative without me having to direct the activities. “Guitar mania” seems to have edged its way into our house, and although Max shows the most promise, we have NO budding musicians in our little family!

So this long awaited post is something that was initiated by Max. His ideas and instructions to me were so clear and concise, I thought he had to have seen it somewhere. He assured me that the idea came from his “Peter Parrots” – a flock of very adventurous imaginary birds that have followed us around for the past 2 years!

What you’ll need for your guitar:

• Paper plate
• A rectangular strip of cardboard (approx. 8x30cm)
• Stanley knife to cut the cardboard
• 6 lengths of string
• 6 buttons*
• 2 wooden craft sticks*
• Glue*
• Paint*
• Patterned masking tape (found at Daiso)

*Head to the Craft box for absolutely everything you need to get creative with your kids this summer.

How to Make Your Guitar

1. The first thing we did was get out the paints and paint the paper plate. I guess you could use glitter glue, sequins, and stickers etc to jazz it up a bit if you wanted to.

2. Next, we cut the cardboard from our recycled veggie box and stuck it to the back of the paper plate (like a lollipop).

3. Then we glued on a long craft stick to the one end of the plate and another shorter one to the far end of the cardboard rectangle.

4. At this point, you will need to cut your 6 bits of string to be slightly longer than the distance between your craft sticks.

5. Stick your bits of string on to the craft sticks. We used glue to stick them down and then secured them with pattered masking tape.

6. Now you can fine tune your guitar by gluing down three buttons on either side of the cardboard for and there it is… your very own “for show” guitar.

As kids, growing up on the farm we would make our own guitars (that would actually play) using old car oil cans, a bit of wood and fishing line. Since I’m heading home over the Summer, I might churn out a couple, so watch this space for an update on our homemade strumming instruments.

Keep cool and see you soon!