Making a DIY Rainstick
Making a DIY rainstick has been high on my 'fun and creative crafts I must do with the kids' list for a long time now, and I've been saving just the right tube for it ever since my friend Nathalie got inspired by this rainstick at The Imagination Tree and wrote a guest post for me about her attempts at it. But it never seems to get done. Well, now, at last we made our rainstick!
Considering how long I'd let it slide down our priority list of crafts, it turned out to be surprisingly fast and easy to do! We definitely took Nathalie's experience and advice into account. Like nailing at an angle instead of straight in. But in the end, we made it quite differently from Nathalie's.
We used a cardboard tube that had had glowsticks in it last summer. It's small but thick and hard - you definitely couldn't do this as well with a paper towel tube, it has to be hard and strong.
We nailed lots of nails in, then filled it with expired rice. I covered the end with lots of tape and even wrapped tape over the whole tube to cover any potential pointy nail heads.
Then we covered ours with homemade 'mod podge' (white glue mixed with water) and torn tissue paper strips. I was a bit concerned by the sogginess at first.
But once dry, it became hard and smooth.
And what a lovely sound it makes!
