Not long ago, in a land called Photojojo, some folks cut little plastic animals in half to make photo holders. And since I had some 99 cent figurines from the party store lying around my house (from an old house party, of course) that project had always stuck with me.
Luckily, a friend’s birthday crept up on me and I now had the perfect excuse to get out the saw and get crafty. Being that I have little patience for following instructions, I didn’t dig up the old article and instead started in on my own safari adventure.
Read on to find out how you can get
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Tools & Materials: a saw (see #2 below), hot glue gun (plug it in before you start and it just might be ready when you need it), magnets.
Time: 30-60 minutes.
- Go shopping. Check out your local party store and stock up on cheap, plastic animals made in China.
- Find a saw. Any will do. I’d wanted to try the Jig Saw but couldn’t find it and decided I probably shouldn’t play with power tools anyway, so grabbed a hand saw that could double as a cleaver. Saw your beloved toy in half.
- Play Taxidermist. Chances are your toy will be hollow. Stuff it with something, preferably with fabric or paper. Definitely not something that will rot. Carefully place some hot-glue over the stuffing to seal the front/back half of your animal.
- Insert Magnets. While the glue is still warm, place a magnet in each end, being careful so as to place them so that they will attract each other when you want to re-assemble your dear pet. I tried 2 different methods: (1) place magnet in so that the edge is flush with the glue or (2) submerge magnet in the glue and apply another clear layer of glue over the magnet. I tried the latter method as a reinforcement. Either appears to work fine.
- Put a Photo in It. I created a little card for the special occasion, though I imagine you could print a photo with a cleverly placed face or body such that the animal adds to the scene. In my case, I started with a cougar joke until I realized I had a cheetah on my hands. (Thank goodness for Google Images.)
- Give it Away. The end.
