This was featured in Make Magazine!

You know you want to… Go check out the instructable here. (Uh, and sweetie, darling, dear child… please keep it on the ground, and away from the glass window panes, okay?) Thanks Handy Hubby for helping to make my latest crazy vision a reality! Oh yeah, and I’ll remind you that you have to go vote for it (if you like it of course…but remember I REALLY need a fifth instructables t-shirt.) on 4/20. edit: if you like this, go VOTE for it! (it’s the 7th one in this list, i think)

Rubber Band Powered “Hot Wheels” type Car Launcher – More DIY How To Projects

Step 1: Find a good table.
Check the size and make sure it has a few drawers or doors.
In this case, we used a small table with long legs, and multiple drawers.
We don’t have a ton of space, so we wanted to go small.
The key to this project is working with the piece you have. Figure out how
to use the lines and details of the piece to your advantage.

Step 2: Modify as necessary.
In our case, the table had long legs, which weren’t what we were looking for
in a kids stove.
So we measured 1 ½ to 2 inches, and cut the legs off, using a circular saw.

Step 3: Sand/prime.
We took the drawers out, and sanded everything down enough that it had a
‘tooth’ to take paint.
Then primed the whole thing with white primer. If you’re lucky enough to
have a piece in a light color, then less primer will be required, but for
us, several coats were necessary.
Lesson learned, for this one, we should have done more coats of primer to
cover the dark green. If there is anything you want to leave the original
color, tape off before priming.

Step 4:
We had taped off anything we wanted to stay green, in our case the panels on
the drawer fronts. The rest was painted yellow. Allow to dry thoroughly,
multiple coats if necessary.

Step 5:
Make the knobs.
What we did: cut 3 circles out of ½ in thick MDF (we had three knobs in the
current top drawer, modify per the number of knobs you have/want).
Paint the circles yellow.
(While this dries you can put more coats on the base piece if necessary.)
For the black centers of the knobs, cut scrap wood into triangle or
trapezoid shapes, and paint black.
{ For the less carpentry inclined, you have multiple options with the knobs
. Ours were circles cut out of MDF, but if you want, you can buy disks from
the craft store, or even easier, find some flat round drawer knobs
(something like like this knob) and paint on the details. If you
use store bought knobs, your step 7 will actually be easier. }

Step 6:
The top.
Tape off the bottom (yellow) and spray the top with a metallic paint (we
used a hammered aluminum).
Let it dry.
After it’s dry, tape off the top with painters tape.
Use a circle cutter (or a saucer or something else round) to cut out circles
that will become the burners.
Peel out the circles, leaving the remainder masked.
Paint the interior of the circles Red. Let dry.

Step 7:
Attaching the knobs.
Remove the original knobs. In our case, there were three drawer pulls which
we were replacing with burner knobs.
For Homemade knobs:
You’ll need for each knob, a washer, your disk, a screw, and the
triangle/trapezoid shape. Additionally, you’ll need some scrap MDF to screw
into, inside the drawer.
Place a washer, then the disk, then slip the screw through. Screw into the
scrap MDF, leaving it loose enough to turn. Then glue the black triangle to
the top, covering the screw.
{For Store Bought Knobs: Simply attach the knob as you would to any drawer,
but leave loose enough to turn easily. No extra MDF backing is required. }

Step 8:
Now to finish off the top of the stove.
Peel off the paper you were masking with, to reveal the red circles. The
size of your burners will depend on the size of your circles, so estimate
accordingly.

To make the burners:
Take about a 1 in wide piece of MDF, about 7 in long in our case, and cut at
a 10 degree angle on each side.
Do this 3 times.

Sand edges, paint tops and sides black.
Glue to top of stove, as shown, using wood glue. Put something heavy on top
until it dries.

Step 9:
Send the Chef in!

Oh, and The 6 o’clock stitch asked me to include this in their tutorials round up… check out other cool ones here.

It’s really easy to make… Just remove the wire from the bottom, and transform it into the ‘back’ of the chair. I’ve written up a step by step Instructable HERE!

Don’t Miss the 2008 Project Roundup… Most everything cool on Dabbled last year…

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!

Other Dabbled references to the Evil Mad Scientist projects

Here are some pumpkin pics, and for instructions, go here..!

(I have no idea why that one pic is sideways… it doesn’t look that way on the original!)

Oh, and check out these cool pics of the Halloween Bubble Cocktails…

I was browsing through the As Is section at Ikea and came across the parts to a Kritter child’s bed. I wasn’t really planning on getting the 3 yr old a toddler bed (his crib converted to one by taking off the front rail), but I couldn’t resist–it’s too cute! When I got it home I realized that (duh) it takes a longer mattress than a crib mattress. Well, The Boy doesn’t need a longer mattress yet, he still fits fine on the crib sized one–and I really didn’t want to go buy all new sheets and such anyway. So the fabulous husband modified the bed to make it fit the crib mattress, leaving a nifty little compartment perfect for stuffed animals at the end!

All he basically did was add a flat wood bottom to the end section where the mattress wouldn’t reach, and use the guard rail (which we weren’t needing anyway) as a divider between the box and the mattress. Easy Peasy!

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Related:
– Other things from Ikea…

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On to cooler stuff… A Finger Puppet Bus!

We got the boy a set of finger puppets from Ikea, which are cute, but of course small, so they would inevitably be lost. Plus, little hands sometimes have a problem with getting the puppets on their fingers to play with them. So we came up with the idea of a ‘schoolbus’ with wood dowels where the puppets could live! And hey, all made of wood, no icky chinese lead in this toy!

The Boy loves it. He can drag them around and take them to ‘school’. And Mom and Dad love it because they all get put back on their pegs when they get put away!
This was another case of I had the vision and Daddy implemented it – He actually made it where the wheels turn and all, but if you wanted to go even easier, but stationary, you could just glue/nail disks on the side for wheels.

Also, The headlights are painted in Glow-in-the-dark paint!

Update: HOW TO is here!