OokiiYaYa: April 2016

I was snooping around in my nieces craft box when I came across this little gem. It was a christmas gift from months ago and it wasn't even opened yet!!! What? They obviously had no idea what treasure lay inside this cool retro-looking tin. Of course I opened it and read all of the directions to re-familiarize my now adult eyes to this amazing gizmo. I thought it would all come back to me just like riding a bicycle. It wasn't as difficult as a bike, but I certainly needed to reacquaint my hand muscles to all of this rotating stuff.

My first attempt was a little shaky and my pen kept slipping out of the hole. Even my modern neon markers were not helping me.

I discovered if you used one of the holes closer to the centre it was a little easier to control. Also if you worked it with confidence and pretended that you knew what you were doing it was a bit easier. I used the #60 circle on both of these but just switching the holes made the shapes so different. I even fancied it by using several different colors. Try to do that Louella and Marley! (My nieces are 9 and 7)

I discovered that it did work better if you used the provided Spirograph markers, but the colors are not as cool.

In their stash they also had this other circles/shape making thing-a-ma-jig so I gave it a whirl too. It was a little easier to use, but it didn't have the endless possibilities you got with the original...

I experimented with color combos and made these cool eye teasers that look like they are vibrating!

I was pretty proud of this neon work of art.

Then I dragged out some color paper and jelly pens...

Things got very interesting. I looked around on the internet for a little inspiration and found a few fun ideas I will definitely need to try when I get the chance.