Monday, February 22, 2010

Who needs historical accuracy?

So, here's the next installment of knightly accessories for my own Sir Poopsalot (my sweetie says I have to think of a better name for him than that).
It's a shield. A... heraldic one? (I'm not putting too much effort into historical accuracy here).
And here's what you'll need to make it.


  • Foam floor tiles - Ours came from the dollar store (of course). We've had them since the bear was learning to sit up, they're not beautiful but the sound of his little bald head bouncing off of the hardwood was too much for me
  • Craft foam for adding decorative details
  • Some felt for making arm straps
  • Scrapbooking brads
  • A cutting implement. I used a set of cheap metal snips ($2 from the dollar store) as scissors to get through the foam. My actual scissors were a bit too puny but the snips worked like a charm.
The first thing to do is decide on the size and shape of your shield. I went for a basic shape in toddler size. But if you're thinking of something more complex or fancypants then try goggling medieval shields .

Once you have a vague idea of what shape you'd like you can either make a paper template or just freehand the shape your foam in pencil.
Then cut it out:



See? Looks like a shield already!


but it might need a bit of something by way of decoration.


I added my decorations with the scrapbooking brads because I like how they kind of look like rivets. BUT they totally could be a choking hazard, so you could use hot glue to attach them if you're worried or your pookie is less than three. The bear doesn't really put stuff in his piehole but I keep a very beady eye out.



I chose to keep my design simple because I'm lazy for the sake of authenticity, but you could get all crazy and cut out the family coat of arms and unicorns and things. This site here has HEAPS of free heraldic imagery clipart for inspiration.

Next you need a way to hold the shield that will free up the hands for ummm... combat. Or eating cookies?
To do that you need to cut a strip of felt and attach it to the back of the shield like this:


I doubled over the felt to make it stronger where I attached the brads and I gauged how big the loop should be by jamming it around Teddy's arm.
I did two armband thingies, see?


Flip it over and you're done.
Time for some gratuitous bear shots:



Teddy is all about the dragon rights. "SMOOCHES NOT SLAYING", "Dragons are people too".

3 comments:

  1. What a fun toy for imaginative play.

    Be careful with those nicknames though as you might accidently let a pet name slip when you are enrolling your little guy in high school and gets ribbed about it by his friends (I didn't think "Punkerdoodles" was all that bad, my son did not agree).

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. I can highly recommend Amazing Goop for durability on a wide variety of projects as it does hold up and has extended the life of many a pairs of shoes, especially my son's shoes when the rubber soles starts coming off the shoes. (They really do reach a point where they don't outgrow them before they outwear them - just not until after Jr. High).

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  2. I loved this project. The "rivets" were genius.

    I had to laugh at the little nickname dilemma. My mother nicknamed my first son Poopers and it has stuck. Thankfully only at her house though, as he is now 15 and doesn't really appreciate it:)

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  3. Heh, Poor chaps! I should know better even. My Auntie M STILL occasionally calls me Wigeon or Widgey and I'm 31 (I kind of like it though!).

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