18' of Chain links for under $3 and 10 minutes! NO MESS

Ok. It has been a crazy week. Work was steady all weekend....until Sunday night. I was moving too fast and jammed my right pinkie finger into a door on a machine. Ended up bending it at a bad angle. Since I am the only one at work that can drive a fork lift...I had to wrap it and continue working for two hours...until 3rd shift came in.

By then, my finger was just numb. My boss sent me to the ER. It wasn't broken, but I was put in a finger splint and on light duty for a week. Turned out that I pulled a ligament...and thankfully no surgery. Good thing...because a pinkie is a pretty useless finger! BUT it prevented me from cleaning and doing crafts...and that didn't make me happy. Even now, just typing it taking FOREVER!

So today I had the boys (not normally on a Thursday, but  I will take any extra day I can get), and we had the tv off...and crafts on! We made two trips to Menard's (similar to Home Depot), and one trip to Walmart. We started a number of crafts...and now I am overwhelmed with how much I still have/want to do!

I'm tempted to type up all of the partial crafts now...but I will wait. However, I will explain the ONLY craft I truly finished today. It was my Pipe Insulation Chain Link craft!

I have been looking for gray pool noodles...but while at Menard's I saw the pipe insulation and the light bulb went off! I was able to get a 4 pack of these 3' long tubing for only $2.47! I got the 1" ones, because they were the biggest I could find in the black/gray color....that was affordable.

So then I opened them up and cut them into about 1" segments.

The pipes are already precut with one large cut down the length (to fit around a long pipe)...so the pieces I cut were able to really easily link together....to form the chain.

I only used one package (was 12', but after I cut them, the chain link measured almost 18') of 4...but I do have another package to cut up. The whole process took around 10 minutes. Granted I had one kid helping me hold the tubing to cut it...and two kid linking them together. But it was super easy...and NO mess!

 

I can't wait to attach them to my skeletons...and maybe even outside!

 

The other projects I am working on...are currently drying. Maybe tonight I will do my blood spattered bathroom stuff...but I'm not sure. I bought red jello and red Kool-Aid...and more red food coloring. Plus some cheap towels and bathroom stuff I can ruin....super excited! I had the boys help with the blood splattered sheets today...and those are out to dry...so hopefully I can post them tomorrow.

 

Only 16 more days until my party....AAAAAAHHHHHHHH It is coming up too soon!