Jet Pack

Like I said in a previous post, Spencer started wearing this collapsible toy storage container around the house a few weeks ago.  He said it was his jet pack and he needed it to blast off to Mars.  I admired his creativity, but thought we could do a little better.

First, I bought two plastic 2 liter bottles.  Then I bought some plastic paint primer, like this:

I peeled the labels off the bottles, primed them (the primer I bought was grey), let them dry over night and then painted them with silver craft paint.  I used 2 coats.

For the fire I bought 3 bags of gift shred (copper, gold and red) from Hobby Lobby.

I laid out a piece of packing tape and then put individual pieces of the gift shred on the tape.  It sounds laborious, but I did 4 of these in about 15 minutes.

Then I rolled them up and secured them with another piece of packing tape.

I stuck two in each bottle and used liquid nails to glue them in place.

Once that was all done I took a diaper box and cut one side out of it.

I primed (I just used the same stuff I used on the plastic bottles) and painted that silver too.

Then I glued the bottles (again, using liquid nails) to the cardboard.

The last step was to use duct tape to make straps.

I think it's pretty awesome myself.

Once Spencer accepted the fact that real fire was not actually coming out of the bottom and got over his disapointment, he thought it was pretty awesome too.  It's become part of his daily uniform.

P.S. April, I was not kidding.  If you promise you will ride your motorcycle with one of these on your back, I will totally make one in your size.  You have to wear the mohawk helmet too.