Rain Stick

This project was 6 years in the making. I saw this idea before I ever had kids and today was the first time I actually ever did it, so I feel good about having finally completed the idea. There are lots of versions of rain sticks online, etc. Here (Rain stick) is one version I sort of followed. I sort of cook and do crafts similarly. I follow the directions until I get to an item I don't have or an instruction I don't like and then I just make it up.

Items Needed:

-Mailing tube (I used a used up wrapping paper tube)

-Misc left over craft ribbon

-Misc left over screws from about 8, 392 different old projects that left me with oddball screws (make sure they are screws with a pointy end and not small bolts with a flat end, otherwise it is a beast trying to get them to poke through the tube)

-a screw driver that fits your screws

-a hammer (this was in the instructions but I didn't end up using mine)

-Duct tape (you will find that about now I have veered way off the directions with this item)

-Any Beans (I found some in our food storage that we had had probably a little too long)

We cut our tube in half so we could make two small rain sticks. The length doesn't matter, just know that the longer you make it the longer your rain falling sound will last. My daughter helped poke screws through the tube. Some you could push through and some required a little bit of screwing to make them flush with the tube.

You want to arrange them in a spiral down the tube

After testing some beans falling through the inside of the tube I realized I needed more screws randomly about for the beans to hit to make the "rain" sound stronger.

I let my kids choose some ribbon to attach at one end of the rain stick, just for design. I chose to singe the end of the ends of each ribbon so it wouldn't unravel.

This step gets into where I am totally making it up as I went. I taped two bunches of ribbon to the inside of each end.

So that the duct tape wouldn't stick to the beans on the inside, but so that I could still seal the end, I took a piece of tape with the sticky side out and wrapped it over the end and used another piece to wrap around the tube to keep that piece in place.

I then double wrapped the tube with tape to help it feel a little more durable and so the screws wouldn't tear out or anything.

We added a couple cups of beans to the inside of the tube. I also just threw the remaining screws in there too because they made a cool sound inside the tube.

and sealed the open end the same way I explained to seal the ribbon end.

Rain sticks complete. My girls LOVED them, really, really loved them. So I am glad we FINALLY made them. (Plus I am sure we can play with them extra when we have "Water" theme of the week later)

Scotch Mailing Tube, 2-15/16 Inches x 36 Inches (7979)

Colored Duck Tape, Purple Duchess

Colored Duck Tape, Totally Tie Dye