Supplies
- Dowel ½” x 36” $.97
- Play Day™ 7-Foot Jump Rope $.97
- Bulldog™ Screw Eyes 1-3/8” (10 ct.) $.97
- Dritz™ plastic rings 1½” white (8 ct.) $5.43 + free shipping
- Apple Barrel™ Multisurface Satin Acrylic Paint 2 oz. (Electric Blue, Clover Fields, and Lemon) $.87 each
- Sandpaper
- Blue painter’s tape 1” wide
- Paint brush
- Chopsticks
- Super glue – I use Loctite™ Gel Control
- Hot glue gun
- Large container (bucket or large bowl) to hold the bubble solution
- GIANT Bubble Solution
Directions
Dowel Preparation
Remove the bar code sticker on the dowel. Sand off the sticky residue.
NOTE: You do not have to paint the dowel but I find that paint protects the wood. It can be painted one solid color if you don’t want to make it striped.
Wrap painter’s tape downward around the dowel at an angle so you leave a wood strip exposed around it that is ½” wide. As you go, measure the open distances. Make sure they’re the same distance apart.
If you don’t check that the distances are equal it can easily get uneven and then later colors will have stripes that are too wide or too thin.
Press the edges of the tape down very firmly so no paint can get by.
Yellow Paint
Paint the ends of the dowel yellow. Then paint the wood strips yellow on the dowel (or half at a time) and let it dry completely resting on chopsticks. Paint over the strip and ends again with a second coat. Let it dry completely. Remove tape.
Blue Paint
Wrap tape over the yellow strip lining it up perfectly along the bottom edge of the yellow. Put tape over the ends of the dowel. Trim it off around the edge. Paint the wood strips blue giving it two coats. Let it dry completely. Remove the tape.
Green Paint
Put tape on the dowel covering both the blue and yellow, lining it up along the bottom of the blue. Paint the wood strips green giving it two coats. Let it dry completely. Remove the tape.
Screw Eye
With a pencil, draw a dot on the end of the dowel in the center. IF you own a drill, drill a 1/8” wide hole about ½” down into the dowel at that dot.
If not, then press down really hard on the screw and turn to screw it into the dowel. Keep pressing and turning until it’s all the way in there.
Rope
Open the jump rope packaging and uncurl it. Grip the end of the rope and then slide your hand down it to the other end to straighten it. You may need to do it several times. You don’t want it curly.
On the ends of the jump rope, unscrew the white caps from the blue handles. Undo the knot on the end of the rope and pull it out of the cap. Smooth out the rope since it will be curled up from the knot. Make sure they’re straight.
The ends have been simply sealed, but need a lot more protection or they fray. I tightly cover the tips in super glue so they are more compact and can fit through the screw eye loop. Then I seal them more with hot glue.
Cover the ends and about ¼” from the ends with super glue. As it dries use two fingers to press the ends in tightly. Keep pressing in on it and turning it until it hardens. (It will leave glue on your fingers. Soaking in warm water and scrubbing will get it off your fingers.)
Then use a hot glue gun to cover and completely seal the super glued ends and down 1” on each end. So the entire 1” end of the rope is covered completely with hot glue. (Don’t glue them too thick in width because you need to be able to get both jump rope ends through the screw eye loop.) Let them cool.
Fold the rope so that one length is about 26” and the other is about 60”. Put the fold through a plastic ring. Pull the ends through the fold’s loop. Pull the two rope strands taught. Slide the plastic ring on the wooden rod.
Slide two more plastic rings on just the longer rope strand. These rings keep the longest rope weighed down.
Put both rope ends through the screw eye about two inches. To keep it from looking tangled, pay attention to how each rope goes through. For example, my shorter strand came out of the wand’s ring on the right side so it’s on the right side coming up through the screw eye.
Tie the strands in one knot around the screw eye. Pull it VERY tight.
Follow the GIANT Bubble Tips for best results.