Unplugged #7: Thin

Alright folks, we've been MIA on the Unplugged scene for a while, but I haven't forgotten. It's been quite busy around here and although the themes rattle around in my head all week, sometimes I can't seem to get around to a project.

So this week's theme at Unplug Your Kids is Thin. Dave and I each had our own thin cooking projects, him making baguettes and me rolling out pie crust (yay pumpkin pie!).

And then there was a more elaborate craft. The craft itself is unplugged, but the purpose is to REpurpose your TV into art. :O) So, here goes and you can all tell me how nuts I am when you finally get to the end, haha. Oh, and keep in mind this might be easier for someone with more crafting goods on hand, but all I had was a box and tape and some printer paper, so forgive me if it looks like I am reinventing the wheel at some points.


TV Light Box

First, measure the screen of your tv so that you can cut out cardboard strips to match those dimensions. (Try to find cardboard that is not brightly colored, though as you can see parts of mine were and the project still turned out fine.) You will actually be cutting pieces a little longer so that you can bend the cardboard and tape it together. The most important part of this project is that the strips of cardboard be fairly even and match in width.

Assemble the strips into a rectangular frame.

Next you will cut another set of strips (same width!) so that you can divide the box. You can choose to do as few or as many divisions as you have patience for, of course. Again, cut the strips a bit long so that you can fold it at each end as a place to put the tape. Space them apart evenly in the frame and tape them down.


When you are ready to put the horizontal strips in, hold them over the frame and mark them where they will meet the vertical strips. Cut into the vertical strips at these marks, leaving about an inch uncut.

After you have decided where to place the horizontal strips, cut into the vertical ones where each meet. You will then slide them together so that they interlock. Try to make the finished surface as level as possible, but it's really not a huge issue.

Now that you have a frame of squares, put a THIN (see, you knew we would get to the theme eventually) white sheet of paper over top. As I did not have one sheet large enough, my process is a bit bothersome. I covered as many squares as would fit entirely under a piece of paper, and then repeated the process with lots of annoying little pieces of tape for the rest of the squares.

When all is said and done, hold it up over your tv (you could tape it or hang it there if you would like it to be a more permanent fixture, of course) and turn the yammer box on. (Feel free to mute it if all you can hear are electoral commercials.)



You will find that it takes the average of each color within each block and projects it onto the thin white screen. It makes for a particularly nice effect if you happen to have a music channel on and the lights change in sync to the rhythm of the music.