Artzooka! – One-of-a-kind Print and Miniature Worlds

Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:

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Hey, I’m Jeremy! Let’s start with a fun project. I never throw anything out, and take a look at this—it’s a broken wind-up toy. Three of its legs are broken, but watch this—it still works! See how the leg moves? When I saw this, I thought to myself, what other things could I use this for?

Then I turned it this way and thought it could be the mouth of a whole different creature, something with a big jaw, like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I’m going to make a whole new toy out of this! I’ve got a bit of craft foam that I cut out, and I think it looks like a dinosaur head. With more foam, I’ve made the bottom of its mouth. Just like that, I’ve got a dinosaur head, and now I can add some features.

I’ll start off with its teeth. I find it’s a lot easier to do all the teeth on one piece instead of individual teeth, and I think these will work great. I flip the head around and tape them into place. Two little white dots will be the eyes, so let’s glue those into place first so we can see better. I’ll take my black marker and finish the eyes off. I think he needs a sense of smell because dinosaurs have amazing senses of smell.

Now, for the broken toy, I’m attaching a popsicle stick to its leg. That way, I’ll have somewhere to stick my dinosaur head. I wrap it around the leg just like this. I can take the top of my dinosaur head and attach it to the leg. I’ll turn it over like that and then again use a little bit of tape.

When you wind him up, the toy dog goes to work, and the head moves! To put the rest of the mouth in place, I’ll just tape the bottom of the jaw onto the part of the dog that isn’t moving. That looks like a pretty good place. Take a little bit of tape, put it on there like that, and my head is complete!

Now I’m ready for the body, and I think this cardboard tube will work perfectly. I’ve cut out more craft foam into a shape that I think looks like a dinosaur belly. To get this belly onto the tube, I’ll use some glue and put it right down the center, then press it onto the tube. To help hold it in place while it dries, I’ll just put a rubber band over the top.

I’ve also used some craft foam to cut out some arms, a leg, and a tail. I think the tail will look really great under there, and the leg can go right on top like that. Then these two arms—I’ll put one here and one underneath. Once I’ve put the head in place and everything is taped or glued, we have a dino toy! We’ve taken a broken little toy dog and turned it into a toy dinosaur.

Thanks for saving me, Jeremy! My pleasure, little doggie—or should I say dinosaur? Why throw out your old toys when you can repurpose them? I made a dinosaur by reusing a broken toy. Start by cutting the shape of a dino’s head out of craft foam. Use two pieces—one for the top of the head and one for the jaw. Craft foam makes great teeth and eyes.

Then tape a small stick onto the dog’s leg and tape the top of the dino’s head onto the stick. The dino’s jaw is taped onto the part of the dog that doesn’t move when you wind it up. I cut out more craft foam to make the dino’s body and attached it to a cardboard tube. Cut out more craft foam for the tail, legs, and arms. Attach the dino head to the cardboard tube, and you’ve got yourself a whole new toy!

And don’t worry if you missed any of this—it’s all on our website at artzooka.com.

Now, let’s make a print! I’ll need some plastic wrap to put over the picture. Lay it right down over top like this and then tape it into place. I’ve got a bunch of extra plastic hanging over the side, and that’s okay. All I need to do is flip the picture over and fold it onto the back of the cardboard, then just use some tape.

When we’re taping this, we want to make sure that it’s pulled really tight over the picture. I’ve put this picture on cardboard to make it sturdier, and now that I have all the plastic in place, we’re ready to paint. This is really fun—you can paint right over top of the picture; the lines are already there.

I’m not trying to make this look exactly like the picture, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. I’m using the lines as a guide as I add color. You can use different colors or the same colors that are here; the best part about this is that anything goes!

Now I’ll paint the outline of the bird using some of the lines that are already there as a guide. The trick is to do it fairly quickly so that the paint doesn’t dry. Give it a nice dark eye right there, and I’m going to finish off the bird with some yellow paint.

Now that I have all my paint in place, I grab a piece of paper, lay it over top, and now with my hands or with a wooden spoon, just press down onto the picture, rubbing in all the parts that you’ve painted. And now watch this—I peel it off, and we’ve got ourselves a mirror image!

The great thing about this is I can change it if I don’t like what I did the first time, or even if I do. You can wipe this clean and start all over again, or when it’s dry, add more wet paint to the plastic. It looks different every time!

You can use any picture that you like. Here I’ve used an elephant, and I’ve added different colors and details. I’ve made three different prints using the same elephant picture. That’s the great thing about prints—you can make as many as you want, and each one is an original work of art.

It’s super easy to make a print from your favorite picture. I chose this one because I like the shapes and lines. Glue or tape your picture onto cardboard to make it sturdy, and then wrap it with plastic wrap. Now you can paint on the plastic. I like to use the picture to inspire me, but I don’t make it perfect—just add color where you like and do it quickly so the paint doesn’t dry.

Press a piece of paper on top of the wet paint and press down with your hands or even use a wooden spoon. Then peel off the paper, and you have a whole new painting! That’s why prints are great—you can keep making more, and they’re all different.

For more great ideas like this, check out artzooka.com.

Now, let’s create a little world inside a cup! I’m going to start off using an empty cup. If we’re going to make a little world inside a cup that’s upside down, we’ll need to make a lid or a base of some kind. So let’s use a piece of this recycled plastic packaging—that’ll work!

I’m going to choose this because it’s see-through. Now what I’m going to do is trace around the lid of the cup like that, and when you’re finished, you want to carefully cut that circle out. Here’s a tip: if you cut it too small, it won’t work as a lid. Perfect!

Now we’re ready to start creating the world. The first thing I’m going to do is use some modeling clay just to make a little hill so I can place this right down on top of my lid and use my fingers to work it in. If I use some blue, I can create a river or maybe a lake or a pond. It’s starting to take shape!

To make it look a little more earthy, you can use some tiny pebbles. I’m going to pour them out onto the table and then, as I turn my little world around, gently press them into the clay. You can see just by putting a rim all the way around, it gives it a little beach look. That looks great!

Now I’m going to add some bigger rocks. These bigger rocks are actually little tiny pebbles, but in here, they’re going to look like boulders. They start off tiny in your hands but then magically turn into these huge rocks. Once you’re happy with that, you can start adding more details. I think a tree would be perfect!

Here’s a little trick for making a tree: you can take some pipe cleaner and a pencil and wrap the pipe cleaner around the pencil just like this. You don’t want to do it too tightly because we want to be able to slide it off the pencil like that. By pressing it down, I’ve created a little evergreen tree. I’m just going to carefully cut off the tip, and I can stick that right in there.

Add all the details that you want, and when you’re finished, you might come up with something like this. Remember that canoe I found earlier? This old toy works perfectly in my new little world! You can arrange these things any way you like, and when you’re happy with the way it looks, just add the cup.

I’ll slide it over top and tape it into place. Now check this out—I made a few earlier! I’ve got a little undersea water world; you can see I used a little shell for that. This one here is up in the sky; I just took a little cotton ball, tore it up, and used that for clouds, and then I added a hot air balloon toy that I found.

For this one, I used a circuit board for the base and added a rocket ship toy and some marbles for planets. Now this is the cool thing: they’re four completely different worlds, but I can stack them on top of one another to create one full world. We started off with a cup full of stuff, and we made a whole universe just by looking at it a bit differently. That’s the great thing about art—it’s all in how you look at it!

To make your own world in a cup, you need a cup. Then take a piece of plastic and cut it into a circle. I used some plastic packaging and traced around the top of the cup. Be sure to cut it big enough. Add some modeling clay and press pebbles onto the side to make a rocky beach. Wrap a pipe cleaner around a pencil, pull it off, and shape it a bit to make a tree.

A forest of trees and a toy like this canoe will make your world complete. You can make a universe in these cups—underwater, on land, in the air, and in space—reusing things you’ve collected. I’d love to see a picture of the world you make; send it to me at artzooka.com.

And now, time for an artsuka safety message: remember, when looking through a telescope, be sure you’re looking through the right end!

For my Art Zooka recycle challenge, I challenged myself to make something out of a plastic bottle, a table tennis ball, and a plastic cup. I put them in a movie starring a paper bag. Come on and see what I made!

I also put something else in my movie—a tea bag. Let’s see if you can spot it. Now sit back and enjoy Cinema Artzooka!

Here’s the plastic bottle, here’s the plastic cup, and here’s the table tennis ball. Can you guess what it’s going to be? Yes, it’s a submarine! Now let’s see it in a movie.

Did you like the movie? I made a submarine out of a table tennis ball, a plastic bottle, and a plastic cup. Did you spot the tea bag? Take another look at how I used it.

I challenge you to make something out of a plastic bottle, a plastic cup, and a table tennis ball. And when you do, take a picture and email it to me at the Artzooka website, artzooka.com. What will you create today?

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This version removes any unnecessary filler, maintains the core content, and presents it in a clear and concise manner.