The Trainer's Corner Blog

Hello fellow Scouters,

Hallmark has their annual collectable ornaments, and we can have our own annual Scout collectable ornament! The great thing about our Scout ornaments is that they are made by our Scouts! Last year I wrote about a Scout-made Christmas ornament using paint for snowmen (you can find the blog entry here). This year’s ornament continues the snowman theme and will actually be a green ornament – not in color, but in eco-friendliness.

All you need is a white light bulb, and you have the start of a snowman. The reason I’m posting this so far before the Christmas season is so you can spread the word to your parents to save any burned out bulbs for this (yes, you can go buy a package of white light bulbs for this project, but why not reuse and recycle?)

You can decorate your bulb any way you or your Scout wants to. First thing we did was paint the screw-top, so that can dry before working with the rest of the light bulb (we painted it blue, but if I had it to do over again I’d paint it black, so it would look like a top hat!) We used a piece of orange foam for the nose. We sprayed the bulb with some spray adhesive and glued on a strip of cloth for a scarf and threw some glitter on it. We also painted on the eyes and a coal-smile using toothpicks. Toothpicks work great for painting small dots and fine lines.

You can wrap some wire around the top to create a hanger. I would recommend using a hot glue gun to tack down this wire, so it doesn’t slip. Then your snowman is ready for hanging!

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If you are looking for a fun Christmas craft to do with your den, start saving your light-bulbs now. Your snowman is waiting for you!

In Scouting,

 - Scouter Jeff <><

Hello fellow Scouters,

If you are looking for a fun and useful craft for your den, consider making a Scout bucket. You can use the bucket to store craft supplies, snacks, their Scout book, some basic tools, and anything you want to send home. And you always have a bucket available for games that require one. Plus, if you put a cushion on the seat you have a chair always ready for the scout.

You can buy empty 5 gallon buckets with lids at many home improvement stores. Or you can call on your local painting or drywall contractor to see if they have any empty 5 gallon buckets and lids that you could take from them (or ask them to save some for you). Don’t be afraid to ask – you’d be surprised what people will do for Cub Scouts.

Now I have to confess that I’ve never made these, as I first heard about it towards the end of my time as a den leader (so I don’t have a decent picture to show you. The one for this post is “stolen” from an Internet site, and these buckets don’t have much work put into them, IMO). So I’m going to write on how I would do this if I was making it.

First, if you have a bucket that is not white, take some primer and paint the outside of each bucket. You might need more than one coat to get rid of any markings or color hue. I would use a water-based paint for this as the cleanup is easier. Plus, I would not use spray primer, as you’d go through a lot of cans of primer to cover enough buckets for your den. It’s your call if you want the Scouts to prime these, as it can be very messy.

Once the primer dries you can have the boys decorate it any way they want to. There are so many ways to personalize it. You can buy some craft paints and have the boys practice their art skills on it, or you can get stickers for it, or can have them glue pictures to it, or all of the above.

You have two choices when it comes to a cushion for the top. If you have someone in your den that sews, and has a lot of free time, then you can see if they’d be willing to help you with this. You can get custom foam at your home improvement store and cut squares that fit the top, then cover them with material. Or you can buy chair pads, which can be found at home improvement and Walmart/Target-type stores. I personally wouldn’t attach the pad to the top, only because attaching them makes it more difficult to clean it or replace it. Since they have a bucket with them, they can throw the pad in the bucket and bring it with them. But if you want to attach the cushion to the top, a strong construction adhesive should do the trick.

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If I had it to do over again, I would have the boys make a Scout bucket early in the program. This way the boys would always have a container to carry their book and anything else they need to have for a meeting. And they would always have a seat ready of we needed to sit for any portion of the meeting. Now if you know me, you know I don’t like a meeting where they sit for very long, so please don’t use these Scout buckets as a place for the boys to sit during a lecture. Boys learn better when they are standing and holding and working with something in their hands. But a Scout bucket is a great way to have storage and a seat, all-in-one.

In Scouting,

 - Scouter Jeff <><