
World Cup Craft: Make Your Own Stadium Horns
By Lindsey Boardman of Filth Wizardry
If there’s one thing that’s captured my kids’ attentions during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it’s the stadium horns. I mean it’s difficult not to notice them, but they seem extra exciting to my children. It’s not surprising really that something that’s pretty much as tall as they are and makes a huge noise is going to appeal to them.
If you think your kids would like a stadium horn, or vuvuzela, but you don’t feel like going and buying one online, we found that a couple of simple modifications to a dollar store hollow plastic bat gives you a fake that’ll pass for genuine with the kids.
We picked up a couple of the hollow plastic bats with ball sets that were on sale at the local Dollar Tree for this craft. I also picked up a packet of the cheap little party favor horns, because the really small kids will likely have trouble getting a note out of a regular horn.
First of all I hacked the closed end off the bat with a kitchen knife. (Clearly, this step is not meant to be done by children.)
Then I tidied up the end with a pair of scissors.
The handle already had a little hole in it from the manufacturing process, so I just carefully made that hole bigger with the end of my scissors.
Here is the one I made for my five year old, who can get a note out of a horn just fine.
My four-year old isn’t able to get a note out of a regular horn just yet, so for her I pulled the plastic part out of the party horn and glued it into the hole I’d made in the bat handle.
Now if you want to you can just leave it at that. You’ll be able to get a good loud sound out of the bat/horn with just those steps, but if you want it to look a bit more like a stadium horn then you can cut into the end of the bat several times like this….
Get a plastic cup and cut the bottom out of it.
Then hot glue that bottomless cup into the end of the bat.
To cover up the cup and to close the gaps around it, we used colored electrical tape, which also served to decorate the horns.
I used to use electrical tape in this way to decorate juggling clubs, and it’s really fast and easy to do. Just put the long stripes on first. Then the bits that are wound around the circumference of the bat keep the ends of the stripes firmly in place.
The cups we had handy were clear plastic, which worked out really nicely, because you can see the striping on the inside of the horn too.
As you can see, the ones we made were for the US vs. Ghana game. Although sadly our DIY stadium horns obviously didn’t help the US team through to the quarter finals, the kids loved them!
Now that both England and the US are out I’m not sure who we’ll be gunning for, but the electrical tape comes right off, so we are free to be fickle. (Wink.) I think we’ll probably just keep them the way they are though, what with 4th of July just around the corner.
Bonus craft:
If you get the hollow plastic bat and ball set like the ones we got from the dollar store then you’ll still have a spare ball left over. I’m sure you have some aluminum foil too.
Why not scrunch some aluminum foil into an hourglass shape, twist it a bit and hot glue the ball on the top. Spray it all gold and wind a bit more electrical tape to decorate the bottom. Voila! Mini World Cup trophy for backyard footy tournaments.
Comments
I think I am up for the noise! Even better than dollar store bats, this would be perfect for the old ones that are beat up and not great for wiffle ball anymore.
Im in south africa and we are surrounded by the real things (my daughter has 5 – of varying noise levels!) and I have to say – VERY GOOD JOB. they look fab
[…] the bits that are wound around the circumference of the bat keep the ends of the stripes … bat tape – Google Blog Search Share and […]
These are brilliant, Lindsey! Can I marry you?
[…] Lindsey from Filth Wizardry amazes and delights me with every post at her blog, and now she's guest-posting incredible projects over at AlphaMom. Anyone who has been following the World Cup this year has heard the term "vuvuzela." (If you haven't heard it, it's pronounced something like "voovoo-zella" and it's the name of the South African stadium horns blown by fans.) Well, Lindsay has created a stadium horn made from dollar store stuff so your kids can toot along with all the World Cup soccer crowds (or, just use them to annoy the neighbors!) [how to make a vuvuzela… Read more »
I love this! Might have to try to make a couple before the semi finals 🙂
My teenage son and his friends are obsessed with these things. I can’t wait to show him this!!
That’s very clever, but it may be awhile before I want to hear that noise again.
[…] horns!! Well, now you can have them in your living room…or outside, whichever suits you. Alpha Mom makes them out of baseball bats! You may also […]
You were so creative. You did a wonderful job. I have been trying all day to get the vuvuzelas wholesale when I saw your work. If anybody out there can tell me where to get them wholesale in the States, please let me know. I would certainly appreciate it! THANK YOU!
This really helps, thank you so much. 😉
[…] think my favorite craft of all are these stadium horns. With a plastic bat, a plastic cup and some tape you can cheer on your favorite World Cup […]