Pick up a packet of plastic cups at the store and your kids will play happily all afternoon. At least that’s what happened to me. This is just a small sampling of what my kids did with a stack of cups.

–building pyramids

–making bombs out of cups to throw at the cup pyramid

–jumping cups!

The idea for the jumping cups came from this awesome project from All For the Boys. We were too lazy to make a minion (I need my own minions to do that) and our cups were little so we could just wrap the rubber band around the whole cup, but it’s the same idea. This is an awesome little trick to file away for a rainy day.

–jumping cup variations

There were 3, 4, 5 cups jumping at one time. And my son even hooked up two passengers to jump with a cup!

–play money

My daughter cut up a few cups, while we were flinging them all over the living room, and made play money. The coins are the bottoms of the cups and the bill is the rest of the cup.

–bracelets

She didn’t get my “By the power of Isis” joke, but they are still cool bracelets.

I don’t really wear much jewelry, but I’ve always wanted to try my hand at whipup’s assignments. And this month the theme is fiber jewelry. The only things other than my wedding ring that I wear are bracelets, so I made myself a bracelet. It is basically just a pleated strip of fabric (there may be a special name for this kind of pleat, I don’t know, but if you do please let me know) with a ribbon as a tie. Infinitely customizable and easy to whip up–it would be quick to make to match an outfit before going out. Not that I ever go out. But you do, so here’s a tutorial.

First measure your wrist, then multiply that by 2.5

Cut a large rectangle of fabric that is 4inches by (wrist measurement x 2.5)

fold it in half the long way (hot dog style), right sides facing, and sew down the long edge leaving the ends open.

Turn the resulting tube right side out, fold it in half so the seam is in the middle and press.

Starting about and inch from the raw edge, make one accordion fold one way and press, then another the other way and press, continuing until you’ve used the entire strip. Don’t worry about making them perfectly even–variation in size makes the bracelet interesting.

Pin the pleats in place and (carefully) try the bracelet on. Snip the ends off if it is too long, fiddle with the pleats if it is too small. When the bracelet is the right length, tuck the ends under and sew the opening shut.

Then tack down all the pleats with a long stitch. Go slowly!

Sew a pretty ribbon on top of the stitching you just did, leaving a couple inches at each end to tie a bow.

Put it on and your ready to go.

You could use a button and elastic loop for a closure, or button and button hole, or snap, or whatever you think would work. Even faster and a little more girly, is a ruffle bracelet. Just a strip of fabric (I used linen and left the edges raw) with a ribbon or some lace down the middle.

so there you go: my first whiplash entry and my first tutorial all rolled in one.