DIY Cat Scratcher

Oh surprise surprise, another post about cats.  Real cats this time!

We’ve acquired A LOT of cardboard boxes since our last move.  We have boxes in the hallway closet, in the bedroom closet, in the other bedroom closet, on top of shelves, under the bed, under the couch, behind the dresser.  I just can’t bring myself to throw them out because I know EVENTUALLY we’ll be moving and it’s so much easier to have the boxes on hand than go dumpster diving….again.  That’s apartment life for ya.  But the longer we live here, the MORE boxes we get.  I think they’re secretly multiplying.

I saw a cute DIY for a cat scratching pad and I kept it in the back of my head until I had some free time.

The thing about projects that you do on the floor is the cats always want to “help”.

Eevee was all about this project. The part that took the longest was cutting all of the strips. I used an x-acto knife and made my strips 4 inches wide. The only difference I made from the instructions was to hot glue the strips at each end instead of using tape. I feel like that made it more sturdy and secure. Oh, and I also didn’t add any paper to the bottom of the circle. I was just too pooped at that point and glad it was finished.

A helpful tip – after you cut your strips, roll them a little, bending at each corrugated line that way they more naturally curve in a circle. Or else you’ll have kinks and all of the cardboard won’t sit flush against itself like the photo in the DIY instructions. Does that make any sense? Sort of like this: http://www.rootsimple.com/2011/08/homemade-cat-scratcher/ There’s nothing wrong with this kitty scratcher. Just something to consider, if you’re expecting yours to come out looking exactly like the DIY photo.

Adding the cardboard strips started getting a little tedious after a while for us both.

Keep in mind the cardboard you want to use for the final outside layer. I had a bunch of LootCrate boxes to use up, and I think they made it look really cool! If you don’t know what LootCrate is, it’s basically a themed-monthly subscription of geeky goodies. I’ve received some really cool collectible figurines and t-shirts. It’s a lot of fun getting it in the mail!

Mold Making Adventures

Like every new project I want to tackle, it takes me a million years to even get started.  I’ve been researching mold-making as an alternative to hand-sculpting each and every figurine I make.  For the designs I recreate over and over, I wanted a better way to reproduce the base figure so I could be sure I was making batches in as uniform a size as I could.  Plus, casting the figurines in resin instead of clay would produce some very durable figures.  I’m pretty excited about that.  Not to mention it would cut down on my sculpting time, leaving me open to work on new designs as well!

Waiting 6+ hours for the silicone rubber mold to set really tested my patience. It was like waiting for a cake to rise.  I kept poking the tops.  “Is it done yet? Is it done yet?? How bout now???”

And TA-DA! It worked! The silicone rubber molds came out great and I quickly mixed up a batch of plastic liquid concoction to pour into the molds. Less than 20 minutes later and I have some new friends. The plastic recreated versions are on the left of each. I decided to make a mold of my pocket kitty, a raindrop and a larger regular kitty. The larger kitty size is rarely available in my shop, except for custom wedding cake topper orders, where they wanted something slightly larger for their cake. I’m excited to begin offering these in the shop soon and more often!

My army is growing!