Styrofoam craft in the form of a bird to decorate trees in the country
To decorate tree branches, you can effortlessly make birds with your own hands. To do this, you need to take a small flat piece of foam. Using a stencil, draw the shape of a bird on it. Cut it out with a sharp utility knife. Apply a layer of facade finishing putty on all sides. Leave to dry for several hours. Then, after the first layer of putty dries, apply 2-3 more layers. After the final drying, process all the roughness with sandpaper. Then you can start drawing a picture on the finished shape of the bird with facade water-dispersion paint with a color scheme of the required color. This paint will protect the foam frame from the effects of varnish. As a result, after the drawing has completely dried, the finished craft is varnished in several layers. The finished bird is firmly fixed on the tree.
Cheerful snowman
To make a snowman out of foam with your own hands for the New Year 2020, you will need a minimum of time. But the created craft will decorate the room and enrich it with a pleasant good-natured mood.
This will require:
- Styrofoam balls;
- beads;
- felt-tip pen;
- colored paper;
- Scissors;
- Glue;
- A piece of cloth.
Progress:
- For this product, you should purchase styrofoam balls, which are sold in all needlework stores. For the base of the snowman, you need to take 3 balls, and small balls can be used from small items. Between themselves, all parts must be fastened together with glue.
- Then you need to decorate the toy by drawing eyes, mouth and nose on it. From colored paper, you should make a hat for a snowman. And the fabric will serve to create mittens and a scarf. If desired, the snowman can be decorated with tinsel. A beautiful toy is ready for home decoration. In such a simple and affordable way, you can make a wonderful craft from foam for the New Year 2020 with your own hands with your children.
Step by step video of making a foam snowman
If you follow this master class step by step, you will get a craft in the form of a foam lamb. It is based on very few materials, and only a few minutes are spent on work. A simple and beautiful handmade decoration for the New Year 2020 will outshine everything around.
This will require:
- Styrofoam;
- Glue;
- Satin ribbons;
- Ready eyes;
- colored paper;
- Scissors;
- Cardboard.
Progress:
- First you need to gut a piece of foam into small pieces.
- They need to be glued onto a pre-cut oval. This detail will be the body of the lamb.
- Then you should cut out the head of the toy from cardboard and stick it on the body. The product will be even more beautiful if purchased eyes and a nose are used to decorate it.
- Narrow satin ribbons glued to the back of the lamb will be used as the legs of the craft.
- A small nose should be cut out of colored paper and glued on. If you attach a rope to a lamb, you get a beautiful Christmas tree toy for the New Year 2020, made by yourself in a fairly short time.
Video: master class on making a foam sheep
Manufacturing process
For the production of foam at home, there is a special technology that must be followed in order to be successful. In addition, special equipment is required. The basis is a building material called polystyrene.
Stage 1
Foaming of polystyrene and processing under the influence of high temperatures. Raw materials are placed in a special container, after which, under the influence of high temperatures, polystyrene granules increase. In home production, this process takes only 3-5 minutes and is carefully monitored by workers. You need to use special equipment.
Stage 2
The result of the first stage can be drops of moisture that form on the surface of the granules. It is removed by drying. Drying at home takes place under the action of hot air. This period lasts about 4 minutes.
Stage 3
The aging process can be up to 6 days. Its flow rate depends on the size of the granules and the ambient temperature. During this period, the granules should fill all the airless space. This step does not require special equipment.
Stage 4
At this stage, the formation of granules into the final form begins. This process at home requires special equipment. Granules are fed into the block mold, which, under the influence of high temperatures, acquire the desired shape. This is done quickly, in 7-10 minutes.
Stage 5
When the blocks have acquired the required shape, they are sorted and stored. After that, the plates are cut in thicknesses of 20, 30, 40, 50 and 100 mm. Most often, blocks of this thickness are used.
The foam production technology is not so complicated, the main thing is to purchase all the necessary equipment for manufacturing at home. All stages are carefully controlled by workers. In order to make high-quality foam at home, you should work hard and invest some money in the business.
Features of foam for crafts in the country
Before you start making crafts from foam, you should carefully study its properties. Styrofoam is very light, so it will not be difficult to process it. Styrofoam figures are either firmly fixed in the place where they are planned to be placed in the garden, or they are weighted down with cement. Polyfoam does not react when interacting with cement, gypsum, asphalt, roofing material. It is also almost unaffected by ammonia, mineral and organic acids. Foam figures are easy to fasten together. However, when choosing paints and varnishes, one should take into account the fact that many technical liquids, such as acetone, benzene, dichloroethane, can destroy the foam.
Disadvantages of foam
Confidence in the correctness of the choice comes when the consumer is familiar with the negative aspects of using foam.
Styrofoam is a combustible material
Although the descriptions of foam plastic may differ, be aware that it is not able to withstand fire and, with prolonged interaction with it, turns into a liquid mass. With this in mind, the owner must make every effort to keep the fire as far away from him as possible. Otherwise, it will be incredibly difficult to correct the situation.
For this reason, foam plastic is not suitable for finishing a ventilated facade. Here he will be provided with a constant flow of air, and between the insulator and the surface of the facade there will be an unfilled space, which will only contribute to good combustion.
Styrofoam releases hazardous substances
Over time, the foam begins to have a negative impact on the health of others due to the formation of a harmful compound - styrene monomer. When using several sheets of foam in a room without ventilation, an unpleasant smell can be felt pretty soon. Because of this, other materials should be chosen for the role of an insulator for residential premises.
This feature of the foam is worth remembering during the warming of the bath. This procedure should be carried out in such a way as to exclude the effect of high temperature on the foam, otherwise visiting it will not bring benefits, but great harm.
Styrofoam is hygroscopic
This quality refers to the ability to absorb moisture. Although opinions on this matter may vary, this feature is typical for foam. For this reason, this material should not be used as an insulator when working in a damp, cold basement.It is advisable to abandon its use and replace it with extruded polystyrene foam. It shows resistance to moisture absorption due to the presence of a different internal structure.
You can verify this by conducting the following experiment: take a piece of regular foam and extruded plastic and place both in water. After a while, check how much their humidity has changed. The first will become wet, which will add weight, and the other will retain its moisture content.
Styrofoam works as a vapor barrier
During the development of the project and the construction of the facility, this feature of the foam should be taken into account, because of which it will not be a good choice. First of all, its use is dangerous when building houses based on polystyrene foam blocks alone.
Being in the room, we fill it not only with air, but also with heated water vapor, which should not linger inside the room. As steam accumulates, it moves up and to the sides, looking for a way to go outside. This problem is solved by the ceiling and walls, which require the ability to "breathe". If at the construction stage thermal insulation was performed using expanded polystyrene, care should be taken to create high-quality forced ventilation. If you neglect this advice, then all winter the windows will be covered with condensate, and an increased level of humidity will be observed in the room itself.
Styrofoam is a good home for mice
Many owners have been convinced of this. Styrofoam can become a home for rodents for many years. After all, for this it has all the necessary properties: perfectly retains heat, has a soft structure and provides reliable protection. It is possible to prevent the colonization of polystyrene by mice if you do not give them the opportunity to arrange their dwelling in this insulation. To do this, the material should be covered with mineral wool or metal inserts. If the smell of the first will scare away rodents, then the second will become an insurmountable barrier for them. The use of extruded polystyrene foam and without special measures ensures that mice will not start in it.
Thus, the foam, along with the pluses, has a number of important disadvantages that cannot be ignored. And although it seems to be an attractive option as an insulator, one should always be aware of the threats that it can create for a person. Therefore, before leaving a choice on it, you should assess the risks.
Summing up
Styrofoam is a wonderful and versatile material. It can be used in a wide variety of areas. Its main advantage is cheapness, lightness, immunity to moisture and excellent performance of noise reduction and sound insulation. And the fact that it can be reused makes the material simply indispensable in construction. So if you have a small amount of Styrofoam that is just lying around, why not give it a new life? After processing, it can be used as a dry insulation. And if you think carefully, then there are a lot of use cases.
We meet with such material as polystyrene almost every day. Its use is very common. It makes an ideal insulation, and it also very often plays the role of a buffer in the packaging of various goods.
There are many types of this material. More details can be found on the website http://dnplast.dp.ua/, where you can immediately buy the required amount of such a product.
