Anti-Boredom pocket kit

This Instructable will show you how to put together a pocket size kit that will save you from the boredom of any potentially snoozing situation, for example Doctor office waiting rooms, Long concert lines, Bad dates, Most church services and the list goes on and on.

Step 1 Gather the goods!

What I put in my Anti-Boredom kit may be different then what you would put. Here's what I gathered for mine (my kids helped).

The tin is an Altoids tin that I painted Black.

Inside:

-Tiny deck of cards
-Small vial of touchable bubbles
-Two tubes of plastic bubbles
-Tiny colored pencils
-Note pad
-String for cats cradle
-Quarter to vend treats (a dollar fits nicely too for bigger treats)
-Balloon (for playing don't touch the ground or keep away)


Other ideas: Tiny harmonica, Fortune telling fish, Small sand timer for timing word games or how long you can hold your breath, Small deck of fortune telling cards (I saw some on ebay), Stickers, Small stencils and markers (sharpie makes a nice little marker that fits perfectly)


I bought all the things in my fun kit at local craft stores and party supply stores. They weren't hard to find. The note pad I made from paper and a staple gun.

Comments

[cgilbert8]

I always have some sort of goodies in my purse to keep me from getting bored. And my smart phone is the best thing ever. I have so many games on there that I am good - until the battery goes out. Usually in my purse I have at least one Star Wars related item (action figure, coins, etc) and an assortment of puzzle books, crayons, maybe a balloon. It changes periodically

[eneves]

What I did, is I used a handbag, and in it I put a toy car, a bunch of crayons and folded up paper, a chinese finger trap, mini cards, a bouncy ball, a small book, some string and beads, a homemade mini beauty kit (lip gloss, nail polish, chapstick, small jewlry, and small prefume bottle), some money, and a small snack. It works great for vacations!

[sapphireonyx100]

I normally don't have any pockets.I can't think of a way to add straps. Any ideas for how to easily and conveniently carry it around? I don't have an Altoids tin-I live in Japan. I used a Choco-Aid tin.

[ddoomed]

id add a little stretch strap and wear it as a bracelet or arm band :3

[thedubbedmime]

sure! find a small thin piece of metal and fold it in half (like a small metal ruler or even a paperclip will do). then use crazy glue or epoxy to glue it to the bottom. then just clip it on. ta-da!

[Puzzledd]

When my son was little and he wore clothes without pockets, I made a pouch out of felt (I think- or maybe an old, clean sock with a picture on it- cut off the foot and sew closed again)- then put on a piece of elastic to go around his waist - he could wear this "waist pocket" with any outfit.

[bubbalubba]

Nice idea.
Won't need it though, in our Apostolic Pentecostal churches in the U.S. Unfortunately many Church Services ARE boring. I think that's why the Pilgrims left the UK.
.

[threadbare]

Pentecostals know how to do it right! I'm Mormon and we're a quiet people when it comes time to worship. Our church hymns can drag on and on so I'm pack'n an Anti-Boredom kit for sure.

[bubbalubba]

lol, Many other places I could use this for. I like your product. Where to get the tiny deck of cards?

[sigma_shox]

some 99c stores have them, or in packs of cheap christmas crackers/

[bubbalubba]

Thank you.

[paracord junky]

You need to add a purple pencil and another quarter(can't get anything for 0.25 anymore). other than that it looks good

[rcsinc]

what about a flash drive?

[threadbare]

Great idea.

[kaheidt]

My anti-boredom kit consists of the following:
One (1) Droid-X
One (1) Toothpick (because whatever the Droid can't do, this probably can)

[A flyin muffin]

Just add a match and your kit is complete!

[mattbomb]

whats cats cradle. and how do you play it

[threadbare]

Cats cradle is a finger string game. It is difficult to just tell someone how to play. I did look up this website and it shows it pretty clearly. There are hundreds and hundreds of different string formations you can make. ... http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/book/chten_cats1105.htm

[kkarn]

Did you know Cat's cradle type string games are almost universal? From the Aleuts to Africa to Japan people have played with string for centuries. Japan has some awesome figures to make. If you look up cats cradle on you tube there are some pretty good videos of people making cool string figures.

I've read somewhere that Anthropologists used cats cradle to break the ice with their subjects in places like Torres Strait and Sub Saharan Africa.

[threadbare]

I did know that actually. I study textiles and actually bought a book on the Anthropology of it. When I first saw the book I thought it was just going to tell the different formations you can make but it was about the actual historical Anthropology of it. It blew my mind. Something I had played when I was little had this whole cool history behind it.

[mattbomb]

oh is it like yo thread a string through your fingers and stuff, i think i know what it is i saw some friends playing it

[tujoxi]

I also think it may be cool, to paint the tin with blackboard paint and throw some chalk in there. I'm a fan of drawing with chalk.

[hogey74]

Thats cool! You just need to fit in some sort of explosives or firecrackers and you're done :-)

[ivanadrian]

very clever idea~ X)

[Puzzledd]

Great idea - and very appealing! (Don't know about the mini-harmonica in church, tho) ;)
It's really good to see something for kids to play with that isn't electronic.
Little kids may like tiny cars/dolls in there.

[PikeMinnow]

If you know someone with a rivet gun you can buy a canvas strap and rivet it on.

[weibbed]

Add a couple of rubber bands to the tin, and you can put them around the open tin and "pluck" them for "music" . Try with different widths to see what different sounds they make.
You could add a mini wax tablet----buy a full size one at the dollar store and cut it down to make a bunch for a whole lot of tins. The dollar store also has those little maze toys where you move a BB around and I think they would be fun in a travel kit. They are usually found in the party aisle.

Or take advantage of the tins being metal and make small magnetic faces, the kind where you move iron filings around to create hair/beard/mustaches. I haven't tried to make one, but imagine that you could draw a face on the bottom of the tin and use a shallow piece of molded plastic packaging glued to the bottom of the tin with filings in it. The hard part would be finding the filings. Then use a magnet glued to a golf pencil to move the filings around. The golf pencil could double as a pencil! or as the stylus on the wax tablet. Maybe easier would be to draw the outline of a face and use magnetic business cards to make Mr. Potato Head -style face components.

Use magnetic business cards to make a tiny set of dominoes and play on the outside of the lid. Or make tiny magnetic poetry.

Paper dolls glued to magnets can be moved around the inside of the lid by using a magnet on the outside of the lid, so you can make them "dance" or "skate". You could also make a pop-up, fold-out dollhouse if you were insane enough to spend that kind of time designing one, which I probably am.

[porcupinemamma]

Threadbare you sound like a cool happenin' mom! weibbed- It's easy to see why you are part of the community. You are very creative. cool ideas

[imperio]

no credit card!
Imperio

[masnail]

My grandson loves little stickers but hates that you can only use them once. I put them on magnetic business cards and cut around them with scissors to make reusable magnets. You can also buy the magnetic sheets at craft stores. We store a set of tiny play "sticker magnets" in the Altoid tin and larger ones in Christmas cookie tins. Use caution carrying this in your purse or pocket or you may "wipe" a credit card. I once "wiped" my subway pass in D.C with a magnet tin in my pocket and almost couldn't get off the train. 8-)

[mbenner]

Didn't have time to read all of the comments so not sure if this was mentioned or not.... my kids and I use Altoids tins to make magnetic travel tic-tac-toe kits. You could easily add this to your list of things by using a sharpie to draw the board on the inside or outside of the tin. We used small magnets cut from those business card magnets that everyone seems to give out - stick perfectly to the tin!

[timnitro]

i would make fold out mini game boards

[sapphireonyx100]

Thanks for the advice!
I also found an Altoids tin.

[teslafan100]

cool 5/5 :)

[porcupinemamma]

I wonder if the Altoids makers have seen all the ingenious uses of their tins people in the Instructables community have come up with? Wait!! Do you think Altoids might sponsor a contest?

[mirastar]

they would have hundreds of entries on the first day lol

[threadbare]

If they did it would be great! But I kind of hope the prize isn't Altoids. I have gone through so many of those just to make the projects that I've made. I'm a little burnt out on those fantastic mints.

[userology]

But where in the world do you get them????  We used to have a couple at our house, but I've already used/lost them!  And now I don't know where to get them:(

[masnail]

If you are in the United States and anywhere near a "Dollar General Store", they usually have Altoids. Normally they are cheaper there than in the regular store and they normally have the cinnamon flavor [my favorite] which is hard to find. Might be available online. But there are lots of other container you can use. Maybe not this small. I used to have a metal cake pan with a sliding lid that we took in the car for our son. It had stuff like this has plus magnetic letters and shapes which stuck to the pan and lid. Cookie tins are also a good sub.

[mirastar]

well, i find them in the candy isle in my local store and at the check out at most stores i never buy them because my mom hates me getting them : /