Valentine's Thaumatropes

This Instructable covers how I made two Valentine's Day thaumatropes for my girlfriend instead of a card.

What is a thaumatrope? Here's the wiki article en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaumatrope, but basically it's a disc with strings attached. On either side of the disc is an image. By twisting the strings you can make the disc turn over. When the disc turns fast enough the two images merge into one through persistence of vision. It was a popular toy in Victorian times.

My first Valentine's thaumatrope has one figure (me) on one side and another (my girlfriend) on the other. When the disc spins the two separate figures embrace.



The second thaumatrope is a little bit messier, but it still has a lovely message on it, and that's what really counts.

Step 1 Gather your materials and tools

You don't need much:

-Nice stiff card
-String or two rubber bands
-A ruler
-A pencil
-Scissors
-A hole punch (you could manage without this, it's just neater)
-Lots of colourful crayons and pens (red is a classic)
-A CD (love songs would be appropriate. I used a linux liveCD)

Comments

[MFJones]

I totally stole your idea from the 2nd one to make a thaumatrope for my wife. Thanks for the videos!

[eclecticderby]

haha it a great idea, but i am really bad at drawing...=/ is there any alternatives than drawing? how bout printing?

[ChrysN]

That's so sweet!

[Helixthecat]

Thanks.

[Lettucehead]

 That's real cool! I'm going to try one of those!

[Helixthecat]

Thanks. Have fun making yours. I'd love to see how it turns out.