Tire Swing

I want to make Emma a tire swing. I've been seeing these swings on various sites around the web that are tires cut into the shape of a horse, a dragon, or a motorcycle. They come in many shapes. I found these basic instructions for a horse. Or you can click on the image to the right to be able to purchase the dragon from Shop.com. Buying them is of course the easy way. And might be safer, as cutting tires is not an easy business and that knife can slip. I've cut many and may use the plans to make my own, but if I had the money, I'd much rather buy it. It is not easy to manipulate the tires.

I think Emma would really get a kick out of having her own horse in the yard. This also is an easy way to make use of a garbage item that we have far too much of in the land fills. There are a lot of ways to turn your tires into something useful. But most of them work better with non-steel belted tires. Most tires these days have steel in them, so that makes these kinds of projects much harder to work with.

Here are a few of my favorite projects for making things from tires:

• Sandals last a really long time when made out of tires. In some countries, these are very common shoes. I think I'd want to wear socks or moccasins with them, but they will last forever.
• Flowering Tire Pot - This flower pot looks like a flower too. I've seen them nicely painted and can be quite nice.
• Hanging Bird Flower Pot - I thought I'd found plans for this at one time, but now all I can find it this place selling the pot. It is cool though.