How to Entertain a Child with a Metal Detector

A metal detector for treasure hunting is a great idea. Who doesn’t enjoy sparking the interest of children?  Looking for a fun, screen-free way to spark your child’s curiosity?  You may remember my last post about the Spider-Man gift wrap.  In that package was a metal detector. 

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Although our 9-year-old grandson, Lane, has enjoyed the National Geographic metal detector, he has only found a few screws and nails.  That gave me the idea to create a tin of old toys and things for him to discover.

Here’s an idea for treasure hunting for kids in the backyard.  By being selective with vintage items, you can teach kids a little about history with metal detecting.

Brainstorming

At that point, my imagination went wild.  I needed an old metal tin.  What would a young boy back in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s tuck away in a tin to be discovered later?  My first thoughts were marbles, a yo-yo, some old coins, and a Matchbox car.

A letter telling why a little boy gathered all these things, tucked them in a metal tin, and buried them took form.  I searched AI for some more ideas.  AI echoed a lot of my ideas and added more to create a convincing letter.

Then I ran it by Dave and some of our kids, who added some ideas.  Lastly, I discussed it with Jon-Michael, who is my usual brainstorming partner. He said, “No.”

He said the items were a good idea, but ditch the letter, and let that little boy’s imagination go wild.  Dang, he had a point.

Finding the Old Items

I don’t even remember where I found four little packs of vintage cards.  But I’ve had them for many years.  The Snap cards with a turtle on the package seemed a perfect addition for this project.

Vintage Doral Cigarette Tin

Vintage Knife from A Muze Me Antiques & Treasures.

Dave and I went on an impromptu trip to the beach last week with our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.  In A Muse Me Antiques & Treasures in Cedar Point, North Carolina, Dave and I found an old Doral cigarette tin.  It is actually from the late 1990’s, not exactly the right time frame, but we thought it would be perfect for this project.  There are no dates on the tin.  

Once we returned home, we visited KNR Treasures in Burlington, KY.  We have a stash of marbles at home, but they are all solid colors from games.  I wanted the old cat eye marbles I remember from my childhood.  Dave spotted a plastic container filled with cat eye marbles!

Dave also found an old fishing reel from the early 1960’s.

On a different note, I’m always looking for Santas to add to my collection.  The Santa salt-and-pepper set was a whopping $2.00!  The ceramic houses were a dollar each.  I have an idea for using these… You’ll have to come back for that craft!

We also visited an antique shop in Aurora, Indiana.  At Second Time Around, Dave found an old knife with ‘The Catholic Youth’ on it.  In the glass case in front of him, I spotted a wooden yo-yo!  Perfect!

Cotton Fabric Wrap

I have a couple of pieces of white cotton fabric to lay over delicate fabrics when I’m ironing.  One of these seemed a perfect piece to weather a little before wrapping up the vintage pieces.

You can see the edges are pinked on this piece of cloth.  I cut a small slit along each edge, and then tore the pinked edge away.

Tear off the pinked edges.

Stain the cotton fabric with leftover coffee.

Use Distress Oxides to age the edges.

Spray the antiquing onto one corner. Lay another wet corner on top of it.

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After soaking the cloth in leftover coffee, I placed the wet, coffee-stained cloth on a piece of plastic.  Then I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxides to add some deeper aging to the cotton cloth.  I first sprayed a corner, then laid another wet corner on top of it.  That helped spread the distress oxides.

Wherever you spray, lay some of the wet cotton over it to diffuse the distress oxides.  Then, hang the cloth to dry.

Items for this Time Capsule Tin

Believe it or not, we had two old cars from 1967.  It took me a while to find them, but ultimately, I did.  Dave supplied an old railroad key.  The mismatched dice were bought along with the marbles.  Dave supplied the 6 Lincoln wheat pennies.  You can see the wooden yo-yo and the knife below.

Matchbox cars from 1967

Old railroad key, die, wheat pennies, vintage cars, yo-yo, and knife.

I found a little drawstring bag to hold the marbles.  We almost forgot!  Dave has a collection of Indian arrowheads.  He offered up three of them for this project.

Tin and vintage finds for time capsule.

Almost forgot three arrowheads.

Wrap the Vintage Items

Lay the cloth on a hard surface and place the items in a row in the middle of it.  Fold the long ends of the fabric over the items.  

Then, fold the bottom edge upward over the items and fold the top edge downward.  Then wrap the package with jute twine and place the package in the tin.