I Spy Cup

Have you seen these I Spy bags going around Etsy lately? They're these little fabric pocket thingys that have little trinkets hidden in them. Kids can spend hours playing with them as they hunt for treasures. I have several friends who keep them in the car for long car rides or boring doctor visits. They're really cute, but kind of pricey for us.

Recently a friend pointed me to this blog where a mom made her own I Spy jar. Nifty! I had been looking for something like this for Preston for our upcoming road trip. However, I had visions of that heavy glass jar laying in a million pieces on the pavement at the first pit stop. Not good.

Ingenuity struck and I came up with my very own version: The I Spy Cup.

I remembered I had a plastic travel coffee mug that I had purchased at Dollar Tree (yes, for a dollar) for another project that didn't happen. This particular mug allows you to remove the portion that holds the liquid so that you can insert your own customized liner. (Cute idea, just never got around to doing it. Besides I don't drink coffee and the mug is too small for my iced tea addiction.)

Here's what it looked like with the liner removed.

(As you can see I already cut it, I forgot to take a picture before I got started.)

First I needed to remove the "cup" portion so that I could preserve the lid. This way just by simply unscrewing the top I can fill it (and refill it) easily. Using a razor knife I cut around the cup.

Once the cup is removed it was time to find the trinkets to put in it. After a quick search around the house I was able to find several small pieces to fit inside my I Spy Cup. Here are just a few of the things I found: game pieces, a marble, a bouncy ball, an eraser, buttons and some jewelry beads.

I just filled up the remainder of the cup with rice(uncooked of course) and now Preston has his very own I Spy Cup!

I can't wait to use this on our next road trip. I'm thinking just about the time the DVD player has lost it's appeal would be the perfect opportunity to surprise Preston.



I even took a picture of each of the hidden treasures and made Bingo cards. I printed two different ones so that he and Daddy can play together.