9.11.17

Pop-up card that makes a scene... crafts for kids


Looks familiar?.... yep, it's a tubescape with a new identity.. I just thought a pop-up card (or decoration?) sounded a bit more user friendly.  In all honesty, I'm not completely sure what to call them, so, grateful for any ideas! Ones that don't include 'toilet paper roll', which doesn't always sound so good, when followed by the words 'card' or 'gift'...

Though, to be fair, that is exactly what they are, and they do make sweet (non-wobbly) decorations. This one was inspired by Blue Planet 2! It's a thank you card for a friend, with room on the back for a short message.

'We had a whale of a time!'

Corny or what?

You'll need:
Toilet paper tube
Pencil
Scissors
Paint
Craft glue or glue stick
Sticky tape
Sheet of plain paper
Black pen
Glitter (optional)

1. Flatten the tube with your hand and draw a wavy line (for the sea) across it, about a third of the way up.

2. Cut down the creases, either side, and along the wavy line. Keep the piece of card you've cut away.


3. Mix some blue and white paint for the sky and brush it on the exposed, inside part of the tube (make sure you go right down), and then do splodges of blue and white paint for the sea on the front part. Paint the spare piece of card dark grey for the whale. (We just added some black to our blue and white paint)




4. While that's drying, draw round a small circle (we used the lid of a vanilla essence bottle) on some yellow paper (or plain, and colour in with a yellow felt-tip pen) Add an orange felt-tip swirl if you want.

5. When the paint is dry, glue the sun onto the sky. Draw a whale on the spare painted card. To make the cutting out easier, we drew the body and the tail separately, and extended them at the bottom so there's extra to attach behind the sea.


6. Draw a spout of water on some plain paper, with a bit extra at the bottom so it's easier to attach, and cut out. Or, for a simpler option, cut thin strips of plain paper or tissue paper to glue behind the whale's hump. We added a bit of glitter to ours. Any excuse!



7. Glue the whale's body and tail behind the waves. Once they're in place, use a bit of sticky tape to keep them there... Then glue the water spout behind the hump and draw on an eye with a black pen.


8. Cut a rectangular shaped piece of plain paper, big enough to fit on the back of the tube. Write your message and use a glue stick to glue in place. Unfortunately we sent ours before I remembered I hadn't taken a picture of the message on the back! But sure, there'll be more - we have a few Christmas ideas...