Brian the Lion paper plate and mask - World Book Day

This is a very quick and easy paper plate craft that works perfectly well with my book, 'Brian the Lion goes into Space'. You can either leave it as a paper plate picture or make it into a mask. Could be handy with World Book Day around the corner!

You will need:

Large paper plate

Paint

A bowl/side plate

Scissors

Black pen (like a Sharpie)

Nail scissors (optional - adult supervision needed)

Elastic (optional)

Old pair of glasses frames (optional)

Sticky tape (optional)

1. Paint the centre of the plate yellow, all the way up to the bumpy rim - it really doesn't need to be neat!

2. Once the yellow has dried a bit, find a bowl or side plate that covers most of the centre of the paper plate. Then, keep your hand on the bowl or plate while painting the brown mane around it. Make sure to go right up to the edge of the bowl. (Make brown by mixing a little red with yellow and adding a dab of blue until you're happy with the shade). Don't be tempted to take the bowl or plate off too quickly!

3. Once dry, remove the bowl and you should have a lovely, crisp yellow circle.

Now it's time to cut the mane. First, make two cuts opposite each other, just up to the edge of the yellow circle.

 4. Then make another two cuts opposite each other, halfway between the ones you've just made.

5. Keep snipping halfway between your cuts, and work all the way around, until the cuts get closer together and you're happy with your mane. Doing the cutting like this keeps the mane even - it is also good scissor practice and it helps kids start to make judgements about space and distance.

6. Use a black pen like a Sharpie to draw on Brian's face. As a guide, the eyes here are about 6/7cm a part.

7. If you want to make him into a paper plate mask, then a grown up with have to make holes through the eyes with nail scissors. It helps to put some modelling clay behind the eyes, so there's something to push into. (Keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.) Make the holes a decent size, so it's easy to see out. You could make some slits in the nose too, if you want to.

8. I think the best way is to use sticky tape to stick an old glasses frame to the back of the mask. Very quick to do! And it keeps the mask nice and flat when you wear it.

9. You could attach some elastic to the mask instead, but the sides will tend to bend around the wearer's head.

Make holes at the side of his face, close to or just inside the mane. I found some of my son's paper reinforcement stickers and stuck them around the holes at the back.

Once you've knotted and tied the elastic to one side, get the mask wearer to hold it to their face while you gauge how much elastic you need on the other side. Hold the elastic at the chosen spot, and mark with black pen. Now thread it through the hole, tying a knot or two on or as near as possible to your black mark.
We painted over the knots on the front, so you don't see them so clearly.

 Think the mask would look better on a smaller child! Mine are all getting so big now..

Giving a hoot about dressing-up days

I'd hazard a guess that for many parents, events like World Book Day are less about the joy of reading, and more about the angst of finding a 'favourite character' costume for the kids to wear to school. And preferably not Harry Potter or Hermione…though you can't knock the quick-delve-in-the-drawers-or-dressing-up-box option.
In my daughter's class last World Book Day there were nine Harry Potters and 4 Matildas (blue dress and a hair band) - I know this, because she was one of them.

On the whole, I tend to stubbornly steer clear of competitive dressing-up - apart from possibly Mr Twit's Beard a few years ago. I did get quite carried away with Mr Twit's Beard!

But then the other day, I got one of those forlorn looks from my daughter that just made me sort of crumple inside.
Her class had to dress up in something purple for a special party at her new school - I was chuffed to bits to find a purple cardy and a dress with purplish flowers.
She wasn't so chuffed…especially when she saw her friends glammed up in sparkly lycra, Strictly style. That's when I got the look.
The best dressed prize went to an impressive bunch of grapes.

BAsically I was shamed into action. So, when a letter came home about the school's book week with a dressing-up day thrown in for good measure, I thought I'd pull out all the stops.
By the way, don't be worrying you've inadvertently missed something: the official World Book Day isn't for months - this just seems to be a warm up!

Anyway, we settled on Hedwig, Harry Potter's snowy owl - somewhat random, and a rather liberal interpretation of the 'favourite character' theme, but it fitted with my 'make stuff for school rule', which is, only things I've already got at home are allowed. Definitely no buying.

I had a sheet, a balloon and plenty of newspaper.

The dressing-up day is tomorrow and I still haven't finished ….if it works out I'll post a pic!

Make Mr Twit's Beard for World Book Day

I've never had to think about the kids dressing up as a favourite character for World Book Day. Their school seemed to buck the trend and just didn't bother...until now that is.
So over the past few days I've experienced the same kind of last minute fretting and dressing up box delving I'm sure many parents are well used to. I've heard tales from friends of things getting wildly competitive, with elaborate hand stitched costumes, and jaw-dropping make up, but can't imagine that happening at our little village school. I don't think? Anyway, after all kinds of ideas, I managed to steer my three towards Simple.
The eldest opted for teenage spy, Alex Rider - so just himself really, plus cool shades; the youngest chose Angelina Ballerina - ballet stuff with paper ears attached to a headband, and the 8 year old came up with Roald Dahl's Mr Twit, because that's what he's reading at the moment.

And Mr Twit is all about the beard.

We made ours out of a cereal packet.
I lightly folded the card and drew half a beard, before cutting it out so it looked even.

It's important to leave longish sideburns, because these are going to be folded over and stapled onto the arms of a pair of glasses. We used an old pair of 3D ones from the bottom of the dressing up box. Now, strictly speaking Mr Twit doesn't wear glasses, but it seemed like a good way to keep the beard in place.
Worth trying it for size at this stage, before getting to work...

Angry little elf..

After painting it black, we scrunched up bits of black paper and stuck them on. Tissue paper would have been better, but I could only find brown, so we have a two-tone beard.

Next, the fun part - making lots of disgusting things to attach to Mr Twit's beard. In the book it says, '..there were always hundreds of bits of old breakfasts and lunches and suppers sticking to the hairs around his face'. And mentions stuff like scrambled eggs, tomato ketchup, minced chicken livers, a mouldy old cornflake and the slimy tail of a tinned sardine.  Mmmm, lovely..

Mr Twit's beard

Our sardine tail is card covered in tin foil, a big blob of paint for ketchup, broken crisps and cornflakes, little bits of old sponge for scrambled egg - and then we added our own things, like some spaghetti, baked beans cut out of foam stickers and little balls of green plasticine for peas.

'..because of all this, Mr Twit never went really hungry. By sticking out his tongue and curling it sideways to explore the hairy jungle around his mouth, he was always able to find a tasty morsel here and there to nibble on...'

Suitably yucky I hope!

Linking up with Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty