8.2.19

Raining hearts - Valentine's craft for kids


There really is no end to what you can do with cardboard tubes! They're so amazingly versatile - just look at these little hearts. Made from slices of toilet paper rolls simply squeezed into shape. Very satisfying and quick to do, and perfect for Valentine's Day.

You will need:
Toilet paper rolls (or kitchen paper rolls)
Paint
Scissors
String/yarn and a needle
White card (or painted cereal box card)
Sticking tape
Cotton wool (optional)

1. Choose colours for your hearts and start painting. Paint the inside as well as the outside of the tube. And if you're only making a few hearts in each colour, there's no need to paint the whole tube. (You could paint each end different colours if you only have a few tubes spare)



2. When the paint is dry, flatten the tubes with the palm of your hand and press along the two creases.



3. Cut across the flattened tubes, and make each slice roughly about a cm wide.


4. Cut a cloud shape from some white card or cereal box card (ours is about 28cm/11in. wide)


5. To make the heart shape, pinch one of the creases (see pic below) and push the other crease down, towards it, then give this crease a good pinch while you press the top part of the heart into shape with your fingers. Takes a bit of practice, but once you've got the hang of it you'll be making them in a flash.



*We have threaded our hearts together, which needs to be done by a grown up, but if you'd rather not do this, you could stick the hearts onto long strips of paper instead.*

6. We used some white yarn and a needle, and threaded it down through the middle of the heart at the top (leave a good tail to attach to the back of the cloud), and then through the point at the bottom. 

(Use modelling clay to push against, if you're finding it hard to make holes in the card)

We threaded three yellow, green, blue and orange hearts on separate strings and four red ones.


7. When you're finished, tie a knot below the bottom heart, and make sure your hearts are spaced out evenly along the yarn (remember to leave a good tail to stick behind the cloud) 

8. Use sticky tape to attach the threaded hearts to the back of the cloud. To help with spacing the strings evenly, stick down the ones at each end first (blue and green here), then stick the red hearts halfway between, before adding the other two either side.



9. Covering the cloud with cotton wool looks great too. Make sure you tease it out though, so it doesn't look too lumpy.









28.1.19

Paper roll heart posy

toilet paper roll flowers

This hearty little flower craft is based on a similar one we made a while ago with tissue paper flowers. It's a great project because you can make a pretty posy quickly, with little fuss - all you need is a toilet paper tube and some coloured paper.

25.1.19

Heart puzzle picture - Valentine's craft for kids


Following on from the Christmas card puzzle pictures, here's a heart shaped one! We used a mixture of Christmas and Birthday cards and tried to stick to reddish/pinky colours (sort of!). Again, this is a great craft for practicing scissor skills. Vary the number of sections to suit the ability of your little maker.

You will need:
Cereal box card
Pencil
Scissors
Selection of old Christmas cards
Black pen
Glue stick
White paper or card

1. Fold a piece of card in half and draw half a heart on the fold. Make it a decent size - ours is about 20cm (8in.)  Cut out and open up. Use this as a template if you're going to make more than one.



2. With a pencil, divide your heart into sections and number them. We went for six pieces, but best to just do a few for younger makers, and keep the shapes simple. Cut into pieces.


3. Choose the cards you want to use. We picked ones with pink and red shades in them.

Place one of your pieces on the part of the card you like, and carefully draw around it (you will probably find using a black pen works best, as a lot of cards are too shiny for pencil. You could copy the shapes on the back instead, but we found this made it harder to get the part of the picture we wanted)


4. Label the back of the card pieces with the corresponding numbers too, to keep track of the shapes you've cut out.

5. Muddle them up and get puzzling!


6. When you're ready to make a collage, use a glue stick to glue the pieces to some paper or card. Leaving a small gap between the pieces looks great (and is forgiving!).


7. We made another one with a heart in the middle - using a small heart template (see Step 1)







4.1.19

Christmas card puzzle pictures!



Hang on to some of those old Christmas cards! So worth it for all kinds of craft projects. I've a box of old cards and use them throughout the year for various things - the more colourful and sparkly the better.
This project helps with scissors skills and puzzles, and ends up as a lovely, bright collage. Sort of three for the price of one!

You will need:
Cereal box card
Pencil
Scissors
Selection of old Christmas cards
Black pen
Glue stick
White paper or card

1. Draw some simple shapes on cereal box card. Make them a decent size - ours are about 15cm/20cm wide (6/8in.) With the symmetrical shapes like the heart and fish, fold the card in half and draw half the shape on the fold, then cut out and open up.


2. Use these shapes as templates (if you want to make more than one), and draw around them on another piece of cereal box card.

With a pencil, divide your chosen shape into sections. This is completely up to you, you could go for uniform pieces, like the one below, or completely random. You could have lots of sections too, but with little makers, it's best to keep the puzzle and the cutting simple. Our fish have six pieces, and it helps to number them.



3. Choose the cards you want to use. We arranged our cards roughly into colour tones - blues and greens, orange and reds, and pale colours.

Place one of your pieces on the part of the card you like (go for glitter!), and carefully draw around it (you will probably find using a black pen works best, as a lot of cards are too shiny for pencil. You could copy the shapes on the back instead, but we found this made it harder to get the part of the picture we wanted)




We divided our bird into 5 sections - with a wing shape in the middle.



4. Label the back of the card pieces with the corresponding numbers too, to keep track of the shapes you've cut out.

5. Muddle them up and get puzzling!


6. When you're ready to make your collage, use a glue stick to glue the pieces to some paper or card. Leaving a small gap between the pieces looks great (and is forgiving!).

7. Use a black pen to dot on eyes, or hole punch a dark coloured Christmas card and glue on eyes. We added little hole punched air bubbles for our fish, and you could add lots more to your collage, like extra Christmas card sealife and maybe some wavy, tissue paper seaweed?

We added an orange triangle beak to our bird and you could cut out some legs, or maybe a branch and some leaves from green coloured cards? What about a Christmas card nest!

Lots of possibilities - see where your imagination takes you.

I'm keeping the heart puzzle picture for next month..





This one has a few more pieces, and we added fins.



11.12.18

Simple cork craft for Christmas!


...well, it is that time of year when there might be a few corks knocking about!

This is a very simple Santa craft, based on the gnomes from 'Brian the Lion goes into Space' - so if you'd like to make one, follow the step-by-step instructions for a gnome here.


The only changes are:

Paint the top part of your cork a pinky colour for the face (mix a little red with lots of white, a spot of yellow and tiny touch of blue).

Either paint the bottom part red, or use red paper. Instead of blue feet/shoes, use black paper (or colour-in some plain paper).


For a little extra detail, tease out a thin strip of cotton wool and glue it around the bottom of the cork. Use a black pen to draw a belt around his middle. Add a tiny ball of cotton wool to the top of Santa's red hat.




6.12.18

How to make the gnomes from Brian the Lion

It's the gnomes turn to take centre stage!



There's already a Brian the Lion tutorial here, and this project shows you how to make the little blue, beardy gnomes that Brian meets during his adventures in my book, 'Brian the Lion goes into Space.'
They're very simple to do - just corks and cotton wool!

You will need:
Cork (wine cork shape or cava/champagne shape)
Paint
Scissors
Blue paper (or plain paper coloured blue)
Cotton wool
Glue stick
PVA craft glue
Black felt-tip pen or gel pen

1. First, paint your cork light blue (mix a little blue with a lot of white) The champagne style corks have an obvious head shape.


2. Cut a strip of blue paper (or colour-in plain paper) Make it few cm's wide, so it's about half the length of the cork. Cut a piece that's long enough to wrap around the cork with a little overlap.


3. If you have a glue stick, rub this over your strip of paper and glue in place. With craft (pva) glue, it might be easier to brush a thin layer on the bottom half of the cork and wrap your paper piece around it, adding a tiny dab more glue where the paper overlaps.

4. Cut another thinner strip for the arms - it needs to go around the back of the cork with the arm length even on both sides. You can round off the strip ends for hands if you want, or leave them as they are. Glue in place.



5. For the gnome's shoes, place the cork on the paper and draw around it, but extend your circle shape out a bit at the front (see pic)




Cut out, and mark a 'V' shape in the middle of extra front bit that sticks out, to define the shoes. Snip out the 'V'. Glue the rest under the cork.

6. For the gnome's beard, take a small piece of cotton wool - we unwrapped a cotton ball and used one end of it. Decide how long you want your gnome's beard to be, then gently pull a hole in the cotton wool just above your chosen beard size.


7. Brush a layer of craft glue over the top and sides of the gnome's head and a little on his front, below his head, but leave a space for his face. Carefully press the cotton wool into place, around the face. Try not to get glue on your hands or his beard will stick to your fingers! Gently tease the cotton wool down at the back and sides, to cover the head, and cut any extra off. Press and trim the front too, until you're happy.






For the gnome's hat, draw around something like the base of a small glass, or jar or beaker, and cut the circle out. Fold it in half and cut along the crease. Rub or dab some glue along half the straight edge and carefully fold and bring the sides together to make a small cone shape. Press with your fingers until the glue holds.







You could glue the hat on, or leave it, so your gnome can take a nap.

Because of course, they sleep on their heads...