8.5.20

Rose Bouquet fridge magnet - Mother's Day Craft




A simple and quick, and hopefully useful Mother's Day gift!

We made this two ways - rolling paper for the flowers and scrunching tissue paper - the second option is easier for littlies to do.

You will need:
Egg carton
Cereal box card (or similar)
Coloured paper (or painted plain paper)
Tissue paper (optional)
Craft glue
Paint
Scissors

1. First paint some cereal box card green and one of the egg cones blue or whatever colour you'd like your vase to be - paint some of the egg box lid too.

Putting the egg cone on a spare cone makes painting a lot easier (and a little less messy!)




2. Find something in the kitchen with a small round base to draw around. We used a spice pot. Cut out your circle.

We cut out two to show the different ways to make the flowers.


3. For the rolled roses, cut a strip of coloured paper (we chose red), about 16cm/6in. long and roughly 8cm/3in. wide. Put a little line of glue at the far end and start rolling, keeping it tight.


4. With good scissors, cut across your roll - this is best done by a grown-up - keep the pieces as thin/small as you can.


5. Paint some red splodges on your green circle, where you'd like the flowers to go.


6. Get on with making the vase while the paint dries, then dot some glue in the middle of each painted flower shape and add your little paper scrolls.


7. For an easier option, fold some tissue paper over a few times and cut out small squares (about 3cm/1in.) ). Then scrunch them up to make your blooms. Glue on the red paint marks, as before.



8. For the vase, cut the egg carton cone in half lengthways.


9. Then, trim away some of the side, so it's more even. Give it a press to push the sides out a little.



10. For the base of the vase, cut a triangle out of the spare egg carton card you've painted. Make the triangle quite flat and wide. Glue under the bottom of the vase. (The one on the right has tissue paper roses)

Glue the top of the vase to the back of your flowers.



11.  To make it into a fridge magnet, you'll probably need to glue some card to the top part of the vase first, so the magnet is at the right level. We used some strong clear glue (like UHU glue) to stick the magnet on. Or you could use a glue gun.




4.5.20

Cork Yoda fridge magnet - Star Wars craft


May the Fourth with you be! 

This little Yoda combines two of my favourite things to craft with - corks and egg cartons!

You will need:
Champagne/Sparkling wine cork
Egg carton
Paint
Black gel or marker pen
Craft glue
Strong glue, like UHU, or a glue gun
Brown paper or plain paper painted
Magnet (optional)

1. For his distinctive sticky out ears, cut out two long pointy triangle shapes from the egg carton lid. Glue them either side of the wider, top part of the cork, pointing forward. 

They will stick with PVA craft glue eventually, but easier and quicker to use a stronger clear glue or a glue gun if you have one. I don't have a glue gun and used UHU glue for bits like this.


2. When the glue has dried, bend the ears back into place.


3. Paint your Yoda's body green, plus some spare egg carton card for the hands and feet.

When dry, draw two hand shapes (see below) To cut out, cut around them roughly first, then snip out the zigzag bits, before cutting around the rest of the hand.


4. For the feet cut two short strips from the green card (place them under the cork body to make sure they're the right size and not too wide). Then, snip out a few zigzag triangles.

Glue the feet under the cork body.


5. His cloak is made from the middle part of an egg carton cone.  Once you've cut the cone out, cut the top off, just squeeze the cone flat and cut across the card. Press back into shape - the top will look uneven, so trim until you have a nice straight edge.



6. For the billowy sleeves,  use the edge of the carton as it often has a rather nice little turn up! It's also easy for cutting. Cut two of the shape below. 


7. See the little turn up? No worries though if your carton doesn't have this lip around the edge. For the cloak opening, cut a strip out of one side of the cone.

Check the cloak is the right size for your Yoda - shorten the top part if it's too big.


8. Glue the hands behind the ends of the sleeves, so you can see them. If you have a little turn up, make sure you glue on the other side. Craft glue will work for this, or you could use the stronger glue.


Glue the sleeves either side of the cloak.

Then, glue the bottom of the sleeves to the front part of the cloak, by the opening. You might need paper clips (or laundry pegs) to hold the arms in place while the glue dries.



9. While the glue is drying, cut out a short strip of brown paper (or paint some plain paper) that covers the thinner part of the cork, below the head and above the feet. It doesn't need to go around the back of the cork as this will be covered by the cloak.

Glue in place with a thin layer of craft glue or a glue stick.

10. Use a black pen to add some Yoda-ish features.


11. Glue the cloak onto the back and sides of the body.



12. If you want to make your Yoda into a fridge magnet, use the strong glue to stick a magnet on the back.



2.5.20

Paper roll birdhouse for little egg carton birds




toilet paper roll craft


There have been so many of these sweet little egg carton birds popping up here over the years, and I thought it was about time they had a home! The birdhouse is made from one toilet paper roll (or part of a kitchen roll) and really doesn't take long to do.

You will need:
Toilet paper roll
Scissors
Craft glue
Paper clips or similar (laundry pegs work too!)
Paint or pens to decorate
Egg carton (for the bird)
Black pen

1. If you want to paint your birdhouse, do that first, and when the paint's dry, flatten the tube with your hand, pressing firmly along the two creases.

If you're keen to decorate your bird house with felt-tips or marker pens, it's best to do that now, when the tube is flat. That's how we did the flowery and the striped one above. (I used a thick marker pen for the stripes)


2. Draw a pencil line across the tube that's below the halfway mark. Our tube was roughly 10cm high, so we drew the line across about 4cm from the bottom edge.


3. Line up the two creases in the middle, and press down on the tube again on a flat surface. Press firmly along the sides, to make another two creases.

You've now made four evenly spaced corners and turned the circular tube into a square shape, but keep it flat for now.



4. Continue the pencil line across the tube.


5. Squeeze into shape, and cut down all four corner creases to the pencil line on the longer part of the tube. (see pic below)


6. Bend one of the flaps forward, folding it firmly on the pencil line.


7. You then need to fold it back on itself, leaving a little shelf or ledge jutting out. Press firmly along this crease too.

8. Pull the flap back, brush a little glue in the crease and press into place again. Use something like paper clips or a laundry peg to hold it while the glue dries.



9. Now fold the flaps either side. You need to fold them out, so they're just below the little shelf you've just made. (see pic below). And even. Press firmly along the creases.



10. To make the roof of the birdhouse, bend these two side pieces inwards now, pressing the ceases the other way. So you're bringing the two flaps towards each other.

Brush some glue along the very top edge of one side (don't use too much glue or brush it too far down the card).

Use paper clips or something similar to hold the top of the roof together while it dries.



11. When it's dry, take the clip off and press the top of the roof down with your finger, to get it back into shape.


13. Cut the card away at the back, roughly following the contours of the roof.




14. I've already written a few tutorials for the little birds, but here's a quick reminder.

Roughly cut out an egg carton cone from the carton, and cut around the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard joins.

To make this easier you could draw a rough line around the cone, just above the cardboard join. Cut up to the line at an angle, then cut along the line.



15. Once your cone is cut out, draw a pencil line around the cone, about halfway up. Don't worry if the line is a bit wobbly, it's just a guide.


16. Cut up the four corners to the pencil line, and bend three of the flaps out, folding on the line. Cut these three flaps off.


17. The remaining one is the tail feathers. Shorten this if you want.


18. You can either cut out wings (teardrop shape) from the little bits of left over card, or simply draw on wings with a black pen after you've painted your bird.


19. Set your bird on top of a spare cone, this makes the painting a lot easier.


20. Dot on eyes with a black pen near the very top of your bird's head. Paint or draw on a beak just below the eyes. Or cut out a little orange/yellow triangle and glue it on with a glue stick.