Ted with a heart - cork craft for Mother's Day

Following almost hot on the heels of the bunny cork with a heart, comes Ted, and he's even easier to make! Again you could write a personal message on the heart, or even use a photo. Plenty of ways to make it a lovely little Mother's day gift.

You'll need:
A Champagne/cava cork
Red, yellow, blue and white paint
Fine paintbrush
Pencil
brown and red paper (or plain to paint)
Fine black felt-tip or gel pen
PVA/craft glue or a glue stick
Old Christmas/Birthday card/photo (optional)

1. Paint the cork brown (mix yellow and a little red with a dab of blue and lighten with some white) - try to make it a similar colour to your brown paper. You may need more than one coat. While the cork's drying, cut a strip of the brown paper about 1cm (1/2in.) wide and any length (or cut a strip of plain paper and paint it brown).

2. Round off each end of the strip for the ears - use a pencil to draw the curved ear shape first if this helps, or fold the strip in half and cut the curved shape in the unfolded end, so when you open it out, both ears look the same.
Cut about 2cm (3/4in.) off each end and glue them either side of the cork, near the top. Only put glue on the bottom half of each ear. Don't fold them back until the glue has dried.

3. Cut a strip for the arms - make it about 1cm wide (1/2in) and 8cm long (3in), though it might need to be longer if you have a big cork. Fold the strip in half and round off the unfolded end so when you open it out, the paws look the same.
Brush or rub some glue either side of the fold, leaving the arm ends glue-free. Stick the middle gluey part to the back of your ted, in the groove just below the head.

4. Add lots of white to your brown colour and paint on a muzzle with a fine paintbrush.

 5. While that's drying, lightly fold another small piece of coloured or plain paper in half and draw half a heart on the fold - make it roughly the same height as the bottom section of the cork, below the head. Try not to press too hard on the fold so there isn't a heavy crease line on the heart. Cut out and open up your heart shape. This is the time to add a little message if you want.

6. If you'd like to use a photo (or a colourful piece of an old Birthday or Christmas card), carefully draw round your paper heart on the back of your chosen picture - or, if this is a bit too fiddly, make a proper heart template by sticking the paper heart on a spare piece of cereal box card and cutting it out. This will be much easier to draw around. Keep hold of your heart template, they're always useful!

7. The muzzle should be dry by now so draw on the face with a fine black felt-tip or gel pen and fold the ears back.

8. Dab some glue or rub glue stick on the paw ends on the inside, and attach one paw to one side of the heart (make sure the pointy part of the heart is roughly level with the base of the cork). Fold the paw around the edge of the heart, pinching together. Repeat on the other side, keeping the paws as even as you can.

You could try a monkey too! Just make the ears a bit smaller and use more of the pale colour on the face (see below).

Linking up with Trash 2 Treasure over at Coombe Mill.