Father Christmas potato print

Really enjoyed potato printing at Halloween, so thought we'd make some festive ones!

And we've stuck to simple shapes again.

First, cut a potato in half and slice a thin sliver off the bottom, so it sits flat and is easier to work with.

Use a ruler and a sharp pencil to score a triangle - start with the base line of the triangle and take it right to the edges. Roughly mark the midpoint of the base line at the top of the potato, and score lines up to this mark.

You could draw the triangle on first with a pen if you want, and then score. 

Don't make your triangle too fat and wide.

Use some kitchen roll to remove little potato bits and moisture.

Score a line across your triangle, near the top, to define the hat, and then another one just below for the face. Use your thumb nails to pinch off a sliver of the face strip, either side, so it's not quite a wide as the hat brim.

Below the face, score an upside down triangle for the beard.

Cut away the sides of the triangle and your Santa is ready!

TIP: (To be done by an adult) Cut two wedges away, either side, at back, leaving a ridge of potato in the middle to hold onto. A sort of potato handle! Easier for little hands.

Brush pink paint on the thin face strip and red on the hat and body. Leave the beard clear.

When the paint is dry, use a black pen to draw on eyes and buttons.

Try some practice prints first, and when you're happy with the paint quantity, why not design your own Christmas paper or gift tags?

Add in a Christmas tree too if you want - another triangle, with a small square at the bottom. You could cut out a triangle and separate small square if you prefer.

Egg carton bunny burrow bank!

This little bank of burrows is great fun to play with and a handy place to keep your egg carton bunnies.

You'll find the bunny project HERE.

For the rabbit warren, snip the middle cones off inside the carton and use cotton wool or fold some kitchen roll to make it cosy inside. Paint the outside green.

While that's drying, cut an egg cup from another egg carton, and trim above any cardboard joins or gaps, so you end up with a short cup. This is going to be the tree stump.

Make up a brown colour (mix yellow and red, then add a dab or two of blue), add a little to some white to make light brown and paint the top of the stump. Use the brown to paint the around the side, plus a little around the top edge.

Cut a strip of green paper, about 2cm wide, long enough to wrap around about two thirds of the bottom of your stump.

Fold it in half longways, and snip zigzags along one side, up to the fold, for the grass.

On the other side of the fold make a few snips along the strip - this makes it easier to glue under the edge of the egg carton. Brush glue along the edge and inside the egg cup, and press the paper into it.

Make some burrows in your egg carton bunny bank (we used nail scissors to pierce a hole - keep them closed, press down and twist from side to side - then cut a burrow.

Glue the tree stump in place and add some bunnies!

Paper Plate Witch

These witchy witches would make good decorations for a Halloween party.

Egg carton Mice

WHO ate all the CHEESE??!

These little egg carton mice are having a lovely time, and when the kids have finished playing with them, they can be packed away inside the big cheese for next time.

You will need:
2 Egg cartons
Pencil

Scissors
Plain paper
Paint
Glue/glue stick
Black marker or gel pen
Yarn (for tail)

1. First, roughly cut out the middle cones from the carton, so they're easier to work with.

2. Use a pencil to lightly draw a line around the bottom of the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard join (for guidance, so doesn't matter if the line is a bit wobbly!) 

Cut up to the line at an angle, and then along it, so the edge is even and the cone sits flat.  Trim if you need to. Make some smaller mice bodies too.

3. Next, you want to make them sit forward a little. So, draw a pencil cline straight across one side, about 1cm up from the bottom.

4. Then draw a diagonal line from each end of the pencil line, down the sides to the corner. 

Cut along the pencil line. You will end up with a more mouselike body.

5. For the ears, simply use a paper heart! Fold a piece of plain paper over, and draw half a heart on the fold (keep in mind the size of your mouse, so you don't make the ears too big).

6. Cut the heart out, snipping the middle a little lower than you would normally, open up and glue on the back of the head near the top (the longest side of the cone)

7. You could paint the body and ears separately before sticking together, but we went for an all over body paint - just need to make sure not to overload the brush with paint, or the ears will get too soggy.

8. Once dry, paint on some pink..

... then use a black pen to draw eyes, a nose and whiskers. Try to draw the eyes up close to the base of the ears, on the flattish top part of the cone, and the nose and whiskers right underneath the eyes.

9. For the tail, snip a slot at the back of your mouse, cut a few cms of yarn and slot into place.

10. For the big cheese, remove the middle cones from inside the second carton by squeezing and cutting straight across each one. Snip them off as near to the base as you can - so there'll be more room inside for your mice!

Make holes in the carton lid with small sharp scissors, like nail scissors (keep closed, press down and twist from side to side) This needs to be done by an adult. Cut different sized holes, then let little ones loose with the yellow paint!

11. We folded a piece of kitchen paper inside our cheese, so they didn't fall through the holes.
And they've got something nice and soft to sleep on too... of course..

Simple shape potato printing for Halloween!

I'm LOVING potato printing! And there's so much you can do with simple shapes. Perfect for pictures, decorations and cards, and fun for all ages. The theme here is Halloween, but I'll definitely be trying out some other ideas in the run up to Christmas.

Triangles pop up a fair bit! For the witch, cut a potato in half.  Slice a sliver off the bottom of your potato half, so it sits flat and is easier to work with.

Either use a ruler and pen and draw on a triangle, and then score using the ruler and a sharp pencil, or score straightaway. 

Start with the base line of the triangle and take it right to the edges. Roughly mark the midpoint of the base line at the top of the potato, and score lines up to this mark. 

Use a piece of kitchen roll to wipe away potato bits and moisture. 

For the witch's face, score a line across the triangle, a few cms from the tip and another just below it.

We found the easiest thing to do next was to cut the triangle out on the score lines. 

TIP: (To be done by an adult) Cut two wedges away, either side, at back, leaving a ridge of potato to hold onto. A sort of potato handle! Easier for little hands.

For this print we brushed on the paint so we could make her face green. Don't use too much paint or it will squidge around the edges.

When the paint is dry use a black pen to add a wicked witchy face, hair and a brim for her hat.

We used the side of a piece of coffee stirrer and a mix of yellow and orange paint to print on a broomstick.

The ghost also starts off as a triangle too. Draw and score as before. This time I used a sharp knife to cut away slivers up to the score line, to define the triangle (to be done by an adult) - though you could completely cut away the sides again, like we did with the witch.

Once the triangle is defined, draw and score a line to round off the top of the triangle, then slice up to the score line. Draw and score a zigzag along the bottom and slice across the potato, up to the score line again.

As it's one colour printing, you could make your own stamp pad. 

Soak a piece of thin, damp kitchen sponge in some white paint. We put ours in a small recycled clear plastic pot, (think it had been a humous pot!) then you can pop the lid back on to stop the paint drying out too fast. But when you've finished printing, let the sponge air dry (it could eventually get mouldy if it stays wet) and just wet with water and add more paint when you want to use again.

Or you could brush on a layer of paint.

Print on coloured paper or paint a black background first, and let it dry.

When your ghosts are dry, use a black pen to draw on a hauntingly spooky face.

For the pumpkin, the shape is there already! You can either carve a face or simply print the round shape and add a face when the paint is dry.

We cut out small triangles for eyes and a nose, and a semi circle for the mouth.

The bat is made from two small triangle shapes. First, draw and score a thin triangle, curve the base inwards to define the bat's ears, and slice slivers away around the sides, or cut out completely, like the witch.

The second triangle should be a similar size, but wider - use the curved edge of your potato for one of the sides.

Print the narrow triangle first, tip pointing down, this is your bat's body.

Use the other triangle for the wings - print two either side, overlapping them and make sure the curved edge is at the top.

Dot on some yellow paint for eyes and when dry, add a black centre with the pen.

Happy Halloween!