Oink! the Pig - TP roll crafts for kids

Oink is very similar to Scamp the dog. I love the way they look like they're on the move! 

Made from a single toilet paper roll that's quickly transformed with a few careful cuts and folds, plus a little bit of glue.

You will need:

Toilet paper roll (about 10cm long)

Scissors

Pencil

Ruler

Paint (white and red)

Craft glue

Paper clip or similar

Black felt tip or gel pen

1. Paint a toilet paper roll pink (plenty of white an a little red). Paint the inside too, at both ends, as well as a small piece of spare card (for a snout). 

When the paint is dry, lightly press the cardboard tube flat, but no need to press firmly along the creases. The creases are  mainly for guidance.

2. Line up the two creases you've just made in the middle, and press the tube flat again, but not too hard, so you end up with four evenly spaced, light creases.

3. While the tube's still flat, use a ruler and pencil to mark 2cms in from each end along the middle crease. Then use this mark as a guide to mark the two creases either side. And finally the one on the back.

4. Cut up to the marks, so you'll have four cuts at each end.

5.  For the legs, fold two opposite end flaps down, and cut a thin, long triangle from the middle of the flaps, to define the legs.

6. For the tail end, cut a top flap into three strips. Leave the middle one (for the tail) and bend the other two down.

7.  Fold the side flaps inwards, and glue them together. Use a paper clip or something similar to hold the card in place while the glue dries. Trim the card flaps if you need to, to neaten things up.

8. Roll the card tail between your fingers, from the end, right down to the pig's back, to make it curl.

9.  For the ears, fold the top flap at the other end, so it points up and cut out a triangle, from each corner to the middle of the flap.

10. For the face, fold the two remaining side flaps right back. 

11. Then fold each of these flaps in half and firmly press the creases.

Bend the flaps back towards each other.

12.  Glue the flaps on top of each other and use a paper clip to hold them in place while the glue dries. 

13. When the glue has set, you could draw on a snout and eyes straight away. Or, cut out a round snout from the spare piece of painted pink card, add nostrils and glue in place. Draw eyes either side with the black pen. Shorten the legs and bend the ears forward.

14. And Oink is ready to scamper off! 

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)

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...