A snail called Mel that hides in his shell

Sometimes I know how I'd like a project to look at the end, but am not quite sure how to get there... This was one of those! 

We had a few interesting attempts at getting Mel the snail back into his egg carton shell, and this, I think, is the best one. 

You will need:

Egg carton

Paint

Sticky tape

Kebab skewer or cocktail stick

Cereal box card (optional)

Green paper (optional)

Glue (optional)

1. The thing about egg carton cups is that on the whole, it's impossible to cut them out neatly with  a nice even edge. Usually there will be two big gaps, where the cup joins onto the middle cone (yes, I spend way too much time looking at egg cartons!) 

On the LHS you'll see how most egg cups look when you've roughly cut them out, and on the RHS, a nice neat round one, the way you'd like them to look, but they aren't always so easy to find...and that's okay!

2. ...because I'm going to use the one on the left and make the most of its weird, gappy shape.

So, neaten around the top edge and simply cut out the messy joins, right down to the base of the cup. 

3. Then paint your shell whatever colour or colours you like. 

If you're using a kebab stick, cut or break it in half, snip off the pointy end and paint one end the colour of your snail shell.

4. For the snail's body, cut a strip of plain or coloured paper about 12cm long and roughly 1cm wide. Fold it in half, then place your stick in the crease, with about 1cm of the painted end sticking out. 

Get your little crafter to hold the stick steady while you cover the strip of paper with a piece of sticky tape (a bit longer than the paper strip). Start in the middle, so you get it nice and tight around the stick.

5. Snip the sticky tape either side of the stick/skewer, and on both sides of the paper strip (try not to cut through the paper), and carefully fold the sticky tape under the strip.

6. Cut off any extra bits of sticky tape at the ends and then make the tentacles by cutting down the strip (about 3cm), close to the edges on either side - fold the middle part back and snip it off.

The shiny sticky tape gives it a slippery, slidey look, which is perfect for a snail!

7. Now, fold the body in half, and tightly roll it around the stick a few times. When you let go it will unfurl a little.

8. Make a hole in the middle of your egg cup shell (use something like nails scissors - keep them closed to pierce the hole - place some modelling clay under the bottom of the cup, so you have something to push against).

Use a black pen to draw a shell swirl, starting from the hole.

9. Unfurl your snail body, feed it into the grooves, so the head and tentacles are pointing up, and push the end of the skewer stick into the hole.

The tail end needs to be snipped now, as it will be too long. When you're happy with the length, take the body out of the shell again and round off the end of the tail.

10. Make sure both ends are through the gaps, the stick is pushed in as far as it will go, and then twist the stick slowly, either way, and the snail will go back into his shell. 

You can simply hold the bottom part of the cup to do this, or blue tack the base of your snail to a table or other hard surface. You will need to take the stick out every time he's gone back into his shell, and thread the body through again, to repeat the action, but this is simple enough to do.

Occasionally wrap the body tightly around the stick again (step 7)

Optional:

11. We made a little cardboard scene for our snail out of a piece of cereal box card.

We painted the top part blue, with splodges of white for the sky. When dry, get some green paper and cut long, spiky zigzags for grass. No need to cut the paper to size at this stage, just make sure you've cut enough grass! Rub glue stick or brush a thin layer of glue on the bottom half of the card.

Line the bottom of the grass up with the bottom of the blue and smooth the rest of the green paper over the sticky card. When it's dry, cut away the excess paper.

Fold the card at the grass base, glue the egg carton shell in front of the strands of grass, and when the glue is dry, stick another skewer through the hole in the shell, keeping it level with the base, and mark where it hits card. Make a small hole here. (Place a piece of modelling clay behind the card while you make the hole, so there's something to push against)

Now the scene is set! We added a few paper flowers, but do add whatever you like.

Either hold the scene in one hand while turning the stick, or blue tack it to a table. You will need to take the stick out to reset your snail. Bend the card back, remove the stick from the shell, unfurl, feed through the gaps, push the stick back in the hole, and you're ready to go again.

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...

Poppy egg carton craft for Remembrance Day

This craft project is close to my heart. As an army wife I can't think about Remembrance Day without getting a lump in my throat. Such a mix of emotions, as we honour those who died in the First and Second World Wars and all the conflicts since, and I remember family and friends in the Forces. Some here, some not.

These poppies are made from egg cartons, and I've gone for three petals instead of four because I thought they looked more poppy-like. I've added a little paper centre too, for the spikey stamens, but you can leave this part out if you like.

You will need:

Egg carton
Scissors
Pencil
Craft glue (we used PVA)
Paint
Black paper (optional)
Paper plate (for the wreath)

Egg cartons come in all shapes and sizes and this does make a difference when you're trying to make flowers.

If the cups are nice and round, then it's easy enough to cut one out like this, with an neat edge and make three, roughly evenly spaced marks, for the gaps between the petals.

The thing is, most egg carton won't have nice round cups, they'll probably look a bit more like this when you cut them out, with a split where the cup joined the middle part of the carton.

So, we're going to work with the split, and incorporate it into our poppy, by using it as one of our three marks, adding two more so they'll all as evenly spaced as possible. (Cut off the rough edges at the top if they're in the way.)

With the scissors, cut down to the base of the egg cup where you've made your two marks.

Then cut and gently curve each of the three petals.

Carefully round off the edges of each petal by snipping the corners. And then very gently, while holding the flower in the middle, carefully push the petals back. This needs to be done with care or the cardboard can rip.

In the picture below I'm snipping off the corners of the round neat shaped egg carton cup.

In the end the round egg carton cup and the one with the splits look pretty similar!

Paint your poppies, remember to do the back of the petals as well, and add a black blob in the middle - this looks much better and more natural if it's a bit irregular, and not too perfect and round.

To make the wreath, paint the rim of a paper plate green. When it's dry, make a hole in the centre of the plate (best done by an adult) and cut out the middle section.

This next step is optional as the poppies look lovely as they are, but the little paper stamens gives them a bit more detail.
Cut a strip of black paper about 0.5-1cm wide and cut into 5cm pieces.

Roll one of the short pieces up, then open it and snip a fringe along one side - roll it up again, but loosely this time.

Brush a good layer of glue in the middle of black centre of your poppy and add the rolled up paper. Let it unfurl a little, but make sure it stays in the glue. Give it a light press and then leave your poppy to dry.

Once dry, press the fringed paper out with your finger. We made 15 poppies for our wreath.

Make a hole in your paper plate wreath and thread through some string so you can hang it up.  Then glue on your poppies.