Pop Hearts - crafts for kids

These pop hearts make a lovely gift and they're really easy to make, all you need is a toilet paper roll or some other kind of cardboard tube. We've left ours plain, but you could personalise them with a short message below the heart.

You will need:
TP roll
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Paint
Craft glue (optional)
Glitter (optional)
Coloured foil (optional)

1. Flatten the cardboard tube with your hand - press down along the sides, so you can see the creases.

2. Squeeze the tube back into shape, then line up the two creases you've just made, in the middle, and flatten again, pressing down on the sides.

3. While the tube is flat, use a ruler and pencil to draw a line across the tube, about 2cm from the bottom.

4. Use the scissors to cut down the two side creases to the pencil line.

5. Squeeze the tube back into shape, then line up the cuts you've just made in the middle, and press the tube flat again.

6. Draw half a heart on one side of the tube and take it right down to the pencil line, but don't bring it into a point here (or your heart will fall off..), leave about a cm.

7. Cut around your heart (younger makers may need some help cutting through the double card). To make it easier to cut out the strip at the side of the heart, once you've cut to the pencil line, bend the card out and snip it off. Repeat on the other side. Then squeeze your tube back into shape.

8. Paint the inside of the tube and everywhere else too, except for the heart. When the paint's dry, use the pencil to draw in the bottom tip of the heart.

9. You could go with the norm, and paint your heart red, (or any colour) - or cover it in a thin layer of glue, and sprinkle glitter over it. Or do both!

9. We decorated one of our hearts with some colourful tin foil kept from Christmas chocolates.

Cover the heart in a thin layer of glue and line up a corner of the foil with the pointy tip of the heart. Then carefully smooth the foil over the card. Cut away most of the excess, leaving some to tuck around the back.

Put some glue on the edges at the back, and mould the tin foil around the heart. If you don't have a big enough piece of foil, it would look good with a patchwork of different coloured pieces too.
Maybe keep some aside this Easter, though care and patience may be needed to get the foil off in one piece!

R2-D2 - Star Wars crafts for kids

Thought we'd kick off 2018 with another simple Star Wars craft. I have lots of other ideas for this year, just need to find time to sit down and do them! Isn't it always the way.

I think you can probably guess what R2-D2 is made from... yes, it's a Kinder egg case. They're perfect because it sort of keeps the robot in proportion with all the other figures, and there's quite a little gang of them now! (You'll find instructions on the Kids' Craft Ideas page)

So, you'll need:
A Kinder egg case
Lolly stick (popsicle stick)
Cereal box card
Strong glue (like UHU)
White acrylic paint
Silver metallic pen
Black, red and blue permanent pens (like Sharpies)
Scissors

1. Cut the lid off the Kinder egg case.

2. Mark about 3cm in from each end of the lolly stick - you want pieces that are just about the same height as your R2-D2 body. Then cut these pieces off (best done by an adult). If you don't have a lolly stick, then use cardboard instead.

 3. Line the straight edge up with the edge of some spare cereal box card, and draw sloping lines either side (see pic below). Keep them even. Make two pieces the same.

4. Glue the card to the bottom of the stick pieces, then use the strong all-purpose glue to stick them to the side of the Kinder egg shell so they hang over the edge a little.
This kind of glue has a better grip when you're gluing to plastic, and things don't slip so much.
Let it dry on its back.

5. Once the glue's set, paint your robot white. I am not going to pretend plastic is easy to paint, it isn't. I'm always surprised when this isn't mentioned in projects. Acrylic paint is definitely better, but you'll still need to give R2-D2 two coats.

6. Time to decorate. We used the silver metallic pen to colour in the top and around the bottom rim. We also drew a silver line down each side, leaving a space at the top of each 'arm' for a blue circle.

 7.  Halfway between the silver top and bottom, draw a pencil line from one side to the other, then two vertical lines either side. Add a little silver 'control panel'.

8. The rest is very much up to you.. We used the coloured Sharpies to add more detail, but tried to keep it simple so it didn't get too busy. There are so many pictures to use as reference online. Here are a few photos of our finished R2-D2, for guidance.

On the fifth day of Christmas...

my true love gave to me,

FIVE GO-OLD RINGS..

four calling birds,

three French hens,

two turtle doves,

and a partridge in a pear tree.

Spooky bat leaf decorations

This is a very quick and easy Halloween craft idea that makes use of colourful autumn leaves. We collected leaves that were a sort off maple-leaf shape (field maple, acer, sycamore even ivy leaves)  - definitely not hard to find once you start looking!

1. Then just one cut - to snip off the middle pointy part of the leaf, like so. Curve the cut a little, for bat ears.

2. Keep the stalks on for instant ‘flying’ bats (like the first photo), and glue on paper eyes and fangs (see step 4).

3. The leaves will quickly start to curl once they’re inside, so if you want them to last longer, press for a few days after you've cut them.

If you don’t have a flower press, put the leaves between the pages of an old book and then place a pile of books on top.

Once they’re pressed they’ll be flat, but more brittle, so need to be handled with some care.

4. For the eyes and fangs, we cut small, long triangles from some plain paper. Rub glue stick carefully over the head part, where you want the eyes and fangs to go, then wet your finger to pick up the little triangles and stick them in place. Use a black pen to finish off the eyes.

To make them last a bit longer you could varnish the leaves with a clear, water-based varnish.

5. To make bat bunting, we glued our bats onto some flat gift-wrap ribbon. Stick them on near their heads, so they don’t tip forward. (I forgot to do this...)

You could make a Halloween collage with them too.

Stormtrooper - Star Wars crafts for kids

It's been a while.. unfortunately my good blog intentions went out the window when another book project came along. I optimistically thought I'd keep this ticking along too, but of course something had to give.

Anyway, most of the book is finished now and it's not a craft one this time, but a story book, which has been challenging and hugely rewarding too.

It's about Brian the Lion going to Space.. Brian was the first animal I ever created and blogged about, so he is rather special. I've made all the scenes for the book, all the animals, backdrops, scenery and other things... but one of the best bits was writing the story. A lovely change from writing instructions. Not that I mind writing them, just nice to do something else.

So there is a sort of Space link here, as this little Stormtrooper is the latest addition to our Star Wars craft project. Quite a gaggle of figures now! And a Millennium Falcon too, if you're interested..

You'll need:

Egg carton

Pencil

Ruler

Craft scissors

Nail scissors or similar (optional) Adult supervision required

White paint

Craft glue

Fine black felt-tip or gel pen

Black permanent marker pen
Straw

1. Roughly cut out two egg carton cones. On one, draw a pencil line around the cone, just above the bumpy joins at the bottom. Cut along the line. This will be the body.

2. The second cone is for the head, and you only need the very top part. Either estimate this, or use a pencil and ruler to mark about 1.5cm (1/2in.) from the top on all sides, join the marks and cut out. A handy way to do this is to cut up two adjacent corners to the pencil line, bend the card back and cut off the flap - it should be easier now to cut along the rest of the line.

(If your egg cones have holes in the top, brush glue inside the cone and push a small piece of newspaper up to fill the hole.)

3. On the body cone, lightly draw a pencil line around it, about half way up. Don't worry if the line is a little wobbly, it's just for guidance. 

Cut up the middle of one cone side to this pencil line, then wiggle and turn your scissors, and cut along the pencil line to the corner and just a little beyond.

Do the same on the other side so you've cut a 'T' shape.

Repeat this 'T' shape on the opposite side of the cone.

4. To form the legs, press the cut edges in the middle towards each other and squeeze each one into a more rounded shape. You should end up with what looks like an impressive pair of flares! Trim if you you'd like them a little less flary...

5. For the arms, cut a thin strip of card from the egg carton lid - about 5mm (1/4in.) wide and 5cm (2in.) long. Round it at the ends for the hands.

6. Either cut the arm strip in half and glue the pieces either side, or, with adult supervision, use the nail scissors to make a hole in the middle of one of the arm sides (keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.)

7. Once you've made the hole, snip up to the top of the cone and down the other side until the slot looks level. Cut an extra sliver out to widen the gap for the arms. Make sure the slot goes far enough down the body, so when you push the arm strip in, it sits below the top part of the cone, then glue the head on here. 

8. When that's set, paint the figure white. (Or if your egg carton is white, then move on to step 9.)  

9. Once the paint is dry, use a fine black pen to draw on your Stormtrooper's features.

10. For his weapon, colour the bottom few cm's of a straw with a black permanent pen (like a Sharpie). Cut off a small piece and snip slits in one end so you can slot it onto the Stormtrooper's hand. And he's ready for business!