Scamp! - the paper roll dog

We called him Scamp because he sort of looks like he’s scampering.. think he’d be one of those dogs that never sat still! Scamp is made from cutting and folding a single toilet paper roll. Just one dab of glue at the end to stick the sides of his head together.

A narrower toilet paper tube is best - the one we used was quite narrow and about 10cm long.

It's probably easier to paint the tube first, though fine to do it after the making too. Make sure you paint inside each end of the tube before leaving to dry.

1. Press the tube flat, but concentrate only on one of the creases, pressing along it firmly with your fingers. Leave the other as a light crease.

2. Line up the two creases you've just made and press the tube flat again, and again, concentrate on pressing firmly along one of the creases, leaving the other. You should end up with tube with a flat bottom, like this.

3. On the flat side, measure and mark about 2cm in from each end. Then from each mark, roughly draw around the tube until you get back to the mark. Don’t worry if the line is a bit wobbly, it’s only a guide for cutting.

4.  At one end on the flat side, cut along the creases to the pencil line - these will be Scamp’s back legs. Halfway between these cuts, snip out a long, thin triangle, up to the line.

Repeat at the other end for the front legs, but this time snip a little bit over the pencil line, so the front legs are slightly longer.

5. At this front end, on the top of the tube, cut along the light creases to the pencil line. Fold the middle flap back and cut a ‘V’ from each corner to the middle of the line, for Scamp’s ears.

6. At the other end of the top part of the tube, inbetween the light creases, make two cuts up to the pencil line, quite close together, for the tail. (You could use the position of the ears to help position the tail). Cut away two long thin triangles either side of the tail (see below). 

7. Press the two flaps either side of the tail into the body.

8. At the head end, glue the end of the two flaps together and use a paper clip or clothes peg to hold it in place.

9. Once dry, trim if you need to, then use a black pen to draw his nose on the top corner and draw on eyes. Keep them high up, near the ears. 

10, Bend the legs down and shorten if you want to, and he's ready for a scamp!

  

Walkies!!

Egg carton sheep

These sheep are the first project in 'Make Your Own Farm Animals' and they're really quick to do - a few egg boxes, cotton wool and a black felt tip, and you'll have your own flock before you know it!

You will need:
Egg carton
Pencil
Scissors
Cotton wool
Glue
Black felt tip pen (or a Sharpie if you're happy to use a permanent pen)

1. Cut out an egg cup, roughly first, then neaten up the edge. Turn it upside down and draw a cross on top with a pencil (see below), and continue the lines down the sides of your egg cup.
This should give you four well spaces legs.

2. Use a black felt tip pen or a Sharpie to colour in the bottom part of the legs, so they are more chunky.

3. With your scissors, snip up the sides of each leg (8 snips) - don't worry if you snip too far, you'll soon be covering the top part with cotton wool.

4. Snip the card HALFWAY BETWEEN each leg too (4 snips)

5. Push all the flaps of card, between the legs, under your sheep, leaving the four legs down.

6. Cover the top of the egg cup with a thin layer of glue. Tease out a small piece of cotton wool with your fingers and stick it on top of your sheep. A small amount of cotton wool looks best.

7. Draw a head on either the egg carton lid or some spare cereal box card. Keep the shape simple so it's easier to cut out.

8. Use the black pen to draw two circles where you would like the eyes to go and colour-in around the circles. Add a black dot in the eye if you want. Glue in place.

9. For a lying down sheep, cut a shallower egg cup from your carton and cover the whole thing with cotton wool. Glue on the head.

TIP: A white correction pen (like Tipp-Ex) is handy for eyes if you want to add them after colouring-in the head, or you want to make a sleeping sheep with closed eyes.

Many more animal projects like this in my book, 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'

Pretty tissue Peonies

Peonies are a real head-turner at this time of year, with their showy blooms in all kinds of colours. I saw the most beautiful tree peony the other day with enormous pink flowers, which sort of got me thinking about this project. And of course peonies were centre stage at the royal wedding.

The great thing is, because of their naturally ruffled, billowy shape, they're really easy to make.

You will need:
Sheet of yellow tissue paper
3 sheets of coloured tissue paper for the flower
Scissors
Craft glue
Elastic band
Pipe cleaner (optional)

1. For the petals, we used a white sheet of tissue paper and two pink sheets.
Fold one sheet a few times, so you have a few layers and cut a square, about 16cm by 16cm (or bigger if you want).
The shape of our sheet meant it was easy to fold into a square shape that was roughly the size we wanted, so all we had to do was just cut along the creases.
Repeat with the other two coloured sheets, so you end up with lots of tissue squares.

2. Take one square and fold it in half, then fold it again, into a smaller square. With the pointy end (that's the middle of the square) nearest you, fold into a triangle and cut the other wider end into a curved shape, so it looks a bit like an ice-cream!
I've drawn it on so you can see more clearly. This might be a good thing to do for younger makers too. It doesn't matter if the shape you cut varies from piece to piece - having different petal shapes will add to the overall effect.

3. Then, the fun bit - opening it up to see the petals. Repeat until you have two of each colour -  6 altogether per flower.

4. For the centre of the flower, fold the yellow tissue paper sheet over a few times and cut about a 6cm strip.

5. Hold the folded tissue firmly, and cut a fringe along an open side - cut about halfway down.

6. Roll the strip tightly at the bottom, and put a small blob of glue at the end. Finish rolling, and squeeze where the glue is, so it sticks the tissue paper layers together.

7. Brush some more glue all around the bottom part of your yellow centre, then put the gluey end in the middle of one of the petal pieces and simply gather up, and press around the yellow centre. Give it a good squeeze at the bottom.

You can either keep brushing glue around the bottom before each petal piece (can get quite sticky), or just keep gathering the petals around the centre without glue, keep a firm grip on the bottom, and then, with adult help, wrap a small elastic band around a few times, to hold the petals in place.

Give your finished flower a bit of a scrunch, before fluffing it out a bit with your fingers.

You could also wrap the end of a pipe cleaner around the bottom of the flower a few times, to secure it, so it's easier to display in a vase, or attach as a decoration.