Brian the Lion paper plate and mask - World Book Day

This is a very quick and easy paper plate craft that works perfectly well with my book, 'Brian the Lion goes into Space'. You can either leave it as a paper plate picture or make it into a mask. Could be handy with World Book Day around the corner!

You will need:

Large paper plate

Paint

A bowl/side plate

Scissors

Black pen (like a Sharpie)

Nail scissors (optional - adult supervision needed)

Elastic (optional)

Old pair of glasses frames (optional)

Sticky tape (optional)

1. Paint the centre of the plate yellow, all the way up to the bumpy rim - it really doesn't need to be neat!

2. Once the yellow has dried a bit, find a bowl or side plate that covers most of the centre of the paper plate. Then, keep your hand on the bowl or plate while painting the brown mane around it. Make sure to go right up to the edge of the bowl. (Make brown by mixing a little red with yellow and adding a dab of blue until you're happy with the shade). Don't be tempted to take the bowl or plate off too quickly!

3. Once dry, remove the bowl and you should have a lovely, crisp yellow circle.

Now it's time to cut the mane. First, make two cuts opposite each other, just up to the edge of the yellow circle.

 4. Then make another two cuts opposite each other, halfway between the ones you've just made.

5. Keep snipping halfway between your cuts, and work all the way around, until the cuts get closer together and you're happy with your mane. Doing the cutting like this keeps the mane even - it is also good scissor practice and it helps kids start to make judgements about space and distance.

6. Use a black pen like a Sharpie to draw on Brian's face. As a guide, the eyes here are about 6/7cm a part.

7. If you want to make him into a paper plate mask, then a grown up with have to make holes through the eyes with nail scissors. It helps to put some modelling clay behind the eyes, so there's something to push into. (Keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.) Make the holes a decent size, so it's easy to see out. You could make some slits in the nose too, if you want to.

8. I think the best way is to use sticky tape to stick an old glasses frame to the back of the mask. Very quick to do! And it keeps the mask nice and flat when you wear it.

9. You could attach some elastic to the mask instead, but the sides will tend to bend around the wearer's head.

Make holes at the side of his face, close to or just inside the mane. I found some of my son's paper reinforcement stickers and stuck them around the holes at the back.

Once you've knotted and tied the elastic to one side, get the mask wearer to hold it to their face while you gauge how much elastic you need on the other side. Hold the elastic at the chosen spot, and mark with black pen. Now thread it through the hole, tying a knot or two on or as near as possible to your black mark.
We painted over the knots on the front, so you don't see them so clearly.

 Think the mask would look better on a smaller child! Mine are all getting so big now..

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)