Cork Yoda fridge magnet - Star Wars craft

May the Fourth with you be! 

This little Yoda combines two of my favourite things to craft with - corks and egg cartons!

You will need:

Champagne/Sparkling wine cork

Egg carton

Paint

Black gel or marker pen

Craft glue

Strong glue, like UHU, or a glue gun

Brown paper or plain paper painted

Magnet (optional)

1. For his distinctive sticky out ears, cut out two long pointy triangle shapes from the egg carton lid. Glue them either side of the wider, top part of the cork, pointing forward. 

They will stick with PVA craft glue eventually, but easier and quicker to use a stronger clear glue or a glue gun if you have one. I don't have a glue gun and used UHU glue for bits like this.

2. When the glue has dried, bend the ears back into place.

3. Paint your Yoda's body green, plus some spare egg carton card for the hands and feet.

When dry, draw two hand shapes (see below) To cut out, cut around them roughly first, then snip out the zigzag bits, before cutting around the rest of the hand.

4. For the feet cut two short strips from the green card (place them under the cork body to make sure they're the right size and not too wide). Then, snip out a few zigzag triangles.

Glue the feet under the cork body.

5. His cloak is made from the middle part of an egg carton cone.  Once you've cut the cone out, cut the top off, just squeeze the cone flat and cut across the card. Press back into shape - the top will look uneven, so trim until you have a nice straight edge.

6. For the billowy sleeves,  use the edge of the carton as it often has a rather nice little turn up! It's also easy for cutting. Cut two of the shape below. 

7. See the little turn up? No worries though if your carton doesn't have this lip around the edge. For the cloak opening, cut a strip out of one side of the cone.

Check the cloak is the right size for your Yoda - shorten the top part if it's too big.

8. Glue the hands behind the ends of the sleeves, so you can see them. If you have a little turn up, make sure you glue on the other side. Craft glue will work for this, or you could use the stronger glue.

Glue the sleeves either side of the cloak.

Then, glue the bottom of the sleeves to the front part of the cloak, by the opening. You might need paper clips (or laundry pegs) to hold the arms in place while the glue dries.

9. While the glue is drying, cut out a short strip of brown paper (or paint some plain paper) that covers the thinner part of the cork, below the head and above the feet. It doesn't need to go around the back of the cork as this will be covered by the cloak.

Glue in place with a thin layer of craft glue or a glue stick.

10. Use a black pen to add some Yoda-ish features.

11. Glue the cloak onto the back and sides of the body.

12. If you want to make your Yoda into a fridge magnet, use the strong glue to stick a magnet on the back.

Paper roll birdhouse for little egg carton birds

There have been so many of these sweet little egg carton birds popping up here over the years, and I thought it was about time they had a home! The birdhouse is made from one toilet paper roll (or part of a kitchen roll) and really doesn't take long to do.

You will need:

Toilet paper roll

Scissors

Craft glue

Paper clips or similar (laundry pegs work too!)

Paint or pens to decorate

Egg carton (for the bird)

Black pen

1. If you want to paint your birdhouse, do that first, and when the paint's dry, flatten the tube with your hand, pressing firmly along the two creases.

If you're keen to decorate your bird house with felt-tips or marker pens, it's best to do that now, when the tube is flat. That's how we did the flowery and the striped one above. (I used a thick marker pen for the stripes)

2. Draw a pencil line across the tube that's below the halfway mark. Our tube was roughly 10cm high, so we drew the line across about 4cm from the bottom edge.

3. Line up the two creases in the middle, and press down on the tube again on a flat surface. Press firmly along the sides, to make another two creases.

You've now made four evenly spaced corners and turned the circular tube into a square shape, but keep it flat for now.

4. Continue the pencil line across the tube.

5. Squeeze into shape, and cut down all four corner creases to the pencil line on the longer part of the tube. (see pic below)

6. Bend one of the flaps forward, folding it firmly on the pencil line.

7. You then need to fold it back on itself, leaving a little shelf or ledge jutting out. Press firmly along this crease too.

8. Pull the flap back, brush a little glue in the crease and press into place again. Use something like paper clips or a laundry peg to hold it while the glue dries.

9. Now fold the flaps either side. You need to fold them out, so they're just below the little shelf you've just made. (see pic below). And even. Press firmly along the creases.

10. To make the roof of the birdhouse, bend these two side pieces inwards now, pressing the ceases the other way. So you're bringing the two flaps towards each other.

Brush some glue along the very top edge of one side (don't use too much glue or brush it too far down the card).

Use paper clips or something similar to hold the top of the roof together while it dries.

11. When it's dry, take the clip off and press the top of the roof down with your finger, to get it back into shape.

13. Cut the card away at the back, roughly following the contours of the roof.

14. I've already written a few tutorials for the little birds, but here's a quick reminder.

Roughly cut out an egg carton cone from the carton, and cut around the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard joins.

To make this easier you could draw a rough line around the cone, just above the cardboard join. Cut up to the line at an angle, then cut along the line.

15. Once your cone is cut out, draw a pencil line around the cone, about halfway up. Don't worry if the line is a bit wobbly, it's just a guide.

16. Cut up the four corners to the pencil line, and bend three of the flaps out, folding on the line. Cut these three flaps off.

17. The remaining one is the tail feathers. Shorten this if you want.

18. You can either cut out wings (teardrop shape) from the little bits of left over card, or simply draw on wings with a black pen after you've painted your bird.

19. Set your bird on top of a spare cone, this makes the painting a lot easier.

20. Dot on eyes with a black pen near the very top of your bird's head. Paint or draw on a beak just below the eyes. Or cut out a little orange/yellow triangle and glue it on with a glue stick.

Egg Carton phone stand hack! - #stayhomeandcraft

Proof that not only are egg cartons brilliant for crafting with, they're also super useful too!

I've been trying to think of something easy to make that might come in handy in this strange new lockdown world we're living in, and this does the trick I think.

We've been making a lot more video calls to friends and family and often had problems propping my phone up, until I popped it into the base of an egg carton! The groove in front of the cones is a perfect fit for a phone, and leaning against the cones tilts the phone at just the right angle.

So there's no need to do anything apart from take the lid off, but where's the fun in that?? So you can have all kinds of fun decorating your phone stand/holder anyway you like.

And when it's not being a phone stand, it could be a useful little desk organiser.. or treat holder?

Here are a few decorating ideas we had.

Rainbows are popping up everywhere, so this seems like a good choice at the moment. Just paint the egg carton base blue - we mixed in some white to get a softer blue, then splodged on some white for clouds.

For the rainbow, find something with a round base that is wider than the distance between the two egg carton cones. Draw around it and cut out the circle, then cut the circle in half.

Draw, paint or colour your rainbow.

Make slots in the top of the cones for your rainbow. Nail scissors are good for this (best done by a grown up though)

You could turn your cones into penguins..

The best order for painting is probably the blue sea, then white tummy (or leave if your egg carton is white-ish already) and finally black.

Paint or stick on a beak and feet. Original penguin craft tutorial is HERE.

Or what about hens? For someone who loves their chooks?

I used an orangy yellow egg carton, so no need to paint the cones, just the base which we painted green.

Cut out a tail feather shape (see pic below) and wing shapes (like a teardrop or petal). Glue the wings either side and make a slot in the back of the cone, long enough for the tail feather. Nail scissors are good for making the slot (needs to be done by a grown up) Keep the scissors closed, pressed down firmly, twisting the scissors to make a hole, then cut the slot.

The hen's comb is a small scrunched up piece of red tissue paper, glued on top, the eyes are drawn on with a black pen. We made a sticky out beak (like the penguins), but the easiest way to do the beak is to paint or draw one, or glue on a small triangle. Paint or colour in a red wattle under the beak.

The cones could be bunnies..

We painted the base green, but you could use a green carton - and then painted the cones grey. We painted some of the lid grey too, for the ears.

Cut out two petal shapes for the ears from the painted egg carton lid, and then snip out the middle part, to separate each ear.

Paint the tummy part white, a line of pink in the ears (or colour this in) and use a black pen to draw a face, right on top of the cone. Glue on a little piece of cotton wool at the back, for the tail. There's a more detailed tutorial HERE.