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! 

Raining hearts - Valentine's craft for kids

There really is no end to what you can do with cardboard tubes! They're so amazingly versatile - just look at these little hearts. Made from slices of toilet paper rolls simply squeezed into shape. Very satisfying and quick to do, and perfect for Valentine's Day.

You will need:
Toilet paper rolls (or kitchen paper rolls)
Paint
Scissors
String/yarn and a needle
White card (or painted cereal box card)
Sticking tape
Cotton wool (optional)

1. Choose colours for your hearts and start painting. Paint the inside as well as the outside of the tube. And if you're only making a few hearts in each colour, there's no need to paint the whole tube. (You could paint each end different colours if you only have a few tubes spare)

2. When the paint is dry, flatten the tubes with the palm of your hand and press along the two creases.

3. Cut across the flattened tubes, and make each slice roughly about a cm wide.

4. Cut a cloud shape from some white card or cereal box card (ours is about 28cm/11in. wide)

5. To make the heart shape, pinch one of the creases (see pic below) and push the other crease down, towards it, then give this crease a good pinch while you press the top part of the heart into shape with your fingers. Takes a bit of practice, but once you've got the hang of it you'll be making them in a flash.

*We have threaded our hearts together, which needs to be done by a grown up, but if you'd rather not do this, you could stick the hearts onto long strips of paper instead.*

6. We used some white yarn and a needle, and threaded it down through the middle of the heart at the top (leave a good tail to attach to the back of the cloud), and then through the point at the bottom. 

(Use modelling clay to push against, if you're finding it hard to make holes in the card)

We threaded three yellow, green, blue and orange hearts on separate strings and four red ones.

7. When you're finished, tie a knot below the bottom heart, and make sure your hearts are spaced out evenly along the yarn (remember to leave a good tail to stick behind the cloud) 

8. Use sticky tape to attach the threaded hearts to the back of the cloud. To help with spacing the strings evenly, stick down the ones at each end first (blue and green here), then stick the red hearts halfway between, before adding the other two either side.

9. Covering the cloud with cotton wool looks great too. Make sure you tease it out though, so it doesn't look too lumpy.

Paper roll heart posy

This hearty little flower craft is based on a similar one we made a while ago with tissue paper flowers. It's a great project because you can make a pretty posy quickly, with little fuss - all you need is a toilet paper tube and some coloured paper.

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)

Christmas card puzzle pictures!

Hang on to some of those old Christmas cards! So worth it for all kinds of craft projects. I've a box of old cards and use them throughout the year for various things - the more colourful and sparkly the better.
This project helps with scissors skills and puzzles, and ends up as a lovely, bright collage. Sort of three for the price of one!

You will need:
Cereal box card
Pencil
Scissors
Selection of old Christmas cards
Black pen
Glue stick
White paper or card

1. Draw some simple shapes on cereal box card. Make them a decent size - ours are about 15cm/20cm wide (6/8in.) With the symmetrical shapes like the heart and fish, fold the card in half and draw half the shape on the fold, then cut out and open up.

2. Use these shapes as templates (if you want to make more than one), and draw around them on another piece of cereal box card.

With a pencil, divide your chosen shape into sections. This is completely up to you, you could go for uniform pieces, like the one below, or completely random. You could have lots of sections too, but with little makers, it's best to keep the puzzle and the cutting simple. Our fish have six pieces, and it helps to number them.

3. Choose the cards you want to use. We arranged our cards roughly into colour tones - blues and greens, orange and reds, and pale colours.

Place one of your pieces on the part of the card you like (go for glitter!), 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)

We divided our bird into 5 sections - with a wing shape in the middle.

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 your 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. Use a black pen to dot on eyes, or hole punch a dark coloured Christmas card and glue on eyes. We added little hole punched air bubbles for our fish, and you could add lots more to your collage, like extra Christmas card sealife and maybe some wavy, tissue paper seaweed?

We added an orange triangle beak to our bird and you could cut out some legs, or maybe a branch and some leaves from green coloured cards? What about a Christmas card nest!

Lots of possibilities - see where your imagination takes you.

I'm keeping the heart puzzle picture for next month..

This one has a few more pieces, and we added fins.