A snail called Mel that hides in his shell

Sometimes I know how I'd like a project to look at the end, but am not quite sure how to get there... This was one of those! 

We had a few interesting attempts at getting Mel the snail back into his egg carton shell, and this, I think, is the best one. 

You will need:

Egg carton

Paint

Sticky tape

Kebab skewer or cocktail stick

Cereal box card (optional)

Green paper (optional)

Glue (optional)

1. The thing about egg carton cups is that on the whole, it's impossible to cut them out neatly with  a nice even edge. Usually there will be two big gaps, where the cup joins onto the middle cone (yes, I spend way too much time looking at egg cartons!) 

On the LHS you'll see how most egg cups look when you've roughly cut them out, and on the RHS, a nice neat round one, the way you'd like them to look, but they aren't always so easy to find...and that's okay!

2. ...because I'm going to use the one on the left and make the most of its weird, gappy shape.

So, neaten around the top edge and simply cut out the messy joins, right down to the base of the cup. 

3. Then paint your shell whatever colour or colours you like. 

If you're using a kebab stick, cut or break it in half, snip off the pointy end and paint one end the colour of your snail shell.

4. For the snail's body, cut a strip of plain or coloured paper about 12cm long and roughly 1cm wide. Fold it in half, then place your stick in the crease, with about 1cm of the painted end sticking out. 

Get your little crafter to hold the stick steady while you cover the strip of paper with a piece of sticky tape (a bit longer than the paper strip). Start in the middle, so you get it nice and tight around the stick.

5. Snip the sticky tape either side of the stick/skewer, and on both sides of the paper strip (try not to cut through the paper), and carefully fold the sticky tape under the strip.

6. Cut off any extra bits of sticky tape at the ends and then make the tentacles by cutting down the strip (about 3cm), close to the edges on either side - fold the middle part back and snip it off.

The shiny sticky tape gives it a slippery, slidey look, which is perfect for a snail!

7. Now, fold the body in half, and tightly roll it around the stick a few times. When you let go it will unfurl a little.

8. Make a hole in the middle of your egg cup shell (use something like nails scissors - keep them closed to pierce the hole - place some modelling clay under the bottom of the cup, so you have something to push against).

Use a black pen to draw a shell swirl, starting from the hole.

9. Unfurl your snail body, feed it into the grooves, so the head and tentacles are pointing up, and push the end of the skewer stick into the hole.

The tail end needs to be snipped now, as it will be too long. When you're happy with the length, take the body out of the shell again and round off the end of the tail.

10. Make sure both ends are through the gaps, the stick is pushed in as far as it will go, and then twist the stick slowly, either way, and the snail will go back into his shell. 

You can simply hold the bottom part of the cup to do this, or blue tack the base of your snail to a table or other hard surface. You will need to take the stick out every time he's gone back into his shell, and thread the body through again, to repeat the action, but this is simple enough to do.

Occasionally wrap the body tightly around the stick again (step 7)

Optional:

11. We made a little cardboard scene for our snail out of a piece of cereal box card.

We painted the top part blue, with splodges of white for the sky. When dry, get some green paper and cut long, spiky zigzags for grass. No need to cut the paper to size at this stage, just make sure you've cut enough grass! Rub glue stick or brush a thin layer of glue on the bottom half of the card.

Line the bottom of the grass up with the bottom of the blue and smooth the rest of the green paper over the sticky card. When it's dry, cut away the excess paper.

Fold the card at the grass base, glue the egg carton shell in front of the strands of grass, and when the glue is dry, stick another skewer through the hole in the shell, keeping it level with the base, and mark where it hits card. Make a small hole here. (Place a piece of modelling clay behind the card while you make the hole, so there's something to push against)

Now the scene is set! We added a few paper flowers, but do add whatever you like.

Either hold the scene in one hand while turning the stick, or blue tack it to a table. You will need to take the stick out to reset your snail. Bend the card back, remove the stick from the shell, unfurl, feed through the gaps, push the stick back in the hole, and you're ready to go again.

Eric Carle inspired Butterfly! (and cocoon)

This project was inspired by an Eric Carle Instagram craft challenge - they're so great for coming up with new ideas! It's a very simple project - younger makers will need some help with the folding and cutting. I've laid out a simplified pattern for Eric Carle's butterfly, but feel free to design your own butterfly!

You will need:

A4 sheet of plain paper

Paints

Two pipe cleaners

Small plastic bottle and cut up pieces of newspaper for the Cocoon

1. First, fold your piece of paper in half lengthways, then fold each half into the middle, open up and you should have four evenly spaced creases.

2. For our Eric Carle inspired butterfly, we used the creases as a guide to paint a purple, then green, then greeny-blue, followed by a blue stripe. We used poster paints and watered them down so they were more of a wash, and went on quickly with a big brush. (I often use a pastry brush, great for painting bigger areas quickly)

We painted the back the same way too, but this really is optional.

3. Once dry, fold the piece of paper in half the other way, so you can clearly see the middle of your butterfly.

We then used thick yellow poster paint to splodge on two round shapes at either end of the purple stripe, and yellow lines between the purple and green, the blue and greeny-blue stripe, and a thick one across the middle of the greeny-blue stripe. Then three dots on either edge of the green stripe.

4. We added a few dots at the top of the blue stripe, then mixed a little red into the yellow for some orange dots on either edge of the greeny-blue stripe.

5. Next, red circles in the corners and small dots in the middle of the orange ones. A red line and a dot on half of the bottom yellow line, and another dot above it on the greeny-blue stripe. Add a dab of orange to the top red circles.

6. Then thick purple lines in the middle of the green and the blue stripes, plus purple dots in the bottom circles. Last but not least a short green line in the middle of the purple stripe and some green dots at either end of the top purple line.

7. When dry, start folding or pleating your piece of painted paper longways, as if you're making a fan. If you're crafting with little ones, maybe make the pleats bigger, so they can be more involved with the folding.

8. In order for the pipe cleaner to be wrapped around the centre of your butterfly more easily, you need to cut a triangle from the middle of your fan - making sure you don't cut all the way through! Aim for a small triangle that's at least half the width of your folds. Make sure you cut it on the non-decorated side too.

Cutting through the paper fan can be hard, so best done by an adult.

9. Pipe cleaner time! We made some antennae with a piece of black pipe cleaner and then used a whole yellow one and made a hook shape at one end (the length we wanted our butterfly's body to be).

10. Hook it over the antennae, then hook the whole thing over the centre of your butterfly wings.

11. Start wrapping the rest of the pipe cleaner tightly around the body, and then over and around the wings to secure them. Wrap the remaining part of the pipe cleaner around the head part, so the antennae are secure too.

12. We wrapped a small piece of red pipe cleaner around the top part to keep our butterfly looking as EC as possible, but this is totally up to you. Dot on eyes with a black marker pen.

13. For the cocoon, you need a small plastic bottle that's at least as tall as the length of one of the butterfly wings.

Cut up some newspaper, water down some PVA (craft) glue, soak the paper pieces in the watery glue and cover the bottle in papier mache. Messy but fun! It really doesn't need to be neat.


14. Once dry, paint it brown, orange and yellow stripes. Have the colours on one plate and let them mix together a bit, so you get a mix of colours in the stripes, and they meld into each other.

Paper plate mermaid

Magical mermaids! Always thought the bumpy rim on a paper plate would make a good scaly tail, so that's how this project started..
We used small pieces of sponge to paint her too, which was super quick, great fun and added a bit more texture.

You will need:
Two paper plates (ours were 15cm)
Scissors
Pencil
Craft glue or a glue stick
Paint
Old sponge
Black felt tip or gel pen

1. Draw a pencil line in one of the grooves on the plate rim and roughly mark the middle point of the plate. Count about 10 bumps along and draw another line in the groove. Join the top of these two lines to the dot in the middle of the plate, but curve the lines out a bit, so they're not completely straight (this top part is going to be your mermaid's body)

2. Cut this piece out and then cut the rim away from the centre of the plate. 

Cut five pieces from the rim that are about the same size as the rim on the body piece (10 bumps). 

Glue FOUR of these pieces to the body (leave one for the end of the tail). Glue them underneath, with the bumps showing. Just concentrate on lining up the top edge, and making a nice curve here for the tail. 

Don't worry about the sticky out bits at the bottom! We'll sort those out when the glue dries.

3. While the glue dries, make the head by drawing around the bottom of something like a small spice jar on a spare piece of paper plate centre. Cut it out, and if you want, trim two sides to make a more oval shape (optional).

4. For the mermaid's hair, cut out the middle of the second paper plate - we trimmed it all round, cutting more away on two sides, to make it oval shaped (again, this is optional) Ours ended up about 12cm long and 10cm wide.

5. Cut about a third off the head and place it on the hair, so she looks like she's got a fringe (bangs). When you're happy with the position, draw a pencil line right along the top of the head.

Then, roughly halfway along this line, fold the hair piece longways. and either cut straight along the folded line for a straight fringe, OR, as we did, start cutting just above the line, aiming for the end of the line, to make a centre parting!
Make sure the head piece fits in the slot, but don't stick it down yet.

6. To make the arms, draw around the top part of the mermaid's body on some spare paper plate middle. Make sure it's just the top of the body, so only go as far as the first ridge (see picture below). Then join the two ends with a gently curved line.

7. Draw a pencil line inside, mirroring the shape, so it's about 1cm wide (it doesn't have to be perfect!)

Cut the piece out and then snip through the pointy end of the shape, and follow the inside line.

8. Time to finish off the tail! cut away the sticky out bits at the bottom (I've drawn a pencil line, so you can see more clearly what I mean). Then draw a pencil line from the bottom of the second piece of plate rim to the end of the tail, tapering and making it thinner as you do, to make a nice curve. Keep it about a 1cm wide at the end.

9. To make an even looking tail end, draw a pencil line roughly in the middle of the remaining piece of plate rim. Cut away the sides at an angle, so it's the right size to fit on the end of the tail. Then cut out the curvy tail end, using the middle line as a guide. Glue in place.

10.  Painting time and we cut small pieces from an old sponge, about 2 to 3cm square. Press them in the paint and get sponging! Use one piece for each different colour.

First we painted the body, head and arms. We mixed lots of white with a little red, dab of yellow and tiny spot of blue.

The hair is a mix of yellow and orange splodges, but do the body and hair whatever colour you prefer.

The tail is green and blue splodges. 

Leave your mermaid pieces to dry.

11. Once dry, assemble your mermaid. Slide the arm piece over the body and angle it to one side. Trim the nearest arm, so it doesn't look too long. Make sure the arm piece is 1cm or so below the pointy top and glue in place. Glue the head to the top of the body, and then the body to the hair, sliding the head into the fringe slot. 

12. Cut small triangles for the bikini from some leftover rim, and glue them on. Use a black pen to draw on her face.

Obviously add glitter if you want to!

And hang on to the leftover rim pieces. I have some other ideas for them...