Paper Plate Witch

These witchy witches would make good decorations for a Halloween party.

Egg carton Mice

WHO ate all the CHEESE??!

These little egg carton mice are having a lovely time, and when the kids have finished playing with them, they can be packed away inside the big cheese for next time.

You will need:
2 Egg cartons
Pencil

Scissors
Plain paper
Paint
Glue/glue stick
Black marker or gel pen
Yarn (for tail)

1. First, roughly cut out the middle cones from the carton, so they're easier to work with.

2. Use a pencil to lightly draw a line around the bottom of the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard join (for guidance, so doesn't matter if the line is a bit wobbly!) 

Cut up to the line at an angle, and then along it, so the edge is even and the cone sits flat.  Trim if you need to. Make some smaller mice bodies too.

3. Next, you want to make them sit forward a little. So, draw a pencil cline straight across one side, about 1cm up from the bottom.

4. Then draw a diagonal line from each end of the pencil line, down the sides to the corner. 

Cut along the pencil line. You will end up with a more mouselike body.

5. For the ears, simply use a paper heart! Fold a piece of plain paper over, and draw half a heart on the fold (keep in mind the size of your mouse, so you don't make the ears too big).

6. Cut the heart out, snipping the middle a little lower than you would normally, open up and glue on the back of the head near the top (the longest side of the cone)

7. You could paint the body and ears separately before sticking together, but we went for an all over body paint - just need to make sure not to overload the brush with paint, or the ears will get too soggy.

8. Once dry, paint on some pink..

... then use a black pen to draw eyes, a nose and whiskers. Try to draw the eyes up close to the base of the ears, on the flattish top part of the cone, and the nose and whiskers right underneath the eyes.

9. For the tail, snip a slot at the back of your mouse, cut a few cms of yarn and slot into place.

10. For the big cheese, remove the middle cones from inside the second carton by squeezing and cutting straight across each one. Snip them off as near to the base as you can - so there'll be more room inside for your mice!

Make holes in the carton lid with small sharp scissors, like nail scissors (keep closed, press down and twist from side to side) This needs to be done by an adult. Cut different sized holes, then let little ones loose with the yellow paint!

11. We folded a piece of kitchen paper inside our cheese, so they didn't fall through the holes.
And they've got something nice and soft to sleep on too... of course..

Simple shape potato printing for Halloween!

I'm LOVING potato printing! And there's so much you can do with simple shapes. Perfect for pictures, decorations and cards, and fun for all ages. The theme here is Halloween, but I'll definitely be trying out some other ideas in the run up to Christmas.

Triangles pop up a fair bit! For the witch, cut a potato in half.  Slice a sliver off the bottom of your potato half, so it sits flat and is easier to work with.

Either use a ruler and pen and draw on a triangle, and then score using the ruler and a sharp pencil, or score straightaway. 

Start with the base line of the triangle and take it right to the edges. Roughly mark the midpoint of the base line at the top of the potato, and score lines up to this mark. 

Use a piece of kitchen roll to wipe away potato bits and moisture. 

For the witch's face, score a line across the triangle, a few cms from the tip and another just below it.

We found the easiest thing to do next was to cut the triangle out on the score lines. 

TIP: (To be done by an adult) Cut two wedges away, either side, at back, leaving a ridge of potato to hold onto. A sort of potato handle! Easier for little hands.

For this print we brushed on the paint so we could make her face green. Don't use too much paint or it will squidge around the edges.

When the paint is dry use a black pen to add a wicked witchy face, hair and a brim for her hat.

We used the side of a piece of coffee stirrer and a mix of yellow and orange paint to print on a broomstick.

The ghost also starts off as a triangle too. Draw and score as before. This time I used a sharp knife to cut away slivers up to the score line, to define the triangle (to be done by an adult) - though you could completely cut away the sides again, like we did with the witch.

Once the triangle is defined, draw and score a line to round off the top of the triangle, then slice up to the score line. Draw and score a zigzag along the bottom and slice across the potato, up to the score line again.

As it's one colour printing, you could make your own stamp pad. 

Soak a piece of thin, damp kitchen sponge in some white paint. We put ours in a small recycled clear plastic pot, (think it had been a humous pot!) then you can pop the lid back on to stop the paint drying out too fast. But when you've finished printing, let the sponge air dry (it could eventually get mouldy if it stays wet) and just wet with water and add more paint when you want to use again.

Or you could brush on a layer of paint.

Print on coloured paper or paint a black background first, and let it dry.

When your ghosts are dry, use a black pen to draw on a hauntingly spooky face.

For the pumpkin, the shape is there already! You can either carve a face or simply print the round shape and add a face when the paint is dry.

We cut out small triangles for eyes and a nose, and a semi circle for the mouth.

The bat is made from two small triangle shapes. First, draw and score a thin triangle, curve the base inwards to define the bat's ears, and slice slivers away around the sides, or cut out completely, like the witch.

The second triangle should be a similar size, but wider - use the curved edge of your potato for one of the sides.

Print the narrow triangle first, tip pointing down, this is your bat's body.

Use the other triangle for the wings - print two either side, overlapping them and make sure the curved edge is at the top.

Dot on some yellow paint for eyes and when dry, add a black centre with the pen.

Happy Halloween!

Fishy business - egg carton fish

Fish made from egg cartons. Two of my favourite things! I have fish plates, tiles, pictures, crafts all over the house - a fish mobile I made from copper wire, beads and shells years ago is still doing the rounds on Pinterest, so there's obviously a lot of other people who like fish too. And I think if you've popped by here before, you'll know I'm pretty keen on egg cartons! 

This craft is very similar to the stacking croc and lizard, except easier, because you don't need to hunt for quite so many egg cartons..

You will need:

At least 2 egg cartons

Scissors

Craft glue

Paint

Tin-foil (optional)

Black pen

1. For the smaller fish you will need four egg carton cones. Cut them out roughly first, then more neatly, above the bumpy cardboard join, so you end up with a nice even edge around the bottom.

2. Then shorten three of the cones by about 1 cm/1/2in. - do it by eye, as it really doesn't have to be exact - the important thing is that the three shorter ones are roughly the same height. 

3. Paint the cones whatever colour you'd like your fish to be. A good tip for painting cones is to slot one on top of a spare, roughly cut out cone, so you have something to hold onto while you paint, and hands hopefully get less messy! 

4. Brush glue inside the larger cone (fish head) and slot one of the smaller cones into it, facing the opposite way.

5. Brush some glue inside another cone and slot it over the top. You could push this right up to the front head cone, or leave a little of the one underneath showing.

6. For the tail, take the remaining cone and cut out triangles on each side, going from corner to corner. (You could paint the inside of this cone too, for a neater finish)

...so it has a kind of bluebell-shaped look...

7. Flatten the top part of the tail with your finger, and the end of the fish where the tail is going to go, and glue together. We found the best way to get the glue to set was to place our fish upright, on its tail, propped up against something, so it didn't fall over. Or you could use stronger glue like UHU, or a glue gun.

8. Use the triangles you've cut out for the fins. Shorten and trim if you need to, and glue just behind the head cone. Dot on eyes with a black pen.

9. For a larger fish, the process is the same but you'll need 6 egg carton cones. This time shorten four, and keep two the original size (for the head).

10. Stack and glue the larger cones together, so you can see a part of the underneath cone, then glue and slot one of the smaller cones inside, facing the other way.

11. Start stacking on the smaller cones - you can push the next one right up towards the head, or leave a little gap. Space the next cone, so you can see the one underneath. Try to keep the spacing even, but it really doesn't need to be perfect.

12. Cut triangles out of the sides of the remaining tail cone, flatten the top and the end of the fish and glue together. For fins, glue two spare triangles just under the front cones. Trim the triangles if you like.

13. For shiny scales, we covered a few of our egg cones with tin foil. Just wrap a piece tightly around the cone, tucking any bits hanging over the end inside.