Showing posts with label Make your own Zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Make your own Zoo. Show all posts

26.4.20

Egg Carton phone stand hack! - #stayhomeandcraft

egg carton craft

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.








20.2.20

The Big Blue Egg Carton Whale - #stayathomecrafts


This is a great craft because it's more than just a whale! It's somewhere to keep tiny treasures,  or pieces for simple games you can play with your little ones.

You will need:
An egg carton
Cereal box card
Craft glue
Scissors
Paint
Black marker pen
Plain paper
Nail scissors (*to be used by an adult)

1. The first thing you need to do is paint your egg carton. We used ordinary ready-mixed poster paints. Add some white paint to the blue as this helps cover up any print and pictures on the box.

Paint some spare cereal box card blue too, for the tail and fins. We painted the bottom half of the egg carton a lighter blue, but it doesn't look very different in the pictures!



2. You could cut the tail out freehand, but we decided to make a template - fold a piece of thin card or paper and draw half a tail on the fold, then open up. Make it long enough so there's plenty of card to glue inside the egg carton. We cut a triangle shape template for the fins.

3. For the mouth, carefully run a brush with some black paint along the bottom edge at the head end (see photo below) Take it around both corners of the carton so you get a nice wide smile. When the paint is dry use a black pen to finish off, lifting the corners of the mouth, so there's a happy grin. Add eyes too or use googly eyes if you prefer.



4. Glue one fin just under the front edge of the lid, near the eye, and at the back, snip along the cardboard hinge join, just enough so you can slot in the second fin.


5. For the water spray, take a piece of plain paper, about 8cm wide and 16cm long, and roll it into a tube. Don't make it too tight - you want to be able to get the arm of your scissors inside the tube. Dab a little glue on the end corner  or edge of the paper, to hold the tube together. Then cut about halfway down the tube, at roughly even spaced intervals, and all the way around.




6. Find a strand of paper right in the middle of the tube and give it a gentle tug, to pull it up a little. Don't pull too hard though, as you don't want the inside to pop out completely. (This part reminds me of making palm trees from newspaper tubes, do you ever remember doing that?) Splay out the paper strands a little by pressing down lightly with your hand. This makes it look a bit more splashy!



7. Use something like nail scissors* to make a hole for the spray on top of your whale. (Keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side) Then cut a cross that's a little bigger than the width of your paper tube, and push through the card with your finger. Brush a little glue in the hole and push the spray into it.





8. If you'd like to make some waves, squirt some blue, green and white paint onto a plate or palette and use a big brush to mix and swirl the colours together - this is great fun and looks really effective.


Cut some wavy lines and fold each piece roughly in half to prop them up.



There are all kinds of things you could put inside your whale. We made some little pine cone fish and painted them lots of bright colours. You could use them to help your little ones learn colours, or help with counting.


6.12.18

How to make the gnomes from Brian the Lion

It's the gnomes turn to take centre stage!



There's already a Brian the Lion tutorial here, and this project shows you how to make the little blue, beardy gnomes that Brian meets during his adventures in my book, 'Brian the Lion goes into Space.'
They're very simple to do - just corks and cotton wool!

You will need:
Cork (wine cork shape or cava/champagne shape)
Paint
Scissors
Blue paper (or plain paper coloured blue)
Cotton wool
Glue stick
PVA craft glue
Black felt-tip pen or gel pen

1. First, paint your cork light blue (mix a little blue with a lot of white) The champagne style corks have an obvious head shape.


2. Cut a strip of blue paper (or colour-in plain paper) Make it few cm's wide, so it's about half the length of the cork. Cut a piece that's long enough to wrap around the cork with a little overlap.


3. If you have a glue stick, rub this over your strip of paper and glue in place. With craft (pva) glue, it might be easier to brush a thin layer on the bottom half of the cork and wrap your paper piece around it, adding a tiny dab more glue where the paper overlaps.

4. Cut another thinner strip for the arms - it needs to go around the back of the cork with the arm length even on both sides. You can round off the strip ends for hands if you want, or leave them as they are. Glue in place.



5. For the gnome's shoes, place the cork on the paper and draw around it, but extend your circle shape out a bit at the front (see pic)




Cut out, and mark a 'V' shape in the middle of extra front bit that sticks out, to define the shoes. Snip out the 'V'. Glue the rest under the cork.

6. For the gnome's beard, take a small piece of cotton wool - we unwrapped a cotton ball and used one end of it. Decide how long you want your gnome's beard to be, then gently pull a hole in the cotton wool just above your chosen beard size.


7. Brush a layer of craft glue over the top and sides of the gnome's head and a little on his front, below his head, but leave a space for his face. Carefully press the cotton wool into place, around the face. Try not to get glue on your hands or his beard will stick to your fingers! Gently tease the cotton wool down at the back and sides, to cover the head, and cut any extra off. Press and trim the front too, until you're happy.






For the gnome's hat, draw around something like the base of a small glass, or jar or beaker, and cut the circle out. Fold it in half and cut along the crease. Rub or dab some glue along half the straight edge and carefully fold and bring the sides together to make a small cone shape. Press with your fingers until the glue holds.







You could glue the hat on, or leave it, so your gnome can take a nap.

Because of course, they sleep on their heads...