Showing posts with label easy craft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy craft. Show all posts

8.5.20

Rose Bouquet fridge magnet - Mother's Day Craft




A simple and quick, and hopefully useful Mother's Day gift!

We made this two ways - rolling paper for the flowers and scrunching tissue paper - the second option is easier for littlies to do.

You will need:
Egg carton
Cereal box card (or similar)
Coloured paper (or painted plain paper)
Tissue paper (optional)
Craft glue
Paint
Scissors

1. First paint some cereal box card green and one of the egg cones blue or whatever colour you'd like your vase to be - paint some of the egg box lid too.

Putting the egg cone on a spare cone makes painting a lot easier (and a little less messy!)




2. Find something in the kitchen with a small round base to draw around. We used a spice pot. Cut out your circle.

We cut out two to show the different ways to make the flowers.


3. For the rolled roses, cut a strip of coloured paper (we chose red), about 16cm/6in. long and roughly 8cm/3in. wide. Put a little line of glue at the far end and start rolling, keeping it tight.


4. With good scissors, cut across your roll - this is best done by a grown-up - keep the pieces as thin/small as you can.


5. Paint some red splodges on your green circle, where you'd like the flowers to go.


6. Get on with making the vase while the paint dries, then dot some glue in the middle of each painted flower shape and add your little paper scrolls.


7. For an easier option, fold some tissue paper over a few times and cut out small squares (about 3cm/1in.) ). Then scrunch them up to make your blooms. Glue on the red paint marks, as before.



8. For the vase, cut the egg carton cone in half lengthways.


9. Then, trim away some of the side, so it's more even. Give it a press to push the sides out a little.



10. For the base of the vase, cut a triangle out of the spare egg carton card you've painted. Make the triangle quite flat and wide. Glue under the bottom of the vase. (The one on the right has tissue paper roses)

Glue the top of the vase to the back of your flowers.



11.  To make it into a fridge magnet, you'll probably need to glue some card to the top part of the vase first, so the magnet is at the right level. We used some strong clear glue (like UHU glue) to stick the magnet on. Or you could use a glue gun.




9.11.17

Pop-up card that makes a scene... crafts for kids


Looks familiar?.... yep, it's a tubescape with a new identity.. I just thought a pop-up card (or decoration?) sounded a bit more user friendly.  In all honesty, I'm not completely sure what to call them, so, grateful for any ideas! Ones that don't include 'toilet paper roll', which doesn't always sound so good, when followed by the words 'card' or 'gift'...

Though, to be fair, that is exactly what they are, and they do make sweet (non-wobbly) decorations. This one was inspired by Blue Planet 2! It's a thank you card for a friend, with room on the back for a short message.

'We had a whale of a time!'

Corny or what?

You'll need:
Toilet paper tube
Pencil
Scissors
Paint
Craft glue or glue stick
Sticky tape
Sheet of plain paper
Black pen
Glitter (optional)

1. Flatten the tube with your hand and draw a wavy line (for the sea) across it, about a third of the way up.

2. Cut down the creases, either side, and along the wavy line. Keep the piece of card you've cut away.


3. Mix some blue and white paint for the sky and brush it on the exposed, inside part of the tube (make sure you go right down), and then do splodges of blue and white paint for the sea on the front part. Paint the spare piece of card dark grey for the whale. (We just added some black to our blue and white paint)




4. While that's drying, draw round a small circle (we used the lid of a vanilla essence bottle) on some yellow paper (or plain, and colour in with a yellow felt-tip pen) Add an orange felt-tip swirl if you want.

5. When the paint is dry, glue the sun onto the sky. Draw a whale on the spare painted card. To make the cutting out easier, we drew the body and the tail separately, and extended them at the bottom so there's extra to attach behind the sea.


6. Draw a spout of water on some plain paper, with a bit extra at the bottom so it's easier to attach, and cut out. Or, for a simpler option, cut thin strips of plain paper or tissue paper to glue behind the whale's hump. We added a bit of glitter to ours. Any excuse!



7. Glue the whale's body and tail behind the waves. Once they're in place, use a bit of sticky tape to keep them there... Then glue the water spout behind the hump and draw on an eye with a black pen.


8. Cut a rectangular shaped piece of plain paper, big enough to fit on the back of the tube. Write your message and use a glue stick to glue in place. Unfortunately we sent ours before I remembered I hadn't taken a picture of the message on the back! But sure, there'll be more - we have a few Christmas ideas...






18.4.15

Paper primrose posy

There was a steep, grassy bank near our house when I was little. It was a great thinking spot - sitting up high, looking out over the garden, and in early Spring it was covered in primroses - a soft, delicate blanket of yellow. Anytime I see them now it takes me right back. So, these paper primroses are a nod to my wildflower bank, where I got lost in big, happy dreams.



They’re based on the paper daisy folding technique - though a little different because the petals are sort of heart shaped.

You will need:
yellow and green paper or plain paper to paint
sheet of newspaper
small plastic flower pot or yogurt pot
yellow and orange paint
PVA craft glue
Two small bottles or pots, for circle templates. One a little bigger than the other (for leaves).


If you have a small plastic flower pot, then that’s perfect - we didn’t, so I rubbed some sandpaper over a yogurt pot to take the sheen off, and painted it with multi-surface primer the night before. 

Make up some terracotta coloured paint using ready-mixed poster or acrylic paints. 

Mix red and yellow together and add just a little blue - then a good amount of white until you’re happy with the colour. I find adding white helps cover shiny, awkward surfaces like this - it works a treat on the outside of cereal box card too.





While the paint is drying, draw round the smaller circle template (we used a spice jar) for your primrose, and cut it out.

Fold the circle in half, then half again.


Draw a straight line up from the tip to the top, and make a mark halfway along the line.
Draw another line passing through this point from side to side, making a cross.





Then draw the rounded top part of a petal, from the point where the lines cross, curved up to the top and back down to the end of the line on both sides (like the top of a heart).  Keep them even.

Carefully cut round the petal tips with small scissors and when you’re happy, open up your primrose.

To make the flower centre, put a small dab of orange in the middle, and two short, thick strokes of yellow, touching the orange, under it.
Fold the flower in half, gently pressing the sides together.

Open, then put two tiny dabs of orange below the yellow and fold and press again. They’ll all have their own look which is perfect.



To make the leaves, draw round your larger circle template and cut it out.

Fold this in half, then half again.

About a cm up from the tip, draw a line straight across and mark a halfway point.

Draw a curved half leaf shape from this point to a top corner and repeat on the other side, so both look alike.

Cut carefully around the leaf tops and open up.





Put a dab of glue on the back of a flower and stick it onto a leaf. Make about 10 or 12.


Scrunch up the sheet of newspaper and stick it into the flower or yogurt pot, making sure a decent amount of it sits proud in a good mound shape.


Glue on your primroses






and overlap them, as that’s the way they like to be - bunched up close together.