Easter bunny and chick have a little picnic! - #stayhomeandcraft

This is a gathering of some past toilet paper roll crafts and it makes a really sweet little display - perfect for storing pens and pencils, or a few Easter eggs!

You will need:
3 Toilet paper rolls (or use kitchen paper rolls)
Egg carton
Cereal box card
Plain paper
Paint
Craft glue (and a glue stick is useful too)
Scissors
Feather (optional)
Black pen
Yellow/orange tissue paper (optional)


1. Cut a piece of cereal box, about 12cm by 14cm (5in. x 51/2in.) and cut one cup from the egg carton.

2. Paint one of the tubes green, plus about halfway down the inside, and paint the plain side of the cereal box card.

3. While that's drying, gently press one of the other cones flattish, so it's easier to draw on - try not to crease the sides too much, and draw bunny ears. It helps if you draw a light pencil line down the middle of the cone first, then draw the ears either side. This keeps things even. Roughly half the tube should be bunny body and the rest, right up to the top, should be ears.

Continue the pencil line around the back - we curved ours down a little, then up to meet the other side, but straight is fine too.

4. When cutting out the middle of the ears, cut from the top down to the bottom of the ears on both sides, then fold out the flap of card and remove.

5. Cut down the other side of the ear, then cut down to the line a little further around the back of the tube, fold out and cut the flap off. Cut along the pencil line to the bottom of the other ear.

6. For the chick, flatten the last cone carefully again, and draw a curved line across, about a third of the way up the cone. Continue the line around the back. We curved this down a little, like the bunny, but straight is fine too.

7. Paint the chick, egg carton cup and some spare card (for the basket handle) yellow, and paint your bunny grey (or any other colour you like!)

8. While they're drying, Cut zigzags into you green cone. Make them different widths and lengths. On one side make the grass shorter, so you can see longer strands behind. This adds to the 3D effect.

9. Make some little flowers and insects to add to your grass.  The daisies are thin strips of white paper crossed over each other and glued together with a yellow centre (either paint or draw this on, or use a hole puncher to make a little yellow circle. The butterfly and ladybird and made from cereal box card. There is a more detailed tutorial for this meadow scene HERE.

10. To finish the bunny, either paint the inside of the ears pink, or fold a small piece of paper in half and draw a petal shape that's smaller than your bunny's ears. Cut out so you end up with two identical pieces. If you don't have pink paper, colour in some plain paper.

Glue these in place ( a glue stick is the easiest and least messy way to do this)

For the bunny's tummy, fold a small piece of plain paper in half and draw half an oval shape on the fold. Cut out and open up. Glue near the bottom of your cone.

Use a black pen to draw on eyes, nose and whiskers. Keep the eyes close to the bottom of the ears. Add a cotton wool tail on the back if you like.

11. For the chick, draw eyes with a black pen near the top of the curve, and glue a small orange triangle between them. (You could paint or draw the beak on instead)

If you have any feathers, glue one behind the top of the head.

12. The little basket is based on the nests for happy hens in my book, 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'. There's a link to Amazon here if you'd like to see it.

If you don't have tissue paper, or want a more speedy option, just cut a strip from the yellow card thats a good size for a handle, and glue the ends inside the egg carton cup. Use some paper clips to hold this in place while the glue dries.

If you want to use tissue paper, loosely fold a few sheets of yellow and orange over several times, and cut across, keeping the strips really thin. When you feel you have enough, unfurl and pull the strands apart, then scrunch and rip them up a bit.

13. Brush some glue inside the egg cup and press a good amount of your ripped up tissue paper strands into the glue. Fun and messy! Keep pressing the tissue paper around the inside until it moulds to the shape of the cup, and most of the strands are glued down. Do the same on the outside, pressing and squeezing the cup until the tissue paper looks quite flat. Cut off any fly-away bits.

14. For the handle, glue and press another handful of strands onto the yellow painted card. Press as flat as you can.

Then cut a strip from the middle - shape and size it for the basket, and glue the ends inside. Use paper clips or something similar to hold the ends in place while the glue dries.

15. Assemble all your pieces on the card and glue in place.

To make the base more sturdy, you could glue to a thicker piece of cardboard.

 Now it's ready for pens or chocolate eggs! (know what I'd choose..)

Stay Home and Easter Craft!

These are such strange and uncertain times.  Life for everyone has changed beyond measure, but the one thing we do have is time. For many of us that means an abundance of time at home with kids. Now obviously this can be both a blessing and a major challenge.. keeping little ones busy and doing something worthwhile isn't always easy, and that's where craft comes in.

Cutting, gluing, creating, painting and getting messy can be such a fulfilling way to spend time together. And you don't need shop bought craft supplies - some of the best stuff to craft with you probably have at home already, like cardboard tubes, boxes and egg cartons. Transforming everyday objects is when the magic happens!

And it's not just the kids who're occupied and using their imaginations. Getting a little lost in a craft project can be a perfect distraction for us too. A bit of craft therapy is a good thing at the moment.

It also helps to have a theme and a focus, with days stuck at home stretching ahead of us - so with Easter racing up, I've put together a collection of Easter crafts you might want to try - birds, trees, bunnies, fish, butterflies and flowers! Just click on the title for the full project.

Egg Carton bluebirds in an Easter tree

The little egg carton birds are a big favourite here, and these blue birds are a really simple to make version. Change the colour and size if you want, it's totally up to you. The same goes for the tree top - why not try a different shape?

Easter bunny egg holder!

Well, it doesn't have to be an egg holder, but any opportunity to sneak in some chocolate! This would make a lovely table place setting for Easter day. Make one per child, pop their name on a piece of paper and prop it in front of the ears. Hide a little treat inside.

Shiny Happy Easter Crafts!

REMEMBER TO HOLD ONTO YOUR EASTER EGG FOIL!!  I know that's sometimes tricky with eager, impatient little chocolate egg hunters, but there's plenty you can do with it, even the small bits!! The great thing about using foil to cover cardboard shapes is you can easily wrap the bits that go over the edge, underneath. This gives a really neat finish.

Rainbow Foil Fish

This is a good way to use up those smaller pieces of foil. Great for a picture collage or a shiny mobile.

Springtime Egg Carton Posy

Such a bright and cheery craft - egg cartons are brilliant for making flowers. They make lovely gifts too.

Rainbow foil fish - Easy Easter craft

'Just need to eat this bag of chocolate eggs so I can make some shiny shapes!'

Yes, this has got to be one of THE best excuses for chocolaty treats!

At the moment the shops are full of colourful foil wrapped eggs, bunnies, you name it - and I'd say the hardest part of this craft is getting the foil off in decent size pieces, or saving enough from impatient little people who just want to rip it off. So you end up with tin foil confetti!

Try to hang on to some if you can. You'll be glad you did.

You will need:
Colourful tin foil pieces
Kitchen foil (optional)
Cereal box card
Pencil
Scissors
Glue stick
Black marker pen (Sharpie)
Stick (optional)
String or yarn (optional)
Sticky tape (optional)

Now you see them...

1. To make a fish shape, draw half a fish on the fold of some cereal box card - we used one of the side box folds that was already there - cut out and use as your template. Make the fish any size you want - we made two, one about 14cm/51/2in. long, the other 10cm/4in.

2. Draw around your template and cut out the fish shapes. We made eight altogether.

Snip your colourful foil (and kitchen foil) into smaller pieces if you want. Cut away any straggly edges.

Then cover a card fish with a good layer of glue stick and start arranging your foil.

Overlap to avoid too many gaps and use more glue to stick these foil pieces down.

Don't worry about bits hanging over the edge, because these can be tucked around the back when you've finished. Rub more glue along the back edge before wrapping the foil around your shape.

3. We added a fin, this is optional though, just cut a small triangle from some spare card, rub some glue on, and cover with foil. Glue to your fish. Dot on eyes with a black marker pen (like a Sharpie).

4. Use your fish in a collage..

5. Or you could make a wall hanging.

Find a good stick - ours is a piece of driftwood from the beach, but something from the garden is perfect. Ours is about 40cm/15in. long.

Cut a length of string or yarn about 40cm/15in. long (just as a guide). Then cut two more pieces of string, double that length.

Tie the end of the shorter piece to the middle of your stick with a double knot. Tie the other pieces either side, but make the knot in the middle of the length of string, so you have plenty left to hang your shoal of fish.

6. Rub a good amount of glue stick over the middle part of the back of your fish and arrange them on the strings. Aim for the middle of your fish, but it really doesn't need to be perfect, so don't worry.

7. Give the glue a chance to dry, then turn the fish over and use some sticky tape to properly attach them to the string.

8. Cut away any stray strings. You may find some of the bottom fish don't look like they're swimming completely straight, but I think this just gives the display a bit more movement!

9. Hold your fish up by the two side strings, and when it looks even, tie the strings together and trim.

Lovely when they catch the light...

Of course you don't have to make fish, I'm just very fond of fish!! We have covered other shapes too.