Tubescapes - TP roll craft for kids

This craft is all about making a scene with a cardboard tube! 

Easy to do and there are a few different tubescape ideas here for you to try. 

You will need:

Toilet paper or kitchen paper tube

Scissors

Ruler

Pencil

Paint

craft glue or glue stick

Coloured or plain paper

Fine black felt-tip or gel pen

Hole punch (optional)
metallic silver pen (optional)

1. For a daytime cityscape, flatten your cardboard tube with your hand (shorten to about 10cm/4in, if you're using a kitchen paper roll). Draw a pencil line across your tube, a few cms (about 1in.) up from the bottom edge. This will be the road. Use a ruler and pencil to draw skyscrapers - make them different sizes.

2. Cut down the creases, either side to the first rooftop. To make it easier to cut around the outline, cut down to the other side of the roof of the first building, bend this flap of card out and cut it off.

3. Paint the background blue, the road dark grey and the buildings a lighter grey.

4. Once that's dry, add short downward strokes, or dots with the black pen for the windows - this takes a bit of time, but it's worth it! Then add any detail you want with paint and a fine brush. We added a sun, trees and little cars on the road (just a dab of paint for the cars. When dry, draw on wheels with the black pen), but it's really up to you. Instead of painting the sun, you could cut out a yellow circle, as we did for the desert island scene.

5. For the night cityscape - follow the same instructions, but paint the whole of the front part with the skyscrapers yellow, and the background black.

6. Once the paint's dry, use a black pen (and a ruler if you want) to colour in the high-rise buildings leaving little rectangles of yellow. (again, time-consuming, but worth it). Colour some windows in though, so it doesn't look like all the lights are on... 

On the road, for headlight beams, you could draw long triangles, then colour around them with the black pen. Cut a moon out of plain paper and if you have a metallic pen, dot on stars. If not, you could dot on yellow paint.

7. For the desert island, flatten the tube and draw a line across, about half way up. Draw your island above this. Cut down the creases to the pencil line and cut around the outline of your island. Draw and cut a small palm tree from the leftover card.

8. Paint the sky and sea blue and the island yellow. Paint the palm tree too. Once dry you could paint on the sun, but we cut ours out of yellow paper and drew an orange spiral on it with a felt tip pen. Add some painted white lines to your sea to make it look more wavy if you want. We also drew a shark's fin… and added birds. Glue or use sticky tape to attach the palm tree to the back of the island.

9. For a pretty meadow scene - paint your tube green. While it's drying, draw simple butterfly shapes and bugs on coloured paper and cut them out (or draw them on plain paper and colour-in or paint before cutting out). Add any detail with the black pen. 

For the daisies - cut a thin strip of plain paper and cut four similar length pieces from it (all about 2cm/3/4in. long). Cross them over each other to make a daisy shape, and use a glue stick to glue them together in the middle. For the centre, either use a hole punch to punch circles from a piece of yellow paper and glue in place - or paint the centres with yellow paint.

10. When the tube is dry, cut zig-zaggy grass - make the strands different heights and widths and keep them lower on one side, so you can see through to the back. This is great scissor cutting practice!

Use a glue stick to attach your flowers and insects.

Love to hear your tubescape ideas!

Princess Leia - Star Wars craft

Princess Leia joins the crew to celebrate Star Wars day!  She's made like the other figures, but the most important thing to get right was her rather distinctive hair style. Think we cracked it...

You'll need:

Egg carton

Pencil

Ruler

Craft scissors

Nail scissors or similar (optional) Adult supervision required

Paint

Craft glue
Plain paper

Black felt-tip or gel pen
Silver metallic pen

For a lightsaber:
Coloured straw

Black marker pen (like a Sharpie)

1. As with the other figures, roughly cut out two middle cones from the egg box so they're easier to work with. On one, draw a pencil line around the bottom of the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard joins. Cut along the line. This will be the body.

2. The second cone is for the head, and you only need the very top part. Either estimate this, or use a pencil and ruler to mark about 1.5cm (1/2in.) from the top on all sides, join the marks and cut out. A handy way to do this is to cut up two adjacent corners to the pencil line, bend the card back and cut off the flap - it should be easier now to cut along the rest of the line.

(If your cone has a hole in the top, see the tip at the bottom.)

3. For the arms, fold a piece of the egg carton lid in half and draw an arm (roughly about 3cm/or 1in. long) on the fold. Make it a little wider at the unfolded end. Cut out and open up.

4. Either cut the arm strip in half after the painting step (Step 7), and glue the pieces either side of the body, or, with adult supervision, use the nail scissors to make a hole roughly in the middle of one of the arm sides (keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.)
Once you've made the hole, snip up to the top of the cone and down the other side until the slot looks level. Cut an extra sliver out to widen the gap for the arms. Make sure the slot goes far enough down the body, so when you push the arm strip in, it sits below the top part of the cone (the head will be glued here later). Don't glue any of the pieces together just yet.

5. For her side buns, cut out a strip of plain paper, about 5cm by 8cm (2in.x3in.) and roll it as tightly as you can.

6. Then cut across your roll. Cut a few and make them as thin as you can. Choose two you're happy with, and gently squeeze them back into a rounder shape, letting them unfurl a little. Dab glue on the sides of Princess Leia's head and stick them in place. This might be easier to do with the head sitting on the body. 

7. Painting time. Take the head off and paint the body and arms white.

TIP: As with Darth Vader, place the body on a spare egg carton cone to make painting easier (and less messy!)

Make a skin colour by mixing white with a little red, a touch of yellow and the tiniest dab of blue. Paint one side of the head. When that's touch dry paint on brown hair, painting the buns too. It helps if you draw the outline of the hair on the face first with a brown or black pen before painting. 

Again, put the head on a spare egg carton cone while you're decorating it. 

9. When the paint is dry, use the fine black pen to draw on a face and if you have a silver pen add a belt (see pic above). Glue the head on and if you have cut the arm strip in half, glue them either side.

If you'd like to make a lightsaber or another type of weapon for Princess Leia, have a look at the steps for Luke Skywalker

Tip: If your egg cones have holes in the top, brush glue inside the cones and push a small piece of newspaper up to fill the hole.

Easy bunny project from 'Make your own farm animals'

Looking for something crafty to do with the kids over the hols? What about making a farm? All the projects in this book are simple to follow, and they use easy to get hold of cardboard bits and bobs, like egg cartons, cereal packets and tubes - so you should have just about everything you need to get started..

None of the book projects have made an appearance on the blog yet, so, as it's a kind of bunny time of year, thought I'd share this one :)

You'll need:
Egg carton
Pencil
Ruler
Red, yellow, blue and white paint
Fine paintbrush
Kids' craft scissors
Craft glue
Black felt-tip or gel pen
Cotton wool ball

1 Roughly cut out a whole middle cone from the egg carton so it's easier to work with.

2. Use a pencil and ruler to measure and mark 2cm (3/4in.) from the top on one side of the cone, and draw a line across here. On the opposite side, measure and mark 3cm (11/4in.) from the top and draw another line.
Join them with sloping lines either side.

3. Cut out your bunny's body. A handy way to do this is to snip up two adjacent cone corners to the pencil line, then fold back the flap and cut it off - now it's easier to cut along the rest of the line.

4. For the ears, draw a petal shape on card from the egg carton lid. As a guide - make it no more than about 4cm (11/2in.) long and not too wide. Cut this out. If you want to make more bunnies, you could keep it to use as a template to draw around.

5. To form the ears, draw a long, slightly curvy 'V' in the middle of your petal shape - don't take it down as far as the pointy end. Snip out the card piece between the ears.

6. Brush glue on the bottom part of the ears and stick them just behind the top of the cone (on the longer cone side).

7. When the glue's dry, pinch hold of the cone where the ears are attached and bend the ears back. Paint the bunny whatever colour you like, remembering to paint both sides of the ears. This brown colour is made by mixing yellow with a little red and a dab of blue - lighten with some white.

8. When it's touch dry, use a fine paint brush to add a white fluffy chest, then mix a touch of red with the white to make pink and paint a stripe inside each ear.

9. For the tail, pull off a small amount of cotton wool, roll it between into a little ball between your finger and thumb and glue to the back of your bunny near the base.Use a black felt-tip or gel pen to draw a face. Do the twitchy nose first, right on the edge of the cone top and add the eyes just above.

TIP: If your egg carton has cones with holes in the top, brush some glue inside them and push a little scrunched up ball of newspaper up, to fill the hole.

There are some good deals on Amazon, and noticed 'Make your own farm animals is only £3.99 on the UK Book People site at the moment. Free postage too if you spend over £25.

Cork crafts with a twist for Easter

I'm not sure where this idea came from... but hey, why not a chick on an Easter bonnet or a cat on a hat?? Probably has something to do with the amount of time I've spent looking at corks! I wanted to come up with a quick project that involved simple painting and was possibly a bit quirky? The bottom part of the cork below the rounded top just made me think HAT.

You'll need:
Cork (from something fizzy)
Paint
Coloured paper
Craft glue
Glue stick
Pencil
Spice jar to draw around
3 feathers (for the chick)
Small stickers/sequins (optional)
Spare card (for the cat)
Black felt-tip or gel pen


1. First, paint the rounded top part of the cork yellow for the chick, then decide what colour hat you want, and paint the bottom part. You could paint it the same colour as the paper for the hat rim (like we did) or make it completely different.

2. For the rim of the hat, find a circle shape that's bigger than the bottom of the cork (we used a small spice jar), draw around it with a pencil and cut out. Cut a thin strip of paper for a hat band.

3. Put a thin layer of glue on the hat band strip (a glue stick is best for this) and wrap it around the bottom of the cork - don't worry if it doesn't go all the way around (like ours) - the gap can be covered by the rim of the hat. Glue the bottom of the cork to the paper circle - place it a little off centre, and then glue the wider part of the rim to the side of the cork to make a turn up. If you need to, lean a book on the hat turn up while it dries.

4. To decorate, we made little paper flowers, but if you have some pretty small stickers or shiny sequins these would be an easier option and would look so lovely too.

(To make the paper flowers, cut a very small square of paper, fold it in half then half again. It helps if you draw a petal shape on top, starting from the corner that's the middle of the square (centre of your flower). Do a few practice ones - sometimes they can end up looking more like butterflies, which is good too! Cut out a circle for the middle, or use a hole punch to make circles, or paint the centre)

5. Use a black felt tip or gel pen to draw eyes on your chick, near the top, and straight above the hat turn-up.

6. Cut a small orange triangle for the beak (if you don't have orange paper, colour in some plain paper or draw a beak straight onto your chick with an orange felt-tip). Dab the tiniest bit of glue just below the eyes (or use a glue stick), wet your finger to pick up the tiny beak and stick it in place.

7. Glue feathers either side, for the wings.

- and, if you want, add a head plume. Make a hole on top, near the front, just above the eyes, using a small screw (screw it in until the hole is deep enough) - put some glue on the bottom of the feather and push it into the hole.

8. For the Cat, follow the instructions above to Step 4, making sure you also paint a small piece of spare card (or paper) the same colour as your cat's body (for the tail and ears).


9. When the paint's dry, draw and cut out a tail and a small square (that will be the ears) - make sure it's no wider than the top of the cork.

10. Fold the small square in half and on one side of the fold line, draw pointy ears. Carefully cut around them, bending the piece between the ears back so it's easier to snip off.

11. Glue the bottom part of the folded ear piece to the top of the cork, straight above the hat turn-up.

12. Use a black felt-tip or gel pen to add the face detail and then paint a lighter shade on the cat's tummy.

Now's the time to paint on pen on more detail if you like. We added some stripes (don't forget to paint them on the tail too!), but leave your cat plain if you prefer.

13. Glue the tail in place so it wraps around the front.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts about what to put on the hat!!

Ted with a heart - cork craft for Mother's Day

Following almost hot on the heels of the bunny cork with a heart, comes Ted, and he's even easier to make! Again you could write a personal message on the heart, or even use a photo. Plenty of ways to make it a lovely little Mother's day gift.

Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars craft

Obi Wan Kenobi joins the Star Wars gang! He's made in a very similar way to the other two.

You'll need:

Egg carton

Brown paper
Pencil

Ruler

Craft scissors

Nail scissors or similar (optional) Adult supervision required

Paint

Craft glue

Black felt-tip or gel pen

Blue straw

Black marker pen (like a Sharpie)

1. Roughly cut out two middle cones from the egg box so they're easier to work with. On one, draw a pencil line around the cone, just above the bumpy joins at the bottom and cut out. This will be the body. Follow the step-by-step for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo to make the body, legs and arms.

2. For Obi Wan's head, take the other cone, and use a ruler and pencil to measure and mark about 2cm from the top of the cone on each side. Join the marks and cut out. (A handy way to do this is to cut up two adjacent corners to the pencil line, bend the card back and cut off the flap - it should be easier now to cut along the rest of the line.)

3. Lightly draw a line around this cone piece, about halfway up. It doesn't matter if it's a bit wobbly, it's only for guidance.

4. Cut up all four corners to the line, bend 3 of the small card flaps back and cut them off, leaving one remaining for a beard. Round off the bottom of the beard.

5. Make his cloak next. Place the body (without the arms) on it's SIDE on some brown paper. Use a pencil to draw a line where the side touches the paper and mark the top and bottom of the figure too. Roll onto its back and mark the bottom again, then roll carefully one more time onto the other side and mark where this touches the paper. Join the marks and gently round the top of the cloak before cutting it out.

6. Painting time. Keep the arms out and paint them a similar brown to the cloak (mix yellow and red then add a dab of blue until you're happy with the shade) - use this for his boots too. We mixed yellow and white to make a creamy colour for the body and legs, and made a flesh colour for the face and hands by mixing lots of white with a little yellow, red and tiny spot of blue. Paint his hair and beard grey.

TIP: Put the head on a spare egg carton cone while you're decorating it.

7. Push the arm strip in the slot (or if you're not doing slots, cut the strip in half and glue the arms either side), and glue on the head. Brush glue on the top part of the back of the body, including the back of the arms and stick the cloak in place (trim first if it looks a bit on the big side) Use paper clips if you need to.

8. While the paint's drying, make a lightsaber from a blue straw. Cut off about 4cm (11/2in.) and colour the bottom end with the black marker pen. Cut small slits in this end so you can slot the lightsaber onto Obi Wan's hand. 

9. When the paint is dry, use the fine black pen to draw on a face and add detail to the clothes and hair.

TIP: If your egg cones have holes in the top, brush glue inside the cones and push a small piece of newspaper up to fill the hole.