Showing posts with label cardboard crafts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cardboard crafts. Show all posts

9.12.22

Egg Carton Christmas pudding decorations


How long has it been? Far too long. Once you slip out of the habit of posting, it's hard to find your way back sometimes! But Christmas seems a good time to try, so here's a 'sweet' little craft - egg carton Christmas puddings to hang on the tree.

19.3.21

Paper roll armchairs

toilet paper roll armchairs

Back to squishing toilet paper tubes flat to make these sweet little armchairs! They're to add to our shoebox sitting room, but you really don't need a shoebox house to make one.

24.12.20

Fireplace for Shoebox Sitting room

Shoebox fireplace

It's taken a while...but now the shoebox kitchen has been updated, it's time to move onto the sitting room, and a fireplace seemed a good place to start. This one is made from a stock cube box

4.12.20

Shoebox kitchen units

shoebox kitchen

We made a shoebox kitchen a while ago, and fully intended to add more rooms, but then got sidetracked, as you do.. And when I looked at it again recently I felt the kitchen units could be improved and simplified. So the old ones

1.9.20

Egg carton Viking Longboat

egg carton craft

This is such an easy way to make a boat - all you need is an egg carton lid, and then when you've made the basic shape, you can turn it into any kind of sailboat or ship you want.

We've gone for a Viking longboat - some Asterix influence I think! And an abundance of lollypop sticks helped too... 

They do make great oars.

You will need:
A large egg carton (dozen box)
6 popsicle sticks
8 similar sized bottle tops (different colours is possible)
Sheet of plain A4 paper
Kebab stick
Some old modelling clay
Scissors
Craft glue
Strong glue (like UHU)
Paint
Red marker or felt tip pen
Black marker pen
Nail scissors (to be used by a grown up)

1. If there's paper on the lid top, remove as much of it as you can. Use a pencil to make two marks inside the lid, about 8cm/3in. from either end, and in the middle.


2. Cut out a long thinnish triangle up to your mark, at both ends.


3. You're really looking to cut away any bumpy, moulded cardboard bits that you often find at the ends of the egg carton lid (see below).


4. Next, carefully cut straight across the lid from the end of the triangle, right into the curvy edge. Do this on both sides and at both ends.



5. Then the fun bit, you simply tuck the pieces you've cut behind the central part of your boat (or in front, which ever works best), and pull the ends together, so they overlap and fit together. Trim if you want to neaten the overlap, but hopefully they should be a pretty snug fit.

You could use sticky tape, or use glue. A glue gun would be quick - we just used PVA craft glue and some clothes pegs (or paper clips) to hold it all in place while the glue dried.


6. For the raised ends of the boat, cut out an egg carton cone and neaten around the bottom edge, then cut in half, longways.


7. Flatten out the bottom part of the cut cone, and glue to the ends of the boat, so they sit high, above the boat edge. Press and mould to the curved shape of the bow and stern. Hold in place with pegs or paper clips while the glue dries.



8. For the dragon figurehead, cut out another egg carton cone and trim around the bottom edge so it's about 3cm/1in.  Draw a pencil line across one side, roughly a cm from the bottom edge, then join the ends of this line to the bottom corners below, with a diagonal line. Cut along the pencil line.



9. On the longer side, draw a V from one corner to the other and cut out.



10. You can draw the details on after painting, or cut out a mouth if you prefer. This is best done by an adult with small sharp scissors.

Brush glue inside the bottom part of the figurehead and glue to one end of the boat. Leave pointing up while it dries (use a peg or paper clip again) Then bend down into place when dry.


11. For the mast, cut out an egg carton cup and neaten around the edge so it sits flat. Make a very small hole on top in the middle, and place a ball of modelling clay underneath. Press the skewer stick through the hole and into the clay.  Don't glue the mast into the boat yet.



12. Paint the boat, mast and the six popsicle oars brown.

While they're drying, make the sail. Trim a piece of plain A4 paper so it's about 20cm/8in. by 25cm/10in. We drew red strips with a marker pen, but you can obviously paint or colour-in your sail anyway you like.

13. Make very small holes a few cms from the top and bottom of the sail, roughly in the middle (you don't want the holes to be too big or the sail won't stay up). When the paint is dry on the mast, slot the sail on.

14. For the flag, fold over a small piece of spare paper and cut out a long thin triangle shape.  Decorate and colour in as you like, then brush glue inside and wrap around the top of the mast.


While the glue is drying, bend the flag so it looks like it's flapping in the wind.



15. For the shields, decide where you want your bottle tops to go - we put four on each side - and lightly draw around them with a pencil on the sides of the boat.

In-between these, mark diagonal lines, where the 3 oars will go on each side. Pierce through the oar lines with something like nail scissors and cut along the slots (this should be done by an adult - placing an old piece of modelling clay behind the slot helps when you're piercing through the sides.) Push the oars into place.


16. Cut out thin strips of paper and glue crosses to the top of the bottle lids, before sticking them to the sides of the boat. Use stronger glue for this, like UHU, or a glue gun if you have one.

You can glue the mast down too, though the modelling clay will hopefully stop it from falling over.  Use a black marker pen to add details to the dragon figurehead.



29.9.18

Clarissa the Cow - from 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'



I haven't shared many projects from 'Make Your Own Farm Animals' and thought it was about time I did! I'm really fond of this one, because the head shape is already there, in the shape of an egg carton, all you need to do is cut it out. 
The body is made the same way as many other animals you'll find in 'Make Your Own Farm Animals' and 'Make Your Own Zoo'. 

You will need:
Two toilet paper rolls
Egg carton
Sheet of newspaper
Scissors
Pencil
Ruler
Craft glue
Paint
Nail scissors or similar (with adult supervision)
Black pen

1. To make the legs, flatten one of the toilet paper rolls with your hand, press down firmly, then cut along the creases so you end up with two pieces of card. Keep one piece for later.



2. Take the other piece and fold it in half lengthways, again pressing down firmly, before cutting along the crease.



3. Fold each of these card strips in half lengthways again, pressing firmly along the fold. You will now have two folded strips for the legs.


4. Shorten the other toilet paper tube to about 8cm/3in. for the body (either estimate roughly or use the ruler the measure and mark 8cm on the tube, squeeze the sides together near the mark and then cut across the tube on the mark).


5. Hold a ruler along the length of the body tube and draw two lines about 1cm (1/4in.) in from each end. Make each line about 2cm (3/4in.) long.

6. Repeat this about 3cm (1in.) further round the tube, so you have four marks for the leg slots.
Then make a hole in one of the pencil lines with the nail scissors* (keep them closed, press down firmly, twisting from side to side). Once the scissor have pierced through, cut along the line. Repeat for the others.

*This should be done by an adult, or under careful supervision)


7. Wiggle the closed scissors in the slots to open them up a bit, before threading a leg strip in a slot and out the opposite one. Repeat with the second leg piece. Once they look level, hold the tube tightly near a slot and firmly fold the the legs down.  


8. Trim the legs so they're not too long and your cow body doesn't wobble!





9. The head is simply cut out of the end of an egg carton - the moulded cardboard shape is perfect for a cow's muzzle. Use the picture below as a guide and draw either side of the moulded part that separates the eggs, draw ears in the egg cup sections either side of the muzzle and take the top of the head up as far as you can go, so it's right on the join with a middle cone.


10. Roughly cut out the head shape first and then cut carefully along the line - keep some of the cardboard join at the top of the head if you can, as it makes a good fluffy forelock of hair. (Apologies for carton colour change!)

11. Cut a piece of newspaper (roughly 20x20cm/8x8in.) and scrunch it up so it just fits in the end of the tube. Take it out and brush glue inside the end of the tube, before pressing the ball of newspaper back in, making sure it protrudes slightly. Glue the head onto the newspaper.



12. Cut a strip of card for the tail, from the spare piece of toilet paper roll from earlier, and glue it under the top end of your cow. Leave to dry.


13. Once dry, paint your cow. If you would like to do a black and white one, like ours, then paint the whole thing white first, before adding the black markings. 
(The wet paint will make the legs go floppy - don't worry, when dry just bend them back into place.)


14. For the head, you could draw circles where you want the eyes to be and then paint around them. Paint the snout pink and when dry use a black pen to add nostrils. Bend the tail down, into place. 
(if your cow is a little head heavy and tipping forward, scrunch up another piece of newspaper and stick it in the tail end).




If you enjoyed this project, there are many, many more in 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'


11.5.17

Tubescapes - TP roll craft for kids

toilet paper roll craft

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.

toilet paper tube craft

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.



toilet paper roll craft

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.

toilet paper tube craft

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!