Paper Plate Witch

These witchy witches would make good decorations for a Halloween party.

Paper plate mermaid

Magical mermaids! Always thought the bumpy rim on a paper plate would make a good scaly tail, so that's how this project started..
We used small pieces of sponge to paint her too, which was super quick, great fun and added a bit more texture.

You will need:
Two paper plates (ours were 15cm)
Scissors
Pencil
Craft glue or a glue stick
Paint
Old sponge
Black felt tip or gel pen

1. Draw a pencil line in one of the grooves on the plate rim and roughly mark the middle point of the plate. Count about 10 bumps along and draw another line in the groove. Join the top of these two lines to the dot in the middle of the plate, but curve the lines out a bit, so they're not completely straight (this top part is going to be your mermaid's body)

2. Cut this piece out and then cut the rim away from the centre of the plate. 

Cut five pieces from the rim that are about the same size as the rim on the body piece (10 bumps). 

Glue FOUR of these pieces to the body (leave one for the end of the tail). Glue them underneath, with the bumps showing. Just concentrate on lining up the top edge, and making a nice curve here for the tail. 

Don't worry about the sticky out bits at the bottom! We'll sort those out when the glue dries.

3. While the glue dries, make the head by drawing around the bottom of something like a small spice jar on a spare piece of paper plate centre. Cut it out, and if you want, trim two sides to make a more oval shape (optional).

4. For the mermaid's hair, cut out the middle of the second paper plate - we trimmed it all round, cutting more away on two sides, to make it oval shaped (again, this is optional) Ours ended up about 12cm long and 10cm wide.

5. Cut about a third off the head and place it on the hair, so she looks like she's got a fringe (bangs). When you're happy with the position, draw a pencil line right along the top of the head.

Then, roughly halfway along this line, fold the hair piece longways. and either cut straight along the folded line for a straight fringe, OR, as we did, start cutting just above the line, aiming for the end of the line, to make a centre parting!
Make sure the head piece fits in the slot, but don't stick it down yet.

6. To make the arms, draw around the top part of the mermaid's body on some spare paper plate middle. Make sure it's just the top of the body, so only go as far as the first ridge (see picture below). Then join the two ends with a gently curved line.

7. Draw a pencil line inside, mirroring the shape, so it's about 1cm wide (it doesn't have to be perfect!)

Cut the piece out and then snip through the pointy end of the shape, and follow the inside line.

8. Time to finish off the tail! cut away the sticky out bits at the bottom (I've drawn a pencil line, so you can see more clearly what I mean). Then draw a pencil line from the bottom of the second piece of plate rim to the end of the tail, tapering and making it thinner as you do, to make a nice curve. Keep it about a 1cm wide at the end.

9. To make an even looking tail end, draw a pencil line roughly in the middle of the remaining piece of plate rim. Cut away the sides at an angle, so it's the right size to fit on the end of the tail. Then cut out the curvy tail end, using the middle line as a guide. Glue in place.

10.  Painting time and we cut small pieces from an old sponge, about 2 to 3cm square. Press them in the paint and get sponging! Use one piece for each different colour.

First we painted the body, head and arms. We mixed lots of white with a little red, dab of yellow and tiny spot of blue.

The hair is a mix of yellow and orange splodges, but do the body and hair whatever colour you prefer.

The tail is green and blue splodges. 

Leave your mermaid pieces to dry.

11. Once dry, assemble your mermaid. Slide the arm piece over the body and angle it to one side. Trim the nearest arm, so it doesn't look too long. Make sure the arm piece is 1cm or so below the pointy top and glue in place. Glue the head to the top of the body, and then the body to the hair, sliding the head into the fringe slot. 

12. Cut small triangles for the bikini from some leftover rim, and glue them on. Use a black pen to draw on her face.

Obviously add glitter if you want to!

And hang on to the leftover rim pieces. I have some other ideas for them...

Brian the Lion paper plate and mask - World Book Day

This is a very quick and easy paper plate craft that works perfectly well with my book, 'Brian the Lion goes into Space'. You can either leave it as a paper plate picture or make it into a mask. Could be handy with World Book Day around the corner!

You will need:

Large paper plate

Paint

A bowl/side plate

Scissors

Black pen (like a Sharpie)

Nail scissors (optional - adult supervision needed)

Elastic (optional)

Old pair of glasses frames (optional)

Sticky tape (optional)

1. Paint the centre of the plate yellow, all the way up to the bumpy rim - it really doesn't need to be neat!

2. Once the yellow has dried a bit, find a bowl or side plate that covers most of the centre of the paper plate. Then, keep your hand on the bowl or plate while painting the brown mane around it. Make sure to go right up to the edge of the bowl. (Make brown by mixing a little red with yellow and adding a dab of blue until you're happy with the shade). Don't be tempted to take the bowl or plate off too quickly!

3. Once dry, remove the bowl and you should have a lovely, crisp yellow circle.

Now it's time to cut the mane. First, make two cuts opposite each other, just up to the edge of the yellow circle.

 4. Then make another two cuts opposite each other, halfway between the ones you've just made.

5. Keep snipping halfway between your cuts, and work all the way around, until the cuts get closer together and you're happy with your mane. Doing the cutting like this keeps the mane even - it is also good scissor practice and it helps kids start to make judgements about space and distance.

6. Use a black pen like a Sharpie to draw on Brian's face. As a guide, the eyes here are about 6/7cm a part.

7. If you want to make him into a paper plate mask, then a grown up with have to make holes through the eyes with nail scissors. It helps to put some modelling clay behind the eyes, so there's something to push into. (Keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.) Make the holes a decent size, so it's easy to see out. You could make some slits in the nose too, if you want to.

8. I think the best way is to use sticky tape to stick an old glasses frame to the back of the mask. Very quick to do! And it keeps the mask nice and flat when you wear it.

9. You could attach some elastic to the mask instead, but the sides will tend to bend around the wearer's head.

Make holes at the side of his face, close to or just inside the mane. I found some of my son's paper reinforcement stickers and stuck them around the holes at the back.

Once you've knotted and tied the elastic to one side, get the mask wearer to hold it to their face while you gauge how much elastic you need on the other side. Hold the elastic at the chosen spot, and mark with black pen. Now thread it through the hole, tying a knot or two on or as near as possible to your black mark.
We painted over the knots on the front, so you don't see them so clearly.

 Think the mask would look better on a smaller child! Mine are all getting so big now..

Sunflowers - simple summer crafts for kids

This is something I’ve been thinking about doing with the kids for a while, and seeing as we’re in France surrounded by sunflowers it seemed like a pretty perfect time! 
Surely it’s impossible to ever tire of fields of sunflowers? Stretching way into the distance, like a sunny bright, cheery yellow sea.

This is a quick and easy project - you'll need:

Paper plate

Brown paint ( or red, yellow and blue to mix)

PVA glue

Dried lentils (or something similar)

Sheet yellow tissue paper

Scissors

1. If you don’t have brown paint, mix red and yellow to make orange, then add a small amount of blue until you’re happy with the shade.

Mix your brown with an equal amount of PVA glue (we mixed them in an old yogurt pot)

Paint the middle part of your paper plate with a good, thick layer of your gluey paint, then sprinkle liberally with dried lentils (or something similar from the kitchen cupboard) and leave to dry.

3. While that’s drying, fold a sheet of tissue paper over a few times to make a strip (roughly 5cm/3in. wide) Snip the end into a good ‘V’ shape for the petals and cut off. (Use the folded pieces cut away from he sides too, if they’re a good shape)

Snip the petals a part if any are still joined together.

4. Brush glue around the rim of your plate and stick the petals down. You could do one layer only, overlapping as you go. (If you go for this option, we found it looks better if you cut away part of the rim first, so you don’t see it between the petals.)

OR. don’t overlap the first layer of petals, space them out evenly instead, and add a second in-between, to fill the gaps. Just dab a bit of glue at the base of the circle of petals. Add a third ring of petals too if you want.

Two of my not so little sunflowers!

Millennium Falcon - Star Wars Craft

We've made a fair number of Star Wars figures so far - time for a spaceship, don't you think!
This Millennium Falcon is made from paper plates and can be decorated any way you like.

You'll need:
4 to 5 paper plates (ours were 23cm/9in. diameter)
Egg carton
Craft glue
Black and red fine tipped marker pens (like Sharpies)
Ruler
Pencil
Craft scissors
Small scissors (straight-edged nail scissors - adult supervision required)
Ball of plasticine (modelling clay)
Straw
Tin foil
Metallic silver marker pen
Newspaper
Cereal box card
Paper clips

1. On the back of a paper plate, flatten it down a bit, and use the ruler and marker pen to draw a line across the middle of the plate, and then another across that, to divide the plate roughly into equal quarters. Try to get the lines to cross as close to the centre of the circle as possible, but it really doesn't need to be perfect.



2. Take another plate and cut out two similar-sized long, thin triangle segments, cutting up as far as the centre of the plate. Glue these on the top of your spaceship - in the middle of two, opposite sections. Cut small pieces from the spare plate's bumpy rim, to stick on the triangles, to add a bit of detail.







3. For the front part of your Millennium Falcon, take another paper plate and cut the rim off carefully, so you're left with a flattish circle.





Fold it in half and cut a little off the bottom to make a straight edge. I've drawn a pencil line where the cut needs to be.



4. Then cut a piece off the side at an angle - don't make the angle too sharp (see the picture).
Open up the circle and slip it under the top of your spaceship (between the sections with triangles), until the sides roughly line up with the black lines, and part of it is still sticking out.







 Either side of the fold, draw a pencil line up to the plate and cut this piece out. Glue the front section to the rim.

5. Cut a strip of card from a spare plate ( like the one you used to cut the triangles from). Make it roughly as long as half the width of the plate. Glue it from near where the black lines cross, down the middle of the front section of your spaceship, so it just hangs over the edge of the plate.
Again, add a few small pieces of the rim for some detail.

6. Cover the messy joins in the middle with a circle cut out of any spare card. Use the bottom of a small spice jar or something similar to draw around. Glue in place.



7. For the cockpit that sticks out at the side, we found the easiest way to get the right shape was to draw a rectangle that's 4cm by 15cm (11/2in.x6in.) on some spare paper plate card (make the rectangle shorter if you're using a smaller plate).
NOTE: We've used extra paper plates for all the extra bits to keep our Millennium Falcon looking the same colour, but if you don't want to use so many plates, cereal box card would be absolutely fine too.



8. Mark 3cm (1in.) from the bottom of the rectangle and draw lines sloping in on either side. Use the ruler to draw a line from the top right-hand corner to the bottom lefthand one, just above the end of the cockpit (see pic).



9. Cut along the sloping lines and make sure to leave an extra section of card on the right-hand side, so it's easier to glue the cockpit inside your starship.



10. Either simply colour in the bottom of the cockpit with a silver metallic pen if you've got one, or for a more 3D effect, draw around the bottom part only on some spare card, cut out this matching piece, and colour in.
Make a cut in the middle of each piece, about half way down, and snip out an extra sliver to widen the slot if you need to. Check they fit together but don't attach yet. Glue the whole cockpit piece under the rim of the top part of your spaceship.





11. Time to decorate, and we didn't add too much detail to our Millennium Falcon, but it's absolutely up to you! Have a look at some pictures online, or come up with your own design. Stick on more pieces of the plate rim if you want - drawing in the grooves looks pretty good I think.



12.  If you'd like to make guns to put on top, cut out a strip of card, 8cmx2cm (3in.x3/4in.). Colour one side of it with the black marker pen and also colour in a length of straw (with the marker pen), so you can cut two 3cm (1in.) pieces from it.



13. Fold the strip in half, then in half again. Open it up and make a hole with nail scissors in a section above the middle fold. Put a ball of plasticine behind the card, keep the nail scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side. When the scissors pierce through, cut out a wide slot that's big enough to fit both straw pieces, side by side. Check they fit then take them out.





14. Brush glue on one end of the strip and fold and glue it to the other end, to make a triangle shape like this one. Use a paper clip to hold it together while drying if you need to. Glue the straw guns in place.





15 For the sensor dish (again, optional) - take an egg carton and cut the bottom out of an egg cup. Make it as shallow as you can and cover with a piece of tin foil. Cut another strip from some spare card (about 1cmx6cm - 1/2in.x21/2in.), fold it in half, then fold the bottom ends. Glue the middle part together to make an upside down 'T' shape. Glue the dish to this support and glue the bottom tabs of the support to your ship, along with the guns.
If you've made one, glue the extra part of the cockpit on too.









16. While that's drying, you could add a bit of card to hold onto, to the bottom part of your Millennium Falcon. This is optional.

Cut out a strip of cereal box card that's a good width to hold onto and is about 20cm (8in.) long. Take another paper plate and make a slot in the middle (using the nail scissors again). Make it wide enough for the cardboard strip, slot this in and glue the top part to the plate. You could put something heavy on top of it, like a book, to hold it in place while the glue dries.





17. Scrunch up small pieces of newspaper and put them in the middle of the plate. This should help stop the ship losing its shape when it's stuck together, but don't over fill it!



18. Brush glue along the edge of the bottom plate, and glue the top part on. Use paper clips to hold together while it dries.