Showing posts with label crafty ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafty ideas. Show all posts

18.7.20

Crabby the egg carton crab

egg carton crab
I'm a fan of these whole egg box crafts - they're simple and effective and there's space inside to store things too!

You will need:
An egg carton
Cereal box card or similar for legs, claws and eyes
Scissors
Glue
Sticky tape (optional)
White bottle tops or google eyes
Nail scissors or similar (to be used by an adult)
Black marker pen

1. Paint the top half of the egg carton orange (the lid) and some cereal box card too, for the legs, claws and eyes. You could paint the whole egg carton if you wanted to.


2. When the paint is dry, cut strips from the cereal box card - you will need 8 (...spot the mistake in the picture!) about one cm wide and 12cm long. Cut four circles too. We drew around the bottom of the paint bottle - you could use the bottom of a glass or beaker. The size of the circle will be the size of the claw, to help gauge what to use.


3. Cut a segment out of all four circles, roughly the same size. Keep two for the claws, then cut the other two in half - these will be the claw limbs. (See below)


4. To make the limbs for the claws,  overlap the two pieces and glue together. 


5. Glue the claws on and make sure they face in opposite directions. Leave to dry.


6. Fold the 8 leg strips in half, then unfold them, and attach inside the carton with glue or sticky tape. Leave them to dry sticking up in the air. When dry, bend them carefully over the edge of the box. PLEASE NOTE - the BACK of the box is going to be the front of the crab.


7. THEN, press along the fold you made halfway down the strips, so it looks like a leg joint.

Push the top part of the leg up. at a bit of a angle, and bend the lower part down - to make your crab look like it's scuttling!


8. The claws go at the back of the carton, where the lid and base join. Just cut this join a little on both sides so the claw limbs can slot in more easily. Brush glue behind these cuts and along the bottom edge, and slot into place.


9. For the eyes, cut two strips from some spare painted card, about 2cm wide and 6cm long. Mark with a pencil where you want the eyes to go on top.


10. Use the nail scissors to pierce a hole through the pencil line and cut a slot (to be done by an adult). Check the strips fit.


11. Either use googly eyes or draw black circles on white bottle tops with a marker pen (we used the lids from UHT milk cartons) Glue at the end of each strip.


23. Add a smile with the marker pen and Crabby is ready!

Why not make little crabs out of egg carton cups and pipe cleaners and pop them inside?



egg carton crafts

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.




2.5.20

Paper roll birdhouse for little egg carton birds




toilet paper roll craft


There have been so many of these sweet little egg carton birds popping up here over the years, and I thought it was about time they had a home! The birdhouse is made from one toilet paper roll (or part of a kitchen roll) and really doesn't take long to do.

You will need:
Toilet paper roll
Scissors
Craft glue
Paper clips or similar (laundry pegs work too!)
Paint or pens to decorate
Egg carton (for the bird)
Black pen

1. If you want to paint your birdhouse, do that first, and when the paint's dry, flatten the tube with your hand, pressing firmly along the two creases.

If you're keen to decorate your bird house with felt-tips or marker pens, it's best to do that now, when the tube is flat. That's how we did the flowery and the striped one above. (I used a thick marker pen for the stripes)


2. Draw a pencil line across the tube that's below the halfway mark. Our tube was roughly 10cm high, so we drew the line across about 4cm from the bottom edge.


3. Line up the two creases in the middle, and press down on the tube again on a flat surface. Press firmly along the sides, to make another two creases.

You've now made four evenly spaced corners and turned the circular tube into a square shape, but keep it flat for now.



4. Continue the pencil line across the tube.


5. Squeeze into shape, and cut down all four corner creases to the pencil line on the longer part of the tube. (see pic below)


6. Bend one of the flaps forward, folding it firmly on the pencil line.


7. You then need to fold it back on itself, leaving a little shelf or ledge jutting out. Press firmly along this crease too.

8. Pull the flap back, brush a little glue in the crease and press into place again. Use something like paper clips or a laundry peg to hold it while the glue dries.



9. Now fold the flaps either side. You need to fold them out, so they're just below the little shelf you've just made. (see pic below). And even. Press firmly along the creases.



10. To make the roof of the birdhouse, bend these two side pieces inwards now, pressing the ceases the other way. So you're bringing the two flaps towards each other.

Brush some glue along the very top edge of one side (don't use too much glue or brush it too far down the card).

Use paper clips or something similar to hold the top of the roof together while it dries.



11. When it's dry, take the clip off and press the top of the roof down with your finger, to get it back into shape.


13. Cut the card away at the back, roughly following the contours of the roof.




14. I've already written a few tutorials for the little birds, but here's a quick reminder.

Roughly cut out an egg carton cone from the carton, and cut around the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard joins.

To make this easier you could draw a rough line around the cone, just above the cardboard join. Cut up to the line at an angle, then cut along the line.



15. Once your cone is cut out, draw a pencil line around the cone, about halfway up. Don't worry if the line is a bit wobbly, it's just a guide.


16. Cut up the four corners to the pencil line, and bend three of the flaps out, folding on the line. Cut these three flaps off.


17. The remaining one is the tail feathers. Shorten this if you want.


18. You can either cut out wings (teardrop shape) from the little bits of left over card, or simply draw on wings with a black pen after you've painted your bird.


19. Set your bird on top of a spare cone, this makes the painting a lot easier.


20. Dot on eyes with a black pen near the very top of your bird's head. Paint or draw on a beak just below the eyes. Or cut out a little orange/yellow triangle and glue it on with a glue stick.