After the success of our gorgeous little paper roll elves we wanted to follow up with another paper roll craft and who better than the big guy himself! Today marks the first day of opening the advent calendars and for my kids the countdown to Christmas has now officially began.
My little girl is too young to really understand, she just knows that something fun is happening with all the decorations and crafts. My son though is super excited. Every morning when he wakes up and every night before he goes to sleep he asks how many days it is until Christmas. Every day we make a new decoration to display around the house. Our house is pretty small so I image that by the time Christmas arrives it will look like Santa’s grotto! It’s a shame that we won’t be able to have our family around this Christmas but it’s a decision that we have made as a family and we will still do everything possible to ensure the kids have a great day. What are your plans this Christmas?
Here’s what we used
Empty toilet paper roll
Coloured crafting paper (red, white, black, yellow)
Scissors
Glue
Eye stickers (optional)
Markers
How to make our paper roll Santa
First you’ll want to start by colouring the paper roll, you could use paints, pens or cut out and glue paper strips around the roll like we did – whatever is easiest for your little one! make 1/3 of the paper roll skin colour and the other 2/3rds Santa red!
Next it’s time to make the cone shaped Santa hat. Cut out a triangle with a rounded bottom edge, roll it around into a cone and glue. Cut off any excess.
Now we need to give the paper roll Santa a face! Cut out a u shaped beard and a moustache – this part can be a bit fiddly and might need a grown up to help. Once you have these pieces glue them down in place on the Santa’s face. Then add two eyes, a nose and a mouth.
Add some decoration bits to your Santa. We added a white Pom Pom to the top of the hat and a white rim around the bottom of the hat. We then added a long black strip for the belt and a hollow square for the belt buckle.
To make the Santa’s legs and arms you will need to make four paper springs. To make a spring take two thin strips of paper and glue them together at a right angle. Take turns folding each paper strip over the other one, once you reach the end glue the loose ends down together. Repeat this process until you have four paper springs.
Nearly finished! Take some black card and cut out two boots and two mitten shapes. Glue a spring onto the back of each of the mittens and boots. Then glue the other ends of the spring in place as arms and legs on the paper roll.
Pop the hat in place on the top of the Santa’s head and the paper roll Santa is finished! I just love these!
Ok ok, so this craft doesn’t really fit in with our recent theme of quick and simple. Sometimes though, it’s worth putting in a little extra effort to show some appreciation for a loved one and this little handmade fishing jacket card is pretty cute! My son and I made one for a family members birthday, hes really big into fishing, it’s not really my thing but my partner is in to it aswell so we made him one ready for fathers day too. It might only be April but you can never be too prepared (says me who’s always forgetting and having to panic buy presents the day before)!
You will need
Coloured card (we used; green, brown and black)
Coloured paper (we used; white, blue, orange, beige, red, pink, grey and green)
String
Scissors
Glue
Pen
Googly eyes
First you’ll need to take your piece of coloured card. Putting it in a landscape position fold each side in to meet at the centre.
Draw on two small arches to make the sleeve section and then cut them out.
Take the upper inside corners of your jacket and fold them outwards to make a collar.
Next cut out four pocket shapes from your chosen colour.
Now you’ll need to make the contents of the pockets! Start off by cutting out two little arch shapes. Cut a triangle out of the curved side of each one and give each a googly eye to make your fish. Glue your pocket to the front of your fish so that they look as if they are sticking out the top.
Cut out two shiny hook shapes as you can see above and again glue a pocket to the front of them
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Next you’ll need to make a float. Cut out a white circle and then draw around it on some coloured paper. Cut out this second circle and then cut it in half, glue one half of the circle down onto your white circle so that is half white half coloured. Then, from the other half cut out a small square and glue it down on the centre of the white edge to make the top of the float. Glue your third pocket down on the front of your float
For the final pocket cut out the shape of a worm. Then either using a pen or paper strips give your worm some stripes. Finish him off by giving him two googly eyes and a smiley mouth, then again glue the final pocket down on the front of him.
Glue your pockets down in place on the front of your jacket. Then, take a pen and write a name tag for your jacket, cut it out and glue it down in place near the collar. The basic shape of your fishing jacket is finished! If you want to add a little fishing rod carry on to the steps below.
Start off by cutting out the basic shapes of your rod. You will need a black oval for the handle, a rounded strip for the body, a large black circle for the reel and three smaller circles with punched holes for the rings.
Glue the body of your rod onto your handle. Space the three rings evenly across the body. Remember to make sure that the holes are not covered so that you can still thread your string through them.
Glue your string down onto your handle and then cover it over with your remaining reel circle. Then, weave your string in and out up through the rings as you can see above.
Cut out two identical hooks by folding your paper in half when cutting. Glue one hook to the front of your string and then match up the other in place on the back. Finally, cut out a small strip and glue it down onto your reel.l to make the reel handle.
Add the rod to the side of your card..
And finish off by adding your message to the inside. Isn’t it adorable? I think it was well worth the extra effort!
My partner has had a busy few weeks so my son and i thought we would make him a present. This DIY desk tidy is perfect for him to display at the office or on his computer table at home. My son was really chuffed with the result and so was i. What’s great too is that is that this diy desk tidy gift craft cost barely anything to make and was a really fun project for me and my son to sit and make together.
You will need
Tp rolls
Cardboard
Paintbrush and paint
A peg
Glue gun
Scissors
A photo
Items to decorate, we used stick on letters and other stickers that we had lying about
Take your piece of cardboard (we used a bit of old box) and cut it in to a rectangle to make the base. Now cut your TP rolls so that they are each a different length.
Paint your Tp rolls, Peg and carboard base in your chosen colours and put them aside to dry.
Once dry, use your glue gun to stick your cardboard tubes and peg in place on your base.
Finish decorating your desk tidy by adding some stickers and any additional decoration pieces. Now all that is left to do is add your photo to the peg holder and either gift or display your cool new craft!
Did you like this cute little gift craft? why not check out this Pizza heart card
If you’ve followed the blog at all you’ll know that i absoloutely love making keepsakes. They’re a beautiful way of looking back at previous stages of life and they really show how much our children have grown and developed over the years. We’ve made a couple of these cute little hand print bowls for my son to give to some special people for valentines day (including myself!). I think they’re absoloutely gorgeous. These bowls will definitely require a grown ups help as you’ll need to use a knife, but they really are quite simple and so much fun for kids to paint!
You will need
Air drying clay (alternatively you could use salt dough and bake them) Red and white paint Knife Paintbrush Q-Tip
Take two equal sized lumps of clay and roll them into two equal balls, Roll them out into flat disks. Next you will need to cut out your two hand prints. The easiest way we have found to do this is to draw around my sons hands on a piece of paper, cut out the hand prints and use them as a stencil to cut around with a butter knife.
Now mould your hand prints into a bowl by overlapping them at the palms and then pulling the fingers round to overlap. You can use a bit of water to act like glue if your clay isn’t securing together easily. Bend the outer edge of your bowl upwards. You may need to rest it upgainst something to keep the edges turned up whilst drying. put your bowl aside and leave it to dry for 1-2 days until solid.
Once dry, coat your entire bowl in red paint.
Now all thats left to do is add the final decorations to your bowl. We dipped a q-tip into white paint to make the spots and heart. Leave to dry and you’re finished! Such a gorgeous keepsake to display and treasure or gift to a loved one!
Today we’ve been making yet more valentines crafts! This time however, we’ve used a resource that i haven’t used on this blog yet; chalk. chalk is a really fun and flexible medium and my son loves to use it both out on the pavement and for inside crafts too. It’s just such an interesting texture and style for kids. What’s great for us grownups too is how cheap chalk is, you can pick up a pack of chalk for under £1 at most supermarkets. Which makes this craft fun, easy and affordable – perfect for preschools and groups!
You will need
Coloured chalk Card paper Scissors Tape or blue tack Marker
Take your scrap piece of paper and cut it down to the same size as the front of your card (this is so that you can be sure your stencil is the right size). Fold it half and then using the fold as the centre; draw half a heart shape and cut it out to give you an equal sided heart stencil.
Place your stencil over the front of your card and secure it down with tape or blu tack. Make sure that its tightly secure so that it doesn’t move about when little one is colouring in!
Take your chalks and colour in your heart using stripes of different coloured chalks. Blow off any excess chalk and then slowly peel the stencil away. You may need to tap your card on the table to remove any remaining excess.
Finish off your chalk heart valentines card by adding your special message to the front and filling out the inside to gift to your loved one!
