Salaric

For the New Year I wanted to do floating lanterns with my Scout group to help them think about global and local issues. I came up with this design of lantern the night before the meeting. Initially the lanterns were cut out of a square of cardboard and folded over one side to the middle to make a rectangle. I then folded the other side over to the middle to make a narrower rectangle. Then I folded the ends over to meet in the middle.

I then unfolded it and had a smaller square in the centre, marked out by the folds. Then I folded the square along the diagonal to get a triangle and then folded that in half to get a smaller triangle. Following that, I unfolded it again. Now I had a small square in the middle which was divided into four triangles – I ignored those triangles. Around this small square there were four rectangles joined at each corner by a small square – the small squares were divided into two triangles. I pinched the cardboard at these corners so that the small squares folded along the line that made the triangles – this gave me a nice square-shaped dish with elegant pointed corners.

I then roughly checked weather a tea light candle would fit. It did, so I roughly measured how long the side of the dish was – this is equal to that of the inside square I had earlier on. At this point I had no ruler so it was very very rough. I cut out a rectangle that was about four times as long as one of the dish’s sides and about one and a half dish sides high. I forgot to add in any sort of tab before cutting it out.

Once cut out I folded it into four so that it made a chimney for the lantern. I then cut a slit the depth of the dish’s side – up each corner of the chimney at the bottom. I then slid each of the sticking out corners of the dish through these slits. I had to use sellotape to fix the chimney together, which was a bit fiddly. I then lit the tea light candle with a long match and placed it on a bowl of water. The design worked!

I then got a ruler and a black fineliner (bought at WH Smith’s) and drew out a plan for the lantern, this time with a tab. I then scanned it but unfortunately the base/dish and the sides/chimney would not fit onto on sheet of A4. Now I had a digital copy of it on the computer where I got rid of the slight mistakes I’d made – drawing a solid line where I’d wanted a dashed line.

I then printed enough bases and sides for 20 lanterns on brightly coloured paper from dazzle create pads we’d picked up at some point in Tesco’s. I managed to get two bases onto one sheet of A4 – I realised this would mean I had more bases in various colours but reasoned that the kids would probably want to mix and match anyway.

So, using my template you need one template base and one template chimney, one pair of scissors, some sellotape, a tea light and a pen.

I cut out the templates; I had bold lines for lines where you cut and dashed lines for where you were supposed to fold. This included the slits at the bottom of the chimney.

I then put the names of countries that had been in the news for some sort of negative reason on the sides of the chimney and taped the tab to the side. I put the sellotape on the outside to prevent any sort of fire risk but some of the kids put it on the inside and their lanterns were fine, so I think I was being over-cautious.

When I finished I then showed the lantern to the kids and explained what to do.

This is what they produced. There were some interesting variations on the original design but they all worked and looked really good with the tea lights in them glowing away in different colours.

Here are all the things that our two year old daughter made at nursery for Christmas:

This little pot was her Christmas present to mummy and daddy; it’s made out of a peat pot that you would normally grow seedlings in. Around the rim there are metallic Christmas shapes of the kind you would find in table confetti like stars and bells, probably stuck there with PVA craft glue. A piece of green sugar paper has then been placed in the pot with a few chocolate coins.

This calender is now hanging up in my husband’s office. It is made out of a paper plate painted green and blue with a metallic sheen to it. The middle of the paper plate has been cut away, leaving just the rim. A photo of our little girl was cut out and laminated, then attatched to it by being sellotaped to a metallic red and green pipe cleaner which was bent into a loop and also sellotaped to the paper plate. This gave it a nice effect, as if the photo was a pendulum in a clock. They then stuck on a little tear-off calender on the bottom.

All the Christmas stuff arrived home in this snowman bag. It was made by taping two large sheets of thin purple card together along three sides to make the actual bag compartment. The handle was made of purple metallic parcel ribbon approximately 1.5cm wide, which was again sellotaped in place. The actual snowman was made of three white circles, starting with the smallest as the snowman’s head. These had been glittered and then painted over with white poster paint and glued, overlapping, onto the bag. The carrot nose was cut out of orange paper and stuck on and the blue hat was again just cut out and stuck on. Then the mouth, eyes and buttons were drawn on in thick black colouring pencil. The writing was then done in thick silver paint pens. On the back of the bag Jean had made handprints in white poster paint.

These three napkin rings are incredibly simple and I thought they were really effective. One orange and one black Christmas tree and one pinky red bell were cut out to use as decoration. Each ring was two of the decorative shapes connected at the bottom by a strip of card. They were decked out with glue and glitter – gold glitter on the black Christmas tree, white glitter on the orange tree and more gold glitter on the bell. A hole punch was used to punch through both shapes at the top and tie them together with a bow of parcel ribbon in metallic Christmassy colours. A sheet of kitchen towel was then rolled up and put them into them as napkins.

This Christmas tree was Jean’s Christmas card to use – again this is incredibly simple. A Christmas tree shape was cut out from a folded piece of card, making sure that the points of the branches weren’t cut too finely by the actual fold, so that it remained a card and not two tree shapes! With help, Jean added baubles to the tree by finger-painting with red and yellow. A red glittery pom pom was then stuck on the top.

During their Christmas party I got the scouts to make Christmas cards – I just put the equipment out which included: ink pads in green, dark green, red, cherry red, orange, yellow, navy blue, purple, black, silver and gold (all bought from The Works in Stroud for £1.45 for three colours in one box); two lots of Christmas foam stamps from The Pound Shop which included bells, reindeers, snowflakes, Santas, candy canes, robins, holly, sleighs, gingerbread men and Christmas trees; foam Christmas shapes like baubles, reindeers, trees and holly; lolly sticks in red and green; lots of pom poms and pipe cleaners in festive colours; Christmas shapes punched out of last year’s wrapping paper such as snowmen, snowflakes and presents; PVA white craft glue; glitter; goggly eyes; safety scissors; stencils of a nativity scene; metallic gel pens; ordinary colouring pens and pencils; cotton wool and card of lots of different colours and textures that they could fold up to make Christmas cards with. Here is what they produced. (We also had quiet a few younger children there as it was a party).

I made this Christmas hat with my two year old for her Christmas party at nursery. It took two paper doilys, a pair of scissors, PVA craft glue, Christmas metallic shapes, one small white and silver pom pom and some clothes pegs.

I started by cutting a hole in the centre of one doily and then cutting out most of the solid white bit of the doily, so that it only left a 1-2mm thickness of white next to the lacy edging.

The second doily I cut a line into the centre of, and then slid one side of the cut over the other to create a cone shape. I then used PVA glue to fix the edges because it takes so long to dry that I had to use pegs to hold the shape until drying was completed.

Once dry, I cut through the lacy bit around the edge of the cone at about 1.5inch intervals; I then folded these flaps outwards.

I then put lots of glue onto the flaps and put the hat rim over the top and squidged it into place.

Once this was dry and I checked it still fitted onto my daughter’s head, I let her decorate it. I put a spiral of PVA white craft glue on the hat and gave her lots of Christmassy shapes like santa, cupids blowing trumpets, a bell and a deer. She even found a small silver and white pom pom, which she stuck on!

I was trying to work out some easy Christmas craft things for my Scouts to make, having got hold of lots of pipe cleaners, coloured lolly sticks, and pom poms in assorted Christmas colours and sizes. I decided to make a pom pom Christmas tree.

First off I selected three green pom poms, each one slightly bigger than the last, some metallic/shiny pipe cleaners to be the tinsel and star on the top of the tree and selected christmas shapes – again metallic – and the sort you would find in table conffetti, a yellow lolly stick for the trunk and also to act as the strength in the structure. As this would be a project for children I used PVA glue.

I stuck the pom poms in size order onto the lolly stick, starting with the smallest right at the top of the stick, then the medium pom pom (making sure it also touched the small pom pom), then the large one. I put glue on the stick and between the pom poms. This gave the basic shape of the tree, complete with trunk.

Now you should definitely wait for the glue to completely dry before moving onto the next stage but I got impatient and so started attaching the pipe cleaners as tinsel, resulting in the pom poms sliding around in the glue. I got round this by using the pipe cleaners to ‘hug’ the pom pom to the stick. This would have been necessary anyway in order to get the pipe cleaners to sit in a realistic way on the tree.

I also cut the pipe cleaners in half to get a manageable length of ‘tinsel’ for the tree. I fashioned one of the spare pieces of gold pipe cleaner into the star for the top of the tree by folding it into thirds (making sure there was a bit spare at one end) and then folding each of those thirds in half again. I then stretched it out into a star shape, making sure the folds were ‘sharp’, so that the star had proper points. I was aiming for a five-point star so I overlapped two of the sections and twisted them together to make a continuous shape. The spare bit came down as the piece to attach to the tree.

I then glued lots of the table confetti shapes on to the tree to be the baubles and decorations, including the silver snow flakes.

I then attatched the star but found that I should have stuck it onto the lolly stick behind the smallest green pom pom. Fortunately I had been impatient so the glue was still wet and I could still insert the star.

It is not the best thing I’ve ever produced but when thinking things up for the kids I try not to be too careful as a sort of test to see if they’ll be able to produce the same thing. I think it works as a Christmas tree and that others could probably produce a more sophisticated version, using the same materials and this simple idea.

This pipe cleaner spider was really easy to make – I used a black pompom, four black fluffy pipe cleaners, two medium goggly eyes and a pair of scissors.

I simply cut each pipe cleaner in half and then twisted them around the black pompom which became the spiders body – the pipe cleaners its eight legs. I then stuck on the eyes which where self adhesive.

This green stick monster or alien depending on what it is doing was deseptively easy to make. I used one medium green pom pom, one green lolly stick, one large goggly eye, two green matalic leaf sequines, one white foam shape, a pair of scissors and white PVA craft glue.

I started off by cutting a slit into the green pompom squeezing in some glue and sticking the green lolly stick into the glue filled whole. I then squeeshed the slit closed around the lolly stick and waited for the glue to dry.

I then stuck on the large goggly eye.

I then cut two slits in the green pompom either side of the eye. I then squeezed glue into the slites and poked the wide rounded ends of the green leaf sequines into the wholes as ears.

Whilst the ears were drying I took the white foam sheet and cut out a zigzag line to make the teeth – I would suggest that you draw on the shape you want before cutting though I didn’t. I then glued the teeth in place.

I got two halloween monster making kits from The Works in Stroud for my Scouts to use. The kit came with moulds of pumkin headed monsters, frankienstien monsters, mummys, vampires and vampire bats. The moulds where in two halves that you had to press together however they where made out of flimsy plastic that I associate with food packaging. Some of them didnt click together properlly and some of them even came out of the box slightly crushed – not a good start.

Still the kids mixed up the plaster in the little grey pouring cups provided in the kit and followed the instructions, but the stuff would not pour into the moulds as the feeder channel of the mould was far too small and on some of the monsters had a nasty sloping bit just before the main shape of the monster was reached. In frustration some of the children tried adding more water but by this point it was starting to dry and had hard lumps in it. Others opened the moulds and sqidged the plaster in having added more powder to it to make it stiffer. They banged the moulds on the table to dislodge the air bubbles but as some of the mould – the mummy in particular had bubbles the size of whole arms that wouldn’t shift the whole thing was a bit of a disastor.

I took the moulds home as you are supposed to remove the monsters from the mould after an hour to let them dry properly. Those we tried to open where just gloopy mess and those that I left once dry just shattered upon open the moulds or if they remained whole they where shapeless blobs.

I thought that the kid was just too hard for the kids and that they must have done something wronge with following the instruction and as I have a huge tub of plaster of paris that we got from Hindles I thought I’d make them a set of the little statues which they could then paint.

However – me and my husband ran into the exact same problems as the kids and our attempt was only slightly better in that we hit the tub we where mixing the plaster in on the workbench to get rid of bubbles before pouring.

But fundimentaly you could not pour the plaster into the moulds as it was too thick and the moulds where badly constructed.

I would say this is the worst craft disastor I’ve ever had and to avoid these kids – I’ve bought other stuff like the big box of craft from the Works and they have been fantastic value for money but this kid definatly isn’t!

I picked up this big box of spooky craft in The Works – a discount book shop chain I have rescently discovered. I was not expecting it to be that good as a previous kit I had got from them had been a bit of a flop when I got my scouts to use it but I was pleasantly suprised by what I found upon opening it!

The pipe cleaners ranged in sizes and where strippy and glittery as where the pompom balls and foam shapes and goggly eyes. The goggly eyes also had sticky backs on them which was a huge bonus. There where also sheets of crepe paper in appropriate halloween colours namely – red, black, green, purple and yellow. There where coloured lolly sticks in black, yellow and green and four blank cards in purple, black, yellow and white, a bag of foam shapes and PVA craft glue. There were also some orange, green, black and purple metallic sequines of various types and sizes.

Having been stung by craft kits before I opened one of the kits and had a bit of a play. Happy that the kids would be able to get something good out of this I took them in for the Scouts Halloween party.

And here is what some of the kids produced:

This flying cyclops was made by taking a medium sized red pompom and sticking a large goggly eye on it, the kid then took a large orange leaf shape from the foam shapes and cut out the wings which he simply glued on the top to great effect!

for this cute skull the kid used one medium sized white pompom, one large goggly eye and one medium goggly eye, and red and white fluffy pipe pipe cleaners. First off they stuck the eyes on – the fact they are different sizes worked very well to give it a monsterous appearance. The eyes where slef adhesive so no glue was needed. He then twisted a red and white pipe cleaner together and wraped these around the pompom so that the wire in the pipe cleaner helped the skull retain its shape and the red was supposed to represent blood.

For this ghost the Scout used one washed out yogurt pot, one large white pompom, one white fluffy pipe cleaner, two googly eyes, PVA glue and a sheet of white waxy paper that I got from some packaging.

He started by covering the yogurt pot with glue and squidging the paper onto it, he then stuck the pompom on the top, stuck the eyes on and wrapped the pipe cleaner round the middle to make arms – I thought this was quiet effective.

For this spider they used one medium black pompom, two medium goggly eyes and two green and two black stripy pipe cleaners. They simply stuck on the eyes to the pompom and then twisted the pipe cleaners around the pompom to make the legs – I didn’t have the heart to point out that spiders have twice as many legs but one of the other kids did at which point we decided it was obviously a mutant!

This cute little creator is apparently a frog bat highbred according to the Scout who made it! He used one medium sized black pompom, two small googly eyes, PVA glue and two green foam teaar drops.

He glued the two green tear drops together so that the large round parts of each where over lapping this made what is either the wings or legs – he hadnt decided which they where. He then glued the pompom on to the green sheets again at the round end and then added the eyes.

They all had great fun with this kit and there was so much in it that it helped out with their Chirstmas craft projects too 🙂

To make this pumkin I used one large orange pompom, a rectangle of black foam sheeting, a small green pompom, a pair of scissors and white PVA craft glue.

I squashed the large orange pompom so that it became more of a squart cylindrical shape than a sphere (can of tuna shaped instead of ball shaped).

I cut out two roughly equilaterial triangles from the black foam for the eyes with the remianing black foam sheet I cut out the mouth – this took a bit of thinking about as you have to cut away the teeth you want as they will be represented by the orange of the pompom. I then glued the eyes and mouth onto the orange pompom.

I then stuck the small green pompom on the top as the pumkins stalk – this was again simple but effective.