Toilet paper roll oven and washing machine

Forever flattening toilet paper rolls, that's me! It's really quick and easy to do once you've got the hang of it, and this simple technique opens up no end of possibilities.. 

Like these sweet little kitchen appliances.

Pine Cone Fish

These little pine cone fish have popped up before..

Crabby the 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?

Toilet paper roll Woodpecker that pecks!

We recently moved house and now live right next to a forest. Occasionally I catch a glimpse of a flash of red and green, darting about the trees. So that got me thinking about woodpeckers and possible woodpecker crafts. And then I thought, wouldn't it be great if the woodpecker could actually peck...?

In fact getting the bird to peck the kitchen paper roll tree is really simple - and it mightn't look like it, but the woodpecker itself is made from a toilet paper tube!


You will need:
Toilet paper tube (not too narrow. Ours had a diameter of about 5cm/2in.)
Pencil
Ruler
Paint
Green paper (or plain painted)
Black marker pen
Strip of cereal box card (3cmx16cm/1inx6in)
Kitchen paper roll
Nail scissors or similar (to be used by adult)

1. Apart from the green wings, all the woodpecker pieces come from the TP roll. Flatten the tube with you hand on a table or other surface, and press firmly along the creases.

With a pencil, roughy mark the middle at one end, and use a ruler or something straight to draw a line down the centre.

2. To help get the shape of the body, draw a line across the tube, roughly about 2cm from the top.

Now, start the curve of the head at the top edge, halfway between the vertical pencil line and the side of the tube (I've marked it with a short line in the photo below). Aim for where the pencil lines cross. Then curve the rest of the body downwards, towards the bottom corner.

Cut it out, carefully cutting along the line. This is the body shape.

We're now going to work on what's left of the tube, to make the tail feathers, head plume and beak.

I've kept them beside the body piece, so it's hopefully easier to see where they come from.

3. The tail feathers come from the top of the leftover piece, where you cut out the head. Keeping any pointy bits, cut diagonally across to the fold at a sharpish angle. So you end up with a narrow, pointy triangle.

4. The head plume comes from the bottom part. Simply cut along the pencil line.

You don't need double thick card, so only keep one of the pieces, and cut straight across it, about 3cm/1in from the edge. See the photo below.

5. At the very top of the body piece (on the RHS of the picture below), snip across the card diagonally, at a sharp angle, from where the curve for the head starts (the pencil mark), to the fold.
(You'll be snipping off a small triangle)

6. Now, just to check how everything looks together, and if you need to do any trimming. Slip the head plume in between the fold, with the shortest side inside, and the pointy part on show, facing to the back.

Push it down until the top of the head matches the width of the head plume. Place and hold the tail feathers inside the body at the bottom.

7. From what's left of the TP roll, cut a beak on the fold so it's double thick card. Make it a few cms long. Then glue it closed. Use a paper clip if you need to, to hold it firmly while the glue dries. The beak needs to be strong!

8. Before painting, open up the body piece and draw around the shape on some green paper (or plain that you can paint or colour in later). Cut out, then fold in half. We need to make it a little smaller for the wings. So, keeping the bottom curve as it is, and draw half a heart shape on top.

Cut out and when you open it up, you should get a long heart shape.

9. Time to paint. Paint the body white, both sides of the tail feathers yellow and both sides of the head plume red. Either paint the beak black or colour it in with a black marker or felt tip.

10. Cut out the strip of cereal box card (3cmx16cm/1in.x6in.) and it's time to assemble your woodpecker!

11. Brush glue inside the whole of the body. Then, working on one side, place the head plume in position at the top, the beak near the top of the head, then the strip of card about halfway down the body. Place the end right into the fold, so the strip is at a right angle with the back of the body.

Last of all add the tail feathers, which need to stick out at the bottom. Fold the other side of the body back into place so you're sandwiching all the pieces together. Glue the paper wings on too. If you've used craft glue as opposed to a glue gun, use paper clips or something similar to hold the card pieces together while the glue dries.

12. For the tree, flatten one end of a kitchen roll with your hand, so you make creases either side, and hold the strip of card across it, about a third of the way from the top. Use the strip edges to draw 2 parallel pencil lines across the tube.

13. Cut a slot along one of the creases, between the pencil lines. This needs to be done by a grown up. Nail scissors or something similar work well to make a hole in the card, then cut the slot. Do the same on the other side, but this time, make the slot about 2-3cm longer, above the top pencil line

Use the nail scissors to make lots of random holes in your tube.. This woodpecker has been busy!

Check the strip fits into the slots and position your woodpecker so the end of the beak touches the tube.

When you're happy with the bird's position, make a little pencil mark where the strip slots into the tube.

Take the strip out, draw a thick black line at an angle for the legs, and take the line a little past the pencil mark. We tried it with claws, but it looked a little strange with the movement so stuck with a line.

Add an eye and some feathery V marks on the wings.

The strip may move around a bit, but it's easy to reposition and wasn't a bother at all.

Cork Yoda fridge magnet - Star Wars craft

May the Fourth with you be! 

This little Yoda combines two of my favourite things to craft with - corks and egg cartons!

You will need:

Champagne/Sparkling wine cork

Egg carton

Paint

Black gel or marker pen

Craft glue

Strong glue, like UHU, or a glue gun

Brown paper or plain paper painted

Magnet (optional)

1. For his distinctive sticky out ears, cut out two long pointy triangle shapes from the egg carton lid. Glue them either side of the wider, top part of the cork, pointing forward. 

They will stick with PVA craft glue eventually, but easier and quicker to use a stronger clear glue or a glue gun if you have one. I don't have a glue gun and used UHU glue for bits like this.

2. When the glue has dried, bend the ears back into place.

3. Paint your Yoda's body green, plus some spare egg carton card for the hands and feet.

When dry, draw two hand shapes (see below) To cut out, cut around them roughly first, then snip out the zigzag bits, before cutting around the rest of the hand.

4. For the feet cut two short strips from the green card (place them under the cork body to make sure they're the right size and not too wide). Then, snip out a few zigzag triangles.

Glue the feet under the cork body.

5. His cloak is made from the middle part of an egg carton cone.  Once you've cut the cone out, cut the top off, just squeeze the cone flat and cut across the card. Press back into shape - the top will look uneven, so trim until you have a nice straight edge.

6. For the billowy sleeves,  use the edge of the carton as it often has a rather nice little turn up! It's also easy for cutting. Cut two of the shape below. 

7. See the little turn up? No worries though if your carton doesn't have this lip around the edge. For the cloak opening, cut a strip out of one side of the cone.

Check the cloak is the right size for your Yoda - shorten the top part if it's too big.

8. Glue the hands behind the ends of the sleeves, so you can see them. If you have a little turn up, make sure you glue on the other side. Craft glue will work for this, or you could use the stronger glue.

Glue the sleeves either side of the cloak.

Then, glue the bottom of the sleeves to the front part of the cloak, by the opening. You might need paper clips (or laundry pegs) to hold the arms in place while the glue dries.

9. While the glue is drying, cut out a short strip of brown paper (or paint some plain paper) that covers the thinner part of the cork, below the head and above the feet. It doesn't need to go around the back of the cork as this will be covered by the cloak.

Glue in place with a thin layer of craft glue or a glue stick.

10. Use a black pen to add some Yoda-ish features.

11. Glue the cloak onto the back and sides of the body.

12. If you want to make your Yoda into a fridge magnet, use the strong glue to stick a magnet on the back.