Patticrafts » Sealife

Pencil Toppers

Patti — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:27:00 +0000

Cut a simple fish shape from a foam sheet (see template) and fold in half across the middle. (pic a)
Cut two short slits across the fold, about 1cm apart. Open out the shape. (pic b)
Cut lots of small triangles from a different colour of self-adhesive foam and use these to make a scaly pattern on the body of the fish. (pic c)
Cut thin strips from another colour of self-adhesive foam and outline the fins and tail of the fish. Make a mouth with the strips and cut an eye shape from white and coloured self-adhesive foam. Thread a pencil through the slits in the middle of the body. (pic d)

Patti — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:35:15 +0000

Fold out the photo cube and use an aqua fibre pen, or watered-down acrylic paint, to colour the inside blue. Decide on the base of the tank. Make some swirly seaweed from sticky foam to fix to the four sides around it (these will be upright once the fish tank is built). (pic a)
Cut a 6cm circle from the middle of a 12.5cm square of dark blue foam. Fix to the inside of the lid with double sided tape. Cut an 8cm circle from the middle of a 12.5cm square of sticky pale blue foam and place over the top of the lid so a rim of dark blue foam is showing. Cut another 8cm circle from foam, add a foam handle, and sit it on the rim. (pic b)
Cut a 12cm square of orange foam. Add seaweed by putting wavy pieces of foam into slots cut into pieces of sticky foam and fixing to the orange square. Assemble the tank and cover the tabs with green sticky foam. Place the orange square in the bottom. (pic c)
Make some fish from sticky foam, sandwiching a length of cord between the two sides. Fix the end of the cord to the bottom of the blue circular lid with sticky foam. Place the lid on the rim and give it a spin to make the fish swim! (pic d)

Patti — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:46:43 +0000

Mix up enough casting powder to fill a small plastic dessert or yogurt pot with a rounded bottom and leave to set for a few hours before pushing out of the mould.
Paint the plaster shape with two toning colours of acrylic paint, blending the brushstrokes together. (pic a)
Once the paint is dry, fix two wiggle-eyes to the front of the octopus’s body. (pic b)
Draw around the body in the centre of a piece of coloured foam. From this circle sketch out eight wavy legs of about the same size.
Cut around the legs and turn the foam over to hide any pencil marks before gluing to the bottom of the plaster body. (pic c)
Decorate the octopus by sticking on pretty hearts of different sizes. (pic d)

Patti — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:30:41 +0000

Cut two 11cm squares of card and glue together to make a strong base. Glue two lolly sticks down the edges and two more of the same colour across the top of these to make a frame. (pic a)
Glue another layer of different coloured sticks over the top of this and include one across the centre of the frame.
Glue a third layer and this time fix a stick across the middle in the opposite direction to divide the frame into four. Cut the end off of this dividing stick as you will need one completely flat side on the completed desk tidy. (pic b)
Carry on building up layers of different coloured sticks, adding a cross piece in third layer until your boat is high enough to hold pens and pencils in.
Cut three sail shapes from green foam in different sizes. Fold in half and cut a small slit in the top and bottom of each. Cut lots of different coloured spots from self adhesive foam and decorate each sail. (pic c)
Cut a lolly stick in half and glue each piece to a separate stick so the ends match up. Join these two sticks with a third one to make a long mast, thread your sails onto this and glue to the flat side of your boat., adding a flag to the top to finish. (pic d)

Patti — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:21:31 +0000

Cut some seashell and starfish shapes from different colours of self-adhesive foam. Use a hole punch to make tiny dots to decorate the starfish.
Fix the starfish to a different coloured piece of sticky foam and cut round the outside to make a border. (pic a)
Cut some 0.5cm strips of self-adhesive foam and use these to make the swirl patterns on your shell shapes. (pic b)
Cut several circles slightly bigger than your shapes from sticky foam and some about 5cm in diameter. Stick these back to back along a length of stretchy cord alternating the sizes and making a loop at the top.
Fix your shapes to the middle of each large circle on both sides making sure that you don’t have the same colours together. (pic c)
Stick rings of sequins to the smaller circles with PVA glue and add extra decoration to all the shapes with glitter glue. (pic d)