http://www.patticrafts.co.uk Craft Ideas for All! Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:53:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/lion-puppet http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/lion-puppet#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 14:11:39 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/?p=3295

Get an adult to iron your blank puppet to remove any creases. Paint a border 2cm in from the edge of the mouth in pink and fill in. (pic a)

Paint the outside of the mouth and the rest of the puppet in bright orange and leave to dry.

Cut a strip of yellow felt 10cm by 25cm and fold in half lengthways. Use scissors to cut a fringe all along the unfolded side. (pic b)

Cut two 2cm wide strips of yellow sticky felt and use these to fix the fringed mane around the neck of the lion, placing one strip on each side of the fold.

Cut a smaller fringe from yellow felt and roll into a tube. Wrap one end of a rectangle of sticky orange felt around the roll, cutting the other end into a curve to fix the tail to the back of the puppet. (pic c)

Cut ears, eyes and a nose from sticky felt, adding details with a black fibre tip, and stick these to the face of the puppet.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/lion-puppet/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/bird-house-money-box http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/bird-house-money-box#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 11:59:24 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/?p=3246

Paint the main part of the birdhouse with two coats of coloured acrylic paint.

Paint the base, perch and roof with two coats of a contrasting colour and leave to dry.

Use a fine paintbrush to paint lots of white daisies on the side of the birdhouse. (pic a)

Cut lots of small rectangles from four bright colours of self-adhesive foam and starting from the bottom of the roof, layer them on so they overlap to look like roof tiles. (pic b)

Sketch a message onto a 4cm by 5cm rectangle of yellow foam. Paint over the lettering with acrylic using a fine brush. (pic c)

Make two small holes in the top edge of the sign and knot a loop of cord through it. Hang over the main hanging loop or from the perch.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/bird-house-money-box/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/bird-binoculars http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/bird-binoculars#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 11:55:44 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/?p=3254

Colour the front panel of the binoculars with a red fibre tip pen. Wrap the box with a 7.5cm wide strip of brown sticky felt and trim at the sides. (pic a)

Fix a strip of red felt to a strip of blue with double-sided tape and cut a fringe along one edge. (pic b)

Fix the fringe to one lip of the binoculars with a stripe of red sticky felt and add a yellow beak above it.Trim the feathers and cut out felt feather shapes. Glue these to the other lip and cover the ends with another strip of felt. (pic c)

Cut two large blue felt wing shapes and decorate with more feathers and a disc of felt. (pic d)

Add another fringe of felt to the top edge and glue the wings to each side of the binoculars.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/bird-binoculars/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/big-bugs http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/big-bugs#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:26:43 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/?p=2563

Use a sharp knife to cut the ends off two polystyrene ovals then glue them together to make a  body shape.

Paint the body with two coats of brightly coloured acrylic paint and leave to dry. (pic a)

Cut a pipe cleaner into six pieces and bend each bit at the end to make tiny feet. Make six holes  in the underside of the body using a pencil and glue the legs in place. (pic b)

Cut two matching wing shapes from coloured foam, making sure you leave a 5mm tab to fix into the body. Cut thin strips of white foam and glue onto the wings to look like veins. (pic c)

Use a knife to cut two slots in the top of the insect’s body where the wings will sit. If  necessary scoop out any pieces of polystyrene to make a clear slot.

Dab some PVA glue into the slots and push the wing tabs into place. Add a pair of wiggle-eyes to bring your bug to life.  Why not make several so you have your own squadron? (pic d)

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/big-bugs/feed 1 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/mini-display-frames http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/mini-display-frames#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:18:18 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/?p=2300

Cut a 12.5cm square of coloured card and very lightly glue the ends of four craft sticks onto it in a square. (pic a)

Fix four more craft sticks over the top of the first layer, using plenty of glue this time, and making sure that the second layer overlaps the corner joins of the first.

Continue building up layers like this until you have used 32 craft sticks and then leave to dry completely. (pic b)

Carefully peel away the card square from the back of the frame. If any sticks seem to come loose add a bit more glue.

Glue more craft sticks across the back of the frame, making sure they butt up to each other closely. (pic c)

Stain the frame with one colour of wood stain and the back with a suitable colour that will show off your picture or object to the best effect (if using coloured craft sticks then there is no need to stain the frame). Add background detail with acrylic paint if you wish.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/mini-display-frames/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/beach-hut-box http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/beach-hut-box#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:26:56 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/?p=2605

Line up 7 craft sticks in alternate colours and hold them together with two more sticks trimmed  to size and glued across. (pic a)

Make three panels like this and a fourth one without the cross piece at one end. This will  be the front of your beach hut.

Glue three shortened craft sticks to the centre of the front panel to make a door and add the cut off pieces either side to complete the trim. Decorate with a sandcastle cut from foam. (pic b)

Cut four pieces of card 8cm by 4cm and fold in half lengthways. Use these pieces to fix your panels together in a square. Measure the size of the square, cut another piece of card to the same size and glue to the bottom. (pic c)

Cut a piece of card 12cm by 8cm and fold in half to make a roof. Cut an 8cm square  of foam into two triangles and stick these to the sides of the roof, trimming the excess pieces away.

Cover the rest of the roof with a rectangle of foam, folding under the ends to make eaves. Decorate the front apex of the roof with short pieces of craft stick. (pic d)

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/beach-hut-box/feed 2 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/brilliant-bouquet http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/brilliant-bouquet#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:02:29 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/brilliant-bouquet

Paint the inside of the wooden flower basket with two coats of green acrylic paint. Allow to dry between the coats. (pic a)

Using the sparkle acrylic pens paint the top of the basket and two sides in yellow, the other sides and the handle in dark pink and the remaining edges in green.

Decorate the sides of the basket with assorted pink and yellow wooden flower or butterfly stick-ons. (pic b)

To make the flowers scrunch up small squares of yellow, pink and red tissue paper into little balls. Peel the backing off a self-adhesive foam flower and stick down the little balls of coloured tissue to make a flower head. (pic c)

Make a flower stem by cutting a pipe cleaner to approximately 11cm or 14cm and bend 2cm at one end at a right angle. Attach this end to the back of one of the flower heads using a self-adhesive leaf strip or piece of foam and PVA glue. (pic d)

Finish off by arranging all the flowers in the basket with added scrunched up pink tissue paper to help hold the stems in place.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/brilliant-bouquet/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/dragonflies http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/dragonflies#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:48:16 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/dragonflies

Squeeze some glitter glue onto one half of a sheet of coloured cellophane. Spread it out with a brush and fold the cellophane in half. Leave the glue to dry.

Fold the glittery sheet in half again and draw a big ‘B’ on it. Cut this out to make a pair of wings. (pic a)

Starting from the top of the wings, gather up the acetate by folding it like a concertina. Twist half a silver pipe cleaner around the middle of the folds to hold them in place. (pic b)

Fold a yellow pipe cleaner in half around your finger to make a loop and twist to make a neck. Twist one end of half a silver pipe cleaner around the neck then twist all the wires to make a stripey body. (pic c)

Stick two tiny wiggle-eyes to the loop to make the head of the dragonfly and wrap the ends of the pipe cleaner on the wings around the body to secure in place. (pic d)

Cut a length of stretchy cord and tie around the body of the dragonfly. Tie the ends together to make a hanging loop and bend the pipe cleaner into a curve to look more realistic.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/dragonflies/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/stamped-baseball-cap http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/stamped-baseball-cap#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:23:47 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/stamped-baseball-cap

Cut three 5cm squares of self-adhesive foam and stick together to make a block, making sure that the sticky sides are stuck together.

Cut out your chosen design from a 5cm square of white self-adhesive foam and fix this to one side of the block. (pic a)

Cut a rectangle of self-adhesive foam and neatly fold in half. Fix the ends of the rectangle to the back of your stamp to use as a handle. (pic b)

Use a soft brush to spread fabric paint onto the white foam design and avoid getting any paint on the background of the stamp. (pic c)

Lay the part of the cap you want to print over your outstretched palm and press the foam stamp onto the fabric. Move the fabric and carry on stamping all over the hat. (pic d)

Dip the end of a cotton bud into the paint and add spots of different colours to your image. Use the end of a paintbrush for smaller dots that could be eyes.

]]> http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/stamped-baseball-cap/feed 0 http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/seaside-hanging-decorations http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/seaside-hanging-decorations#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:21:31 +0000 Patti http://www.patticrafts.co.uk/seaside-hanging-decorations

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)

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