Tutorial - Lollipop Halloween Spiders and Ghosts!

  




Lollipop Halloween Spiders and Ghosts were great fun to make!

Lollipop Halloween Spider

You will need...

A lollipop on a stick

4 pipe cleaners (chenille craft stems)

2 Googly eyes (we used 7mm) 

Double sided sticky pads

 How to make... 
 
Fold each pipe cleaner in half and twist the centre once around the stick of the lollipop, making a leg on either side - eight legs in all. 

Push the legs up towards the round lolly "body" and attach a small double sided sticky pad to keep them in place and on this pad attach the googly eyes.

Lollipop Halloween Ghost

You will need... 

A lollipop on a stick

A piece of old sheeting (or you can use tissue paper) about 25 to 30cms square

Ribbon - we used black, purple orange and yellow - 3mm width

A Loom Band or small elastic band

Black felt tip pen

A plastic straw (optional)

How to make...

Place the round lollipop in the centre of the white sheeting and fix around the head with a small elastic band. 

Tie ribbons around the neck and draw a face with your black pen. 

As the lollipop sticks are short in length, we used the plastic straw as an extension! 

Our groups at Mencap loved this easy, fun craft...

Have fun at Halloween...!
 

Paper Lanterns - Tutorial...!

I'm sure most of you have made these Paper Lanterns at some time in your life - either as a child or with your own children - but in case you need a brush-up here is a good tutorial...

First Pallette

Diwali - an ancient Hindu festival, known as "The Festival of Lights" is celebrated this week and these lanterns are also great for Christmas decorations too...

We used thin card for the Lanterns and decorated them with glitter, stickers, ribbon, lace and shiny confetti, but you can use anything you have, that will enhance these colourful Lanterns.
 

Enjoy making your lanterns....!

Beach Hut Birthday Cards Tutorial - Summer Activity!

Caroline and Paula's cards

 As we started the last term of the year at Mencap, we decided to make Beach Hut Birthday cards - a last bit of Summer fun, by the look of the changing weather, here in Essex...Autumn approaches!

What you need...

Blank greeting cards (rectangular shape)
Coloured paper 
Thin card (for the door)
Happy Birthday wording - stickers or print my sheet out here
Colouring-in pens 
Glue stick
Seaside theme stickers (optional)

How to make...

With the card folded, make a mark on the top edge, half way across. 
Make another mark on each side of the card, about a third of the way down.
Draw a line from these side marks to the top mark and then cut, to make the roof shape.

Cut a rectangle of thin card for the door.

Cut strips of coloured paper for the stripes on the roof and walls. Cut them about 1cm longer than you need.

Using a glue stick (any glue actually will do) stick the coloured strips of paper onto the roof and walls. (Leave some white stripes showing if you like)

Let the ends of the strips stick out from the card. When dry, turn the card over and trim the strips back to the edges of the card.

Glue on the door.

Colour-in and attach the "Happy Birthday" and apply the seaside theme stickers.

Nicola made this bright card!

 Enjoy making these Beach Hut Birthday Cards with your group...

We Painted "Frozen" Calico Tote Bags!

 At Mencap this week we painted on Calico Tote Bags...

The choice of picture was FROZEN characters (of course!) 

But you can do any picture you like - endless choice!

So using the print-outs of Princess Anna, Princess Elsa and Olaf (Google search for "Frozen Colouring In" gave us many to chose from) we got started...

 You will need...

Calico Tote Bags-we bought ours on eBay

Fabric Paints

Brushes

A sheet of card slightly smaller than bag size.

Printed picture
 
We found the easiest way to trace the image onto the bag, was to slip the print of the picture into the bag. It can easily be seen through the calico and so the image is traced onto the bag with a soft pencil - we used a B pencil.

Slip a sheet of card into the bag before you start painting - this will prevent paint seeping through to the back of the bag. 

Remove it before the paint dries too much (within half an hour we found) otherwise the card will become stuck to the inside of the bag.

Using Fabric Paints we then painted the pictures as you can see... 


Notice Olaf has Red Soles (as seen in those famous Christian Louboutin shoes!!) 

Allow 24 hours of drying time and then iron on the wrong side to fix the colours. 

Easy to do and great fun...!

Halloween Paper Plate Pumpkin - Printable Tutorial

Halloween Paper Plate Pumpkin

We made these Halloween decorations at Mencap Braintree - if you want to have a go with your group, they are easy and fun for any age and make a bright display on a grey Autumn day...

You will need

Paper plate - approx 9inch (23cms)

Orange paint

Green paint

Thin black card

Glue stick

Silver metallic pen for drawing eyes etc (optional)

How to make

Print out the templates - Halloween Paper Plate Pumpkin

Cut the paper plate into the pumpkin shape, using the template as a guide

On the back of the plate (so you have a rounded shape)...

Paint the pumpkin orange, with a green stem

Cut out the black shapes (owl, ghost etc) from the black card

Stick the silhouette onto the pumpkin

Draw the eyes etc with the silver metallic pen (optional)

Hang them up and have fun at Halloween...

Stringing Beads - a relaxing afternoon!

A big bowl of beads and charms and thread - 

what pleasure there is in stringing beads!

Easy and fun for all ages and abilities - 

we are going to try Loom Bands next...!

Make Fun Summer Hats Collage - Tutorial!

Fun Summer Hats Collage!

This week we decided to celebrate Summer (at last!) by making some Fun Summer Hats Collages. 

Easy for any age or ability and some striking results - quite the thing for Ascot we believe!!

What you will need...

A4 sheets white printer paper

Decorative paper / thin card for hat

Embellishments - cutouts of flowers, butterflies,  buttons, ribbons, bows - these can also be the kind you stick on gift parcels - glitter and anything else you have on hand...

Glue sticks (any glue really, but the sticks are less messy and dry quickly)

Double sided adhesive pads to attach bows etc

A4 sheet of card to glue the finished hat onto

How to make it...

Print out the Hat Template

Turn your print over and draw the same shape on the other side of your paper. 

Easy way to do this is, is to hold it against a window so you can see see through the paper...

Now work on this side (your drawn hat outline) 

Cut strips/shapes (whatever you want) of decorative paper/thin card and glue them across the hat shape - overlap each piece and go over the edges of the hat shape line.

When this has dried, turn your paper over and cut out your hat from the shape on the back of your sheet.

Now the fun part ...Add your embellishments...Buttons, bows, flowers, ribbons, glitter etc

Here are some Flower Templates you can use 

When you are happy with your hat, stick it onto an A4 sheet of card, at a jaunty angle and stick something in the corner to finish it off!

And here are some of our hats we made at Mencap...

 Have fun with your group as we celebrate Summer!