My Blog is now User-Friendly! Eight new Craft and Quiz Menu Buttons...

After five years of posting Craft and Quizzes onto my Blog, I felt it was time to make it more User-friendly...

I have added eight new pages - each one containing a list of links to the Tutorials in my Blog.

Each page has a button in the Menu above - so do have a browse and see what you fancy having a look at...

Thanks to all my visitors - do hope you find my Blog helpful in finding suitable Craft and Quizzes for your groups, yourself and your families...

Pop Up Books Monsters and Frozen - a lot of fun and easy to do craft - Tutorial!

 Monster Pop Up Book 

Frozen Pop Up Book

 When we say we made Monsters and Frozen "Pop Up Books" at Mencap Art and Craft Group, we actually made one Pop Up page in our Project Books. These books are carried through the year and added to, with different themes - many relating to the seasons and holidays in the calendar year. 

What you will need -

Either, like us, an A4 book with good quality art paper or you can just fold an A3 sheet of card in half and use that...

Glue stick

Colouring in pens

A4 sheet of thin card to make the Pop Up facility - to make this, look at this excellent tutorial...

Extreme Paper Crafting - Pop up basics  (Follow Tutorial 1 The Box)

If you want to use my Frozen or Monsters prints, here is the link

Monsters Pop Up

Frozen Pop Up

or you can use you own pictures - do check the sizes as they need to be within the page when the book or card is closed...

How to make up...

Colour in the pictures

Glue the Pop Up facility into you book or card - make sure you do not glue the bits that Pop Out...

Glue and place your pictures 

Here are some we made...

Mod Podge on Hardback Notebooks - Decorating the cover!

This week, at Mencap, we decided to try our hand at using Mod Podge...!

What you will need...

Deciding that working on a flat surface was the best choice for a first attempt, we bought some A5 Hardback Notebooks.

A Bottle of Mod Podge Gloss 

Some Sponge "Brushes"

We decided to use some fairy and woodland cutouts we had and some craft paper that we use for backing paper, on greeting cards. 

(Mod Podge works best on fairly thick paper we found - sheets of thin paper wrinkled a lot - sometimes this is a desired effect, but not for our project)  

How to do it...

We found Mod Podge Rocks a very useful site, with loads of tutorials - here is the link...explains how to use Mod Podge far better than I can!

 Learn How to Use Mod Podge

So enjoy using this wonderful product - don't worry if it looks white and patchy when you finish your work - by the next day it will have dried clear and bright - very rewarding! 

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...