Four New Free Christmas Printables!

Have been having fun putting together some new Christmas Printables...!

Here is the first one - a List for Santa!

Good one for parents, to at least have an idea, what the kids are hoping Santa will bring them on Christmas Day!

Then we have a beautiful scene to colour in - The Nativity

As our schools prepare and show their Christmas Nativity Plays, this will give the kids the traditional and everlasting scene to colour in and display as we celebrate  the Festive Season...

Lastly we have two new placemats, to colour in and prepare to use them on your Christmas Day table, with your family and friends...

OR - why not set the children's places with a Christmas Placemat ready with crayons and let them colour them in, while waiting for the food to be served! 

And again while waiting for Christmas pudding to arrive! Peace guaranteed!!

Christmas Placemat 1

Christmas Placemat 2

For lots more Christmas Placemats and other Christmas Crafts Click here ...

Happy Christmas crafting!

Christmas Angel - Paper Plate Craft!

As the Festive Season approaches, we having been busy at The Day Centre for the Elderly making Christmas decorations and cards. Our favourite this year seems to be "The Christmas Angel" made from a paper plate!

Easy to do, but quite lovely when she is painted and "sparkled up" with tinsel around her skirt...

If you would like to make your own Christmas angel, I am happy to share it with you.

You Will Need

Paper Plate (I used a 23cm diameter plate)

Pencil Carbon Paper

Glue

Sprinkle Glitter

Paints or other "Colouring-In" materials

Tinsel or any other trimming you choose.

Stapler

Sequins or flat beads (if you want - to stick onto front of dress)

Turn the paper plate over so your are working on the underneath surface.

Trace the Angel Template 

onto the paper plate - on underneath surface!

Apply glue to the wings and sprinkle with glitter.

Paint the dress (or colour-in with your felt tip pens etc.)

Paint the hair and face.

Leave until dry.

Cut away the unpainted area.

Cut along the outside of each wing leaving only the last 3cm attached.

Bend the cut edges of the plate backwards and staple together as in picture.

Attach your tinsel or other trimming around the bottom edge of the skirt, using a stapler.

Stick on your sequins or beads onto the front of the dress. 

Happy Christmas!

                                      

Halloween Buttons!

 

A very easy Halloween Button craft to do with your groups...

What you need...

A4 sheet of card for background 

Yellow or orange card for your pumpkin 

Black buttons for your spiders and orange etc for the pumpkin

Glue stick 

Black felt tip pen 

How to make...

Print out your pumpkin - here is the Pumpkin Template 

With thanks to One Little Project for this free template!

Print your Halloween word - Halloween Template

Cut out both of these templates and stick them onto your A4 card

Stick your coloured buttons onto the pumpkin and scatter and stick the black buttons around the card

Draw on the spider legs...

Have a Happy and Scary Halloween...!! 

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 Plate Dream Catcher Tutorial - Easy and fun to make!

These Paper Plate Dream Catchers are great fun to make and easy for any age and ability...

You will need... 

A good quality paper plate -  needs to be rigid enough to keep its shape

A length of Yarn - we Used Cotton Yarn DK - 2.5m plus 2 or 3 pieces for the dangles - each about 40cms long - Also about 30cms to make a tag to hang it.

Beads with large holes - we used Pony Beads

Feathers - dyed ones available at craft shops

Colouring-in pens or paints

Punch to make holes 

Sticky Tape

How to make... 

Cut out the centre of the plate.

Punch holes around the inside hole as per photo - about 2.5cm apart - no need to measure - don't have to accurate!

Working on the "bottom" surface of the plate - colour or paint the decoration - our plates had ridges which added to the effect!

Take your long piece of yarn and secure one end with sticky tape to the inside of the plate.

Thread the yarn through the holes - back and forth - no fixed pattern - just as you like! When about two thirds through, thread some beads onto the yarn (see photo above) 

When all the holes are used up, secure the end again with sticky tape, on the inside of the plate.

Punch a hole centre top and make a loop to hang up your Dream Catcher.

Punch two or three holes along bottom edge for dangles...

Tie a bead about a third of the way down on your yarn - then thread beads onto the longer piece above the tied bead.

Thread the end of this yarn, above the beads, through the punched hole and secure with sticky tape inside the plate.

Repeat with other one or two dangles.

Tie feathers onto the ends of yarn below the beads.

Sweet Dreams!

Nicola with her Dream Catcher

Andy painted his Dream Catcher with Acrylics

 

Harry Potter Pop-Ups - Tutorials

 After a visit to London's "Harry Potter's World" our Craft Group at Mencap were keen to colour-in some Harry Potter characters - loads to find online and printable.

So we decided to use them to create some more Pop-Up pages...

See our previous Pop-Ups - Frozen & Monsters

For an excellent tutorial on how to make Pop-Ups have a look here...

Extreme Paper Making - Pop-up Basics

Here are some more we made...

 So easy to do and who doesn't love Po-Ups! 

Have a go - instead of just sticking pictures into your scrapbooks - make them

 POP-UP!

Painting Wild Flowers with Wet Watercolours!

This is a very exciting way to paint wild flowers, as you never know what you will end up with!

As you are painting watercolours "Wet on Wet" (wet paint on wet paper) it does its own thing - great fun and easy to do, so very suitable for your groups. 

And you get great results, even for the "un-artistic"!

You will need...

Watercolour paper (as you are wetting the paper, you will need watercolour paper - anything else won't work!)

Watercolour paints

Brushes

Black pen - waterproof ink. (I used Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.8, but any similar will do)

Get ready...

Mix your paints before you wet your paper.

I mixed green (2 separate shades - one darker)

Flower colours - I mixed Yellow (2 shades) and Crimson

Wet your paper by brushing over with clean water.

Wait a few minutes and then using a large brush, wash on the lighter green with upward strokes and feather the top edge. 

While still wet, apply the dark green - let some of the light green show through.

Next - check if your paper is still wet - if not then re-wet the top of your picture. (careful not to go into the green area)

Then apply the colours you have prepared - just load the brush with paint and then touch the paper and the paint will spread by itself.

Put different size blobs of the different colours - in random order (these are wild flowers - not planted in rows!!)

Lastly, take your brush and flick (hold the brush parallel to the paper and tap it sharply, with your finger, just below the bristles) small blobs of paint randomly over the whole picture. 

Do this with all your different flower colours.

Let it dry thoroughly (I use my hair dryer on low heat to speed up the drying process)

Once the paint is dry, take your pen and draw in your flowers. 

Try to draw freely - don't be too precise - the paint is not precise, so the drawing too must be "Random"!

To make it look natural, have some flowers "side view".

Scribble in grass at the bottom, over the green area. Stand back and admire your work...!

Have fun!

Make a Felt Wall Hanging - Sunbonnet Sue, Bunny and Flowers! Printable Templates!

 

Some years ago I purchased the Sunbonnet Sue pattern and I have now decided it was time to create a new Felt Wall-Hanging - Sunbonnet Sue, Bunny and Flowers -  which you can all make at home or with your groups!

About Sunbonnet Sue - Bertha Corbett Melcher is credited as a creator of the Sunbonnet designs. She illustrated children's Primer books in the early 1900s. Her book, “The Sunbonnet Babies” was published in 1900. In this book she depicted girls with their faces hidden by their bonnets.

I have given you a tutorial of my Sunbonnet Sue Wall-Hanging, but you can add or take away any of the embellishments - have fun and be creative...!

You will need...

One A4 sheet of felt for background

Scraps of felt for Sunbonnet Sue, Bunny and Flowers

A string of daisy trimming - or whatever you have 

Buttons for flowers and bonnet

Cotton wool tail and googly eye for bunny - 

Fabric glue or double sided tape to attach tail and eye

Embroidery thread for stitching

Ribbon and a wooden dowel to hang 

How to make it...

Print the pattern / template of Sunbonnet Sue and Bunny and Flowers

Sunbonnet Sue Template

Bunny and Flowers Template

Cut out your Sunbonnet Sue, Bunny and Flowers from your felt

Taking your A4 background felt, turn over a hem of about 2cm along the long edge and stitch down

Turn your A4 felt over and attach Sunbonnet Sue one layer at a time, using a small running stitch, finishing with the bonnet

Attach the bunny, again using a small running stitch

 

Attach the flowers, by stitching them to the background with a button in the middle of each one. 

Attach a cotton wool tail to the bunny and an eye, using fabric glue or double sided tape

Stitch the daisy trim along the top as in the photo

I attached a button on the bonnet as well as a few single daisies from the daisy trim scattered around.

Slip your wooden dowel into the top channel, tie on your ribbon and you will have a Sunbonnet Sue Wall-Hanging to make everyone smile...!