Easter Bunny Garland

Hi with Easter coming up and the fact we are all staying safe at home, my children wanted to decorate the house, and we wanted to share with you our creation following on from pom-pom making.

You will need

· A pair of scissors

· Pencil

· Jars (not essential)

· A3 piece of white paper

· A4 piece of paper

· Sponge (not essential)

· Paint (not essential)

· Glue or sticky tape

Step 1: A4 paper (or any size)

Create a template for a rabbit take two pots/jars (anything round) one big enough to be the body of the rabbit and a smaller one for the head. Draw around them one next to the other one touching.

Step 2: A4 paper (or any size)

Once you have drawn the body, draw the rabbit ears free hand. Cut this out and put it to one side for later.

Step 3: Create a mixed media background on A3 paper. (or any size)

With a sponge and paint create a pattern, if you don’t have paint and a sponge create your pattern with anything i.e. pencil crayons, felt-tips, if you haven’t got any of those the rabbits look great left white.

Step 4: Template

When your paint has dried, you need the rabbit template you made earlier. Draw around the template getting as many rabbits as you can out of your patterned paper.

Step 5: Cutting

Now cut all your rabbits out carefully keeping the shape.

You now need a tail for all your rabbits (see making easy pom-pom instructions). Now glue all the bunnies’ pom-pom tails on.

Step 6: Garland

Once all your bunnies have pom-pom tails, you need a length of wool or string to create your garland. Turn the rabbits over add a little glue (or sticky tape) just under the ears and place them on the length of wool/string. Keep the rabbits evenly spaced along the wool/string and there you go an Easter garland to decorate your house.

We would love to see your Easter Bunny garlands leave a picture on the comments box.

Who doesn't love a Pom-Pom

Hello thought I would share with you these easy to do pom-poms. My children love making these and add them to lots of creative projects. I would say this is a suitable task for 7 yrs and up, but they will need a little bit of supervision for the first pom-pom then after that they should be able to make as many as they like independently.

You will need

· A pair of scissors (need to be fairly sharp)

· A fork

· Wool

· An embroidery needle (but not essential)

Step 1: Get a fork and wool

You will need a length of wool about 60 cm long, put this between the middle of the prongs of the fork.

Step 2: Wrapping the wool

Now get the wool ball and wrap the end of the wool around the fork about 50 times.

Step 3: Tie off (this is the hard bit)

Now you need to tie the 60cm long wool onto the middle of the wrapped wool, still attached to the fork at this point. When tying the wool do a normal knot but put the wool through twice then pull it tight, take it off the fork and tie it tighter if you can (don’t snap the wool!) then tie another knot to secure the wool.

Step 4: Cutting

You need to cut all the loops you created now, try and keep to the middle of the loops when cutting as this keeps the pom-pom even. When you have cut all the loops it will start to look like a pom-pom.

Step 5: Cutting into shape

Once you have cut all the loop, it will need a little haircut, hold it flat and cut around it so it looks like a doughnut shape once trimed.

Step 6: give it a shake

Once you have cut the pom-pom into a nice shape, give it a shake and there you go an easy to do pom-pom.

Step 7: Why not make a pom-pom garland

Make as many as you want to, to make a garland thread all your pom-poms on a length of wool with an embroidery needle, evenly spacing out your pom-poms. If you don’t have a needle you could glue them to the wool to create your garland.

Step 8: Hang it in your room

You could make your pom-poms in the colours of the rainbow and make a garland to hang in your window. Stay safe!

Remember leave a comment, upload your creations we would love to see them.

Sock Monsters

Hello thought I would show you how to while away an hour or so with the children and create a little monster. This monster is all hand-sewn and made from things you will already have around the house. I would say this is a suitable task for 7 yrs and up, but they will need supervision, especially with cutting and using the needle.

You will need

· A pair of socks (make sure they are unwanted and not someone’s favourite pair)

· Needle and threads

· Scissors

· Polyester craft stuffing (or if you don't have this, you can use the sock off-cuts)

· Buttons (could use from old clothes that are no longer required. (Many clothes have spare buttons)

Step 1: Cutting the shape from the sock

You need to cut a square tube shape. Cut this from the leg part of the sock.

Step 2: Sewing

Turn your tube inside out and sew one end, creating a little bag. You can use a simple running stitch or an over-edge stitch, just make sure there aren’t big gaps between the stitches.

Step 3: Stuffing

Turn the tube the right-side out and stuff with craft stuffing. If you don’t have any stuffing then stuff it with the left over sock bits as you don’t need these to create your monster. You could cut these into smaller pieces if needed.

Step 4: Sewing

Now sew the opening closed, turn in the raw edges and sew using a blanket stitch or a simple running stitch.

Step 5: Creating its face

To create the monsters eyes and nose you can use buttons or simple creative stitches (crosses are good as monster eyes or nose). To create the monsters mouth you can do a running stitch, either a straight line or create a zig-zag line. It’s up to you, do you want your monster friendly or scary?

Step 6: Sewing

To create its ears do a loose running stitch around the top corners (one at a time), then pull the thread to gather the fabric making the corners look like ears.

Step 7: Name

Give your monster a name. You could even make a whole family of monsters!

Why not upload pictures of your monsters to the comments section? We would love to see them.