Ruby (and Mummy) Makes - A Rainbow (with tutorial)

The colour scheme plan for Ruby's bedroom was pink but when the time came to buy the paint she decided that she wanted rainbow colours. After all it is every girls prerogative to change their mind! In the end we compromised and stuck with the original pink plan and bought this lovely colourful fabric from Ikea for her curtains. 

Last Thursday when I asked her what she would like to do for the today she replied "something crafty" (I was so proud) so we made a rainbow for her bedroom wall.

We sang songs and looked at pictures of rainbows. As her walls are pink we went for the "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" order of colours and drew out our plan. 

Here is how we made her rainbow!

Rainbow size: ours is 78cm across x 39cm from middle of the top to the bottom.

You will need

• A rectangle of paper. (The size of the paper and base material depend on how big you want your rainbow to be. Ours was 78cmx39cm)
• Sturdy base - we used thin MDF, you could use card or hardboard
• Craft Knife
• PVA glue
• Scissors
• Fabric scraps
• Coloured paper
• Sequins
• Buttons
• Anything that you like as long as it is colourful!
• Felt tip pens

Make your rainbow template
Fold your piece of paper in half so that it is a square. With the folded side in the centre draw a curved line from the top of the fold to the bottom corner which is diagonally opposite. Make 7 more equally spaced out lines for the colours of the rainbow.
Cut along the 7th line so that when you unfold the paper you have a rainbow semi circle shape.

Take your piece of MDF, card or hardboard (whatever you are using for the base) and lay the unfolded template on top. Draw around the template and transfer the markings for each colour of the rainbow.

Using a craft knife, very carefully cut out the rainbow and then draw over each pencil line with the felt tips so that you know which colour goes in which section. 

This was where Ruby shouted "IT HAS TO HAVE PINK MUMMY!" so we sang a rainbow...

"Red and yellow and pink and green. Orange and purple and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too" 

...and squeezed a bit of pink in between the yellow and green!

Next is the fun part!

Sort through the fabric stash, button jar, coloured papers etc and get together materials for all of the colours of the rainbow. We found foam shapes, cut up bits of fabric, tore up pieces of paper and tipped the button jar all over the floor and then sorted into piles.

We also found these these lovely beads that had lived in the button jar for 8 years. They used to live on a gorgeous pair of shoes that sadly didn't survive my hen night. Ruby helped me thread them on to a piece of elastic to make a necklace that we are apparently "sharing"!

Time to glue!

Using PVA glue we started on the red and stuck down the flat pieces fabric and paper first. We overlapped them slightly and then stuck the raised pieces (buttons, sparkles, foam piece etc.) on top. We then added a top coat of glue to make it shiny.

We worked through the other colours which took a long time. We stopped for lunch, to watch a TV programme and to play with the buttons. They were each given a name and Ruby used them in a school game. Their use is endless!

We finished just in time to collect Jacob from school and left the rainbow to dry under the radiator.

Here we are, two happy crafters!

Here it is the finished rainbow on the wall!

What do you think? Would you like to make a rainbow?

Ruby (and Jacob) Makes - Milk Bottle Elephants (with tutorial)

A couple of weeks ago Jacob made the blue elephant at Beavers, it has his Beaver Promise under the lid. When it came home Ruby decided that she had to make one too and promptly helped herself to a milk bottle out of the recycling box. 

They are very similar to the Elmer Elephants craft session I set up at Dragonflies playgroup a couple of years ago.

They are so easy to make...

You will need:

A clean milk bottle (any size will do but a 4 pint is best)

PVA glue

Tissue paper

Googley eyes

Craft knife

Scissors

Depending on the type of elephant you make:

Craft foam

Felt

Sparkles

Milk bottle lid

To make both elephants: 

Using a craft knife (or kitchen knife as the plastic bottle is soft) cut the bottom half of the bottle off (leaving roughly 2 thirds of the handle there as the trunk) and discard. Then using scissors cut out arches on all bottom sides of the bottle to create legs. 

For the Indian elephant (top one):

Leave the lid sections un-touched.

Cover bottle using tissue paper in a colour of your choice using the PVA glue. Allow to dry.

Take a piece of felt and cut into a curved rectangle shape with a point in the centre at one end. Undo the lid, place felt over the opening and screw the lid back on.

Add googley eyes to the front of the elephant above the handle trunk and sparkles to the felt.

Ta-da! you are finished.

For Elmer (bottom one): 

Carefully cut away the raised lid bit of the bottle. 

Cut squares of different coloured tissue paper and cover the bottle using the PVA glue in a patchwork pattern. Allow to dry

Cut out ear, tusk and tail shapes from the foam and glue into place.

Add the googley eyes and you are finished. 

Why not use your Elmer to re-tell the story!

5...4...3...2...1... Blast off!

Last Tuesday I went into my daughters nursery class for the morning. I was asked to help the children make rockets using plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and cardboard tubes. My heart did a little jump for joy as I love sticking and making things. The objective was to get them to feel the materials they had for the rockets and talk about how the felt. To start with most of them just used soft or hard but as we got talking we discovered that things could be sharp, prickly, spongy and smooth. Their imaginations are amazing and when they were finished they blasted their rockets off the the moon or their planet (the table to allow them to dry). The picture above is of Ruby's rocket. Unfortunately her milk bottle top windows seemed to go missing. I think it was something to do with re-entering the earth's atmosphere on the way home. I can't wait for next time, 3-4 year olds rule!