Shrinkie Lolly Packet Fail

This is my failed attempt at shrinking lolly packets.  The major thing for this project is to stay next to the oven and don't forget about it.  This is something I've never been good at.  Only recently have I managed to stop burning rice and biscuits.  So I will have to work on this for shrinking plastic.


Key points are: make a baking paper envelope (otherwise melted plastic sticks to tray).  Medium to low heat oven, preheated and no fan or your packets might move around a little. 

A failed experiment.  I can now advise people NOT to use sugar packets. I think Edison said something about each failure brings you closer to success?

I am not going to give up though.  Once I have managed to get some decent shrinky packets, will be thinking of what to do with them.  So the silver lining here, is that I now have more time to think of what to make and will clearly have to eat more lollies and chocolate so that I have some more packets to shrink.  Hooray!

Customised Coffee Tins

What to present home made biscuits and treats in when you're giving them as a gift?  If you're obsessed with recycling, like me, you use an old coffee tin.

Avalanche Coffee have particularly nice tins.  I spray painted them white and then painted Phin's hand which he then used as a stamp to press on the tin and lid a few times. 

A contrasting colour card with a message on it gets tied around the lid with gold thread and an old tin is made beautiful.

In retrospect, I probably wouldn't go for the red paint next time..... looks a bit like blood?  Was really meant to be Christmassy.  Could be a slight fail there.

Paper Doll Fail

I was inspired to make my own paper dolls from a book I got out of the library: Collage couture : techniques for creating fashionable art by Julie Nutting.  It seemed effortless (well it is when you are just flicking through her book).

Anyway, I had the brilliant idea of making a paper doll for Haeata's birthday.  After a lot of trial and error I eventually got to the point where I could start gluing on her singlet etc.  And it took a couple of tries to cut even that near enough to right.  So by the time I'm varnishing the doll, I've pretty much had enough.  Then the varnish decides to start cracking (because I put it on too thick to try to save time).  Well that's it.  Haeata got a painting instead.  Much easier.

Luckily I didn't persevere, because one of her gifts was a very cute magnetic paper doll with magnetic clothes.  You probably know the type.  They come in various incarnations.  A friend of mine has the statue David on her fridge.

I am going to stick to buying paper dolls that come in books - and ones that have perforated edges too.  I think DIY paper dolls are really just for super keen aficionados.

DOWNLOAD FILE Here is PDF pattern for my doll.

Bottle Lid Cow Head

I was looking through one of those home and garden magazines.  I saw a great orange kitchen with the prerequisite blackboard wall.  What really caught my eye was a glimpse of a very colourful cow head.  It reminded me of those Chicago sculptures.  Anyway, this magazine happened to be the unhelpful kind that doesn't have a detailed index at the back listing all the objects in each photo.   So I scanned it to zoom in for a better look, but as you can see it is still only a scan of a tiny image.

However, google came to the rescue.  These cow heads are all over the place.  There I was thinking the head is a folded plate or something, and really it is a bottle cut up.  Cool!  See here.

So now I have to start collecting bottle lids.  We only have blue ones so I'll have to start the children on other milk instead.  I just won't tell Plunket.

Collage Foil Magnets

My cousin was the first person I saw making one of these.   I think it might have been a school project of his.  I made something very similar at school, using an old collage printing block project.  I have since changed the finish slightly.

You'll need thick/strong cardboard, textured items, tinfoil and magnet - the flat printed advertising ones are great to use.  Just rip off the advertising paper.  You'll also need PVA glue and some sort of paint / varnish / glass paint. 

Start by deciding what shape your magnet will be.  I made some fish for my boys.  Cut out the cardboard.  Then the fun part.  Children can definitely take part for this.  Think of things you can collage with that make different textures.  For the fish I used: netting from a smoked chicken, lace, foam netting from duty free bottles, buttons, string, beads, cardboard cutout shapes.  Take a look around and you'll find lots of different things you can glue.  PVA is good because it will dry flat, but if you like, a glue gun is faster drying, just lumpier.  You can also use a glue spray, but I find it sticks to my fingers too much with this type of collage and if you've got children helping PVA is the way to go.

Once fully dry (or dry enough that the textures wont slip around), cut a piece of tinfoil large enough to wrap around your magnet shape.  Cover collage with glue and gently press tinfoil over.  You are moulding the tinfoil over your collage textures.  Be careful around high contrast areas as the foil can easily rip.  Kids should be fine doing this too.  Theirs might not be perfect, but they are perfectly capable of doing this.  Glue your magnet to the back.

Give it at least an hour to dry a bit.  Now for the colour.  The easiest thing to do here is to get some glass paint and go crazy.  You can get a more painterly effect by mixing ink or dye with an acrylic varnish too.  Or paint is fine, you'll just lose the shine from your tinfoil.  When I did this at school, we used oil based printing inks in the way that you polish shoes.  I remember rubbing on a burnt sienna colour,  then buffing it off with a clean cloth.  The foil kept its shine and went a coppery colour.

Decoupage People Puzzle Blocks

I found this project in an old book about paper crafts I think.  I went with the pictures they had in the book.  It took a few goes to get the template right for it.  Quite a fiddly project, but very cute once it's finished.  I was going to give it as a gift, but it took so long I decided to keep it.  I would use more magazine colours if I was going to do it again.  (like cutting out shapes from pics of grass/trees etc for green) I used old wrapping paper too which has fun patterns.

The tower block sizes I used were: 10cm, 8cm, 6cm, 4cm.  Next time I would make them hollow (5 sided) so you could more easily store them away.  But they do take a bit of effort to make so you're going to want to display them anyway.

The blocks were from some very thick cardboard I taped together and then did a few layers of paper mache on.  I then wrapped them in dark wrapping paper I had.

The 4 characters are: Fireman, Princess, Gypsy, Clown.  Draw up your templates and trace around onto chosen papers.  Cut out and assemble before gluing onto blocks.  Once all glued on, paint at least 3 coats of varnish.  Sand lightly between coats.

Yes, there is a bird on her head.

Craft Supply Storage Boxes

Another way to use up old wrapping paper.  This time pasted onto icecream containers.  These are a good size for crayons, pens, glitter, ribbon - just check out any kindy or school for proof.

Covering them in old wrapping paper is another gluey project to share with children.  They like having different boxes - makes it easy for them to differentiate containers before reading comes along.  Add a label for your memory though.

All you need to is wallpaper paste. It smooths out most wrinkly paper once dry.
Press a piece of paper over the lid to crease around the edges (like lining a baking tin).  Cut out along creases and glue.  So easy it's ridiculous.  Get a whole collection of containers  together to do in one go, otherwise your afternoon of craft entertainment will be over too soon.