Last Day of Half Term is Paper Craft Day!

"Craft day please mummy!" was the cry of my little foxes when I asked them what they'd like to do yesterday, the last day of half term.

I'm in the midsts of a bit of a project in the studio, so it's a mess and that's where most of the craft stuff lives.  But, at a clear out at my mum's some months ago I found an old art box of mine from when I was a kid.

My little foxes have done most of Mrs Fox's crafts 100 times already and they wanted something new. So, I decided to look online for some other paper crafts that could be downloaded and printed out.  I wanted something that we could do at the kitchen table, that required no more than scissors, glue and the paints from my old art box.

We came up with, four projects from craft blogs and online sites (follow the links if you fancy having a go yourself); we spent the whole day doing these - wonderful day!  Here they all are:

A Paper Doll 
from Sweet Paul

London Paper Doll by Lova Blåvarg

We made the London paper doll by Lova Blåvarg. Two A sheets of doll, clothes and props.  London could be a boy or girl, s/he is beautiful, and I have to admit I printed one for me to paint and make up too.  We also downloaded Brooklyn, Lova's other paper doll, for a bit of craftyness today.

Brooklyn Paper Doll by Lova Blåvarg

I remember making paper dolls as a child, and had as much fun doing this one as I ever remember as a kid.  We mounted the doll onto some card and created a stand for her.  This was my favourite of our projects.

Big Ben 
from Paper Toys

Louis' been building a lot just recently so he wanted to make a tower.  On the same site you can download a London taxi and double decker bus which we didn't get round to making.  They print out quite small so you need to scale them up before printing.  But this was Louis' favourite and I've since had to draw him a number of "castles" to paint or colour in too.

Bird Finger Puppets 
from Mr Printable

I LOVE Mr Printable's site.  I have it book marked for a rainy day.  Everything they do is beautiful and this was the easiest project we did, although his beak got a little squished.  You can make 4 birds from this download.  The flamingo is a little too big to fit on small fingers but that just means mummy gets to keep one.  The toucan also conveniently fitted into Una's half-term homework project on Brazil.

Mrs Fox's Articulated Paper Unicorn

Ok, for this one you also need paper fasteners, or you can use pieces of wool or string knotted on either side of the legs.  The children have done them before, but it's one of Una's fav so I printed them out and we made a few more to add to our collection.  I've uploaded one to our website for you to download too.  RIGHT HERE.

Print as many as you like, but please only for personal use.  Drop a comment in the box if you download them, we love to know they're loved.  And if you want to share the love and link to them, please link to this page rather than the PDF itself. Thanks xxx

So, what did you get up to this half term?

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If you go down to the woods today….

Whenever this song comes into my head, it's always my dad's dulcet (well, I'm feeling generous) tones either humming or singing or trumping it.  He says it's a great tune to play when learning to master the trumpet because of the notes it uses and how they travel.  And I can never think of bears without that tune coming into my head.

So yes, bears… this craft started as a polar bear for our January Crafty Box on account of it being the heart of winter but in actual fact, we think these puppets look good in any colour, so your bear could be white, brown, orange, green or multicoloured.  He can be whatever takes your fancy, you could even draw clothes on him.

For your bear puppet you will need;

The template - CLICK HERE

template
scissors
card or heavy paper
tape
glue
barbecue sticks
brads or string
paints or felt pens or decorative paper

Instructions;

Download our template, print and cut out the 3 bear parts.

Draw around your 3 templates onto the card (or heavy paper) and cut them out.  If he's going to be a polar bear and the templates have been printed onto white paper, use the template parts, i.e. the white leg and head parts, body and back legs.

Using tape, attach the sticks to the lower part of the front legs and head and the back legs.

If you want him to be coloured or patterned, now is the time to transform him with paint or patterned paper etc.  If your bear is going to the picnic, perhaps you will want him to wear a hat and a tie.

Apply glue to the back side of the leg templates and stick them to their corresponding shapes – so sandwiching the sticks between the card and paper.  Stick the body part to it’s corresponding card body part.

Take a pen and press through where holes are indicated with dots.

Pushing brads through the holes you have made, attach the legs and head to the body.  If you don't have brads, you can use string and tie knots to hold it all in place.  We tried this and it works as well as brads and looks just as nice as you can see from the bear below.  

Take your bear to the picnic or make up another story for him to star in. 

*N.B. You can make this using just one side of card with the sticks taped on the back but we found that the sticks were more secure sandwiched between card and paper and the bear less flexible.  We used one side card because he moves better if he is stiff and paper is easier to print on.

* Also N.B.(!) You can use 2 sides of card or 2 sides of paper and/or decorate both sides differently so that your story can contain more than one bear character.

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Merry Christmas Wrapping

Need a little help with your Christmas gift wrapping?  How about these Christmas gift tags, FREE from Mrs Fox's just click to download, print, cut out and use.  Please do...

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Mrs Fox's Christmas Gift Tags - FREE to Download

Yup, I know, Christmas posts already!

But with the little foxes back at school after their half term break, I have spent almost the whole day fulfilling Christmas orders from our Folksy store.  As I mentioned in the last post we were featured on the Folksy newsletter a few days ago and have been inundated with sales of our felted red fox christmas tree decoration.

I'm also working on making the fox a little felted badger friend.

So, what with the little foxes, badgers and this month's crafty box being all about Christmas crafts, I'm starting to get in the mood for the big C.  It is becoming a Mrs Fox's tradition to design a set Christmas Gift Tags each year which we give away on the blog as a little Christmas gift from us to you.  So, here are this year's gift tags for you to download and use to make your Christmas gifts bright and festive:

Simply click through to our shop (they are completely FREE) find gift tags in our shop, click on them to download the PDF, print, cut out, punch a hole and thread some string or ribbon through the top. 

And in case you fancy something a little different, here are last years:

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