Batman and Robin - Superhero crafts for kids

Mini superheroes of the egg carton kind! Unfortunately they missed the lego movie opening (villains to catch and all that), but surely it's never too late for a bit of superhero crafting?

You will need:

Egg carton

Pencil

Ruler

Craft scissors

Nail scissors or similar (optional) Adult supervision required

Paint
Fine paintbrush

Craft glue

Fine black felt-tip or gel pen

Black marker pen (like a Sharpie)
Yellow and black paper (or plain paper to paint)

1. Roughly cut out two egg carton cones. On one, draw a pencil line around the cone, just above the bumpy joins at the bottom. Cut along the line. This will be the body.

2. The second cone is for the head, and you only need the very top part. Either estimate this, or use a pencil and ruler to mark about 1.5cm (1/2in.) from the top on all sides, join the marks and cut out. A handy way to do this is to cut up two adjacent corners to the pencil line, bend the card back and cut off the flap - it should be easier now to cut along the rest of the line.

(If your egg cones have holes in the top, brush glue inside the cone and push a small piece of newspaper up to fill the hole.)

We cut out another body and head for Robin.

3. On the body cone, lightly draw a pencil line around it, about half way up. Don't worry if the line is a little wobbly, it's just for guidance. 

Cut up the middle of one cone side to this pencil line, then wiggle and turn your scissors, and cut along the pencil line to the corner and just a little beyond.

Do the same on the other side so you've cut a 'T' shape.

Repeat this 'T' shape on the opposite side of the cone.

4. To form the legs, press the cut edges in the middle towards each other and squeeze and press each one into a more rounded shape. You should end up with what looks like an impressive pair of flares! Trim if you feel they are too wide!

5. For the arms, cut a thin strip of card from the egg carton lid - about 5mm (1/4in.) wide and 5cm (2in.) long. Round it at the ends for the hands.

6. Either cut the arm strip in half after the painting step (Step 10) and glue the pieces either side of the body, or, with adult supervision, use the nail scissors to make a hole in the middle of one of the arm sides (keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.)

Once you've made the hole, snip up to the top of the cone and down the other side until the slot looks level. Cut an extra sliver out, to widen the gap for the arms.
Make sure the slot goes far enough down the body, so when you push the arm strip in, it sits below the top part of the cone (the head will be glued here later)

7. For Batman's pointy ears, cut another strip, about the same width as the arm strip and snip both ends into a 'V'

8. Cut enough off each end so the points sit above the top of the head cone. Glue them either side.

9. For Batman's cape, fold a piece of paper (black would be best, but we didn't have any, and any colour will do, just paint or colour-in after you've cut it out). Draw half the cape on the fold - use the body as a guide, so you don't make the cape too big. Cut out.

10. Now, painting time! 

For batman, paint the body and arms grey. When dry use a permanent black marker (like a sharpie) to colour in his gloves and his superhero undies!

11. With a thin paintbrush and yellow poster or acrylic paint, dab a good layer on his chest for the batman emblem. Either paint his belt too, or (as we did) stick on a strip of yellow paper.

12. If you want, paint the bottom half of Batman's face skin colour (mix lots of white with a dab of red and a tiny bit of blue and yellow). We painted the top half white too, but only because the egg carton we used was orange, and we didn't want him to have orange eyes! If you have a neutral coloured box there's no need to paint the face, especially if you want to speed things up.

13. When the paint is dry, use a fine black pen to draw the eye and mouth holes, then the easiest way to finish off, is to colour in around them carefully with the pen. When you've coloured in around the trickiest bits (and added a mouth) paint (or colour-in) the rest black.

14. Use the fine black pen to add detail to the belt and logo. Glue the cape on the back before gluing the head in place.

15. For Robin, make a cape in the same way as Batman's, but out of yellow paper (or plain and then paint it). Make it shorter and straight at the bottom.

16. Keep the arm strip out and paint it green. Paint the legs green too and the body red. If you want, paint the face a skin colour and the hair brown, but if you have a neutral coloured cone, you could just leave the face and paint or colour-in the hair, to speed things up. 

17. Dot on some yellow paint with a fine paintbrush for buttons and paint a belt, or stick on a thin strip of yellow paper, as before.

18. Use a fine black pen to draw a mouth and eye holes - then colour-in around the eyes to form the mask.

19. Use the black pen to add detail to the front of Robin's tunic and to colour-in his hands (gloves). Glue the cape on the back before gluing the head in place.

Cardboard tube fairy - easy crafts for kids

We’re on a bit of a roll with toilet paper tube crafts… corny pun aside, we have been pretty busy with our hoard of cardboard rolls. 
And like many of the other recent projects, Mary the fairy was inspired by the tubescapes we made a few months back. One idea often leads to another and I really love that. 
She is easy to do, great scissor practice, and can be made from just one tube - that’s wings and head too.

You’ll need:

Toilet paper tube ( or kitchen roll shortened to about 10cm/4in.)

Pencil

Ruler

Scissors

Glue

Sticky tape

Paint

Coloured felt tip pens

Black felt tip or gel pen

Glitter, sequins, stickers (optional)

1. Flatten the tube with your hand and about halfway up, draw a pencil line straight across using a ruler. Draw another line about a cm or so (1/2in.) up from one end.

2. On the other side of the middle line, cut at an angle from the end of the line to the top of the tube, but not quite as far as the corner. Keep the triangle shaped piece for the wings. 

3. Cut along both pencil lines from the shorter side, leaving the last cm (1/2in.) uncut, and then fold the middle piece of card over firmly, before cutting along the crease to remove it. Keep this card too, for the head. Squeeze your tube open, and you have the base for your fairy. 

4. Make her dress less pointy by trimming the sides. 

5. Take the piece of spare card leftover from forming the fairy’s legs, keep it folded and draw a curve on the folded end, for her hair. 

6. Cut out and open up. If it looks too big for her body, fold again and trim until you’re happy.

7. Use the card you’ve just cut away to draw a semi-circle shape for the face, using a straight edge of the card (on its side it looks like a capital D). Cut this out but don’t glue to the hair until all the pieces have been painted.

8. Take the spare piece of card from the start of the project, and cut along the crease so you have two triangles. These are going to be your fairy's wings.

9. Paint all the card pieces any colours you want. Make a good flesh shade by mixing a little red with white to make light pink, then a tiny touch of yellow and blue.

10. When the paint is dry, glue the face to the hair.

11. Flatten down your tube and draw shoes with a felt pen and draw on the face. 

12. Glue the head to the top of the body, and then use sticky tape to attach it firmly behind. Use the sticky tape to attach the wings to the back of the body too. 

Decorate with glitter, sequins or stickers, if you want your fairy to sparkle! 

Little cardboard tube houses - crafts for kids

These little houses are really easy to make and you can decorate them absolutely any way you like! You could add them to the city scene we made last time, or make a village or town of your own, with different shops and houses. Have fun creating a scene!

All you'll need is:
Cardboard tubes
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Paint
Craft glue
Paper clip (optional)
Fine black felt tip or gel pen


1. First of all you need to make the tubes less tubey, as we did with the city scene, so flatten one with your hand and press firmly along the two creases.

2. Open the tube up, and line up the two creases you've just made - the flatten the tube again, making two more creases. Press firmly along these as well.

3. While the tube is still flat, use the ruler and pencil to draw a pencil line across it, 3 to 4cm (1in. to 11/2in.) from one end. This will be the height of the walls.  If you are going to make more than one it would be good to vary the size and to use tubes that are different widths too.

Draw another line across, about 3cm (1in.) up from the first line. This will be one side of the roof and again the size could be altered if you want a taller, pointier roof or a flatter one.

4. Open up the tube and flatten it again, so you can see the pencil lines you've just made and it's easy to extend them. Do this one more time so the lines go right around the tube.

5. Cut down each corner to the first line you made near the bottom, and fold back the flaps firmly.

6. Cut two opposite flaps off, along the fold. Keep one spare piece for the chimneys.

7. Cut another one off too, but not right to the fold this time - leave a very small section of the flap so you can attach the roof here later.

8. Fold the remaining flap back on the second pencil line. Fold it right back so you can measure it against the other side of the roof, and cut any extra card away so both sides are roughly the same size. Then bend the roof fold the other way. Your little house is taking shape!

9. Paint the walls and roof of your house any colour you like, or you could leave it plain. Paint a spare piece of card from earlier the same colour as the walls, if you want your house to have chimneys.

10. When the paint's dry, use a fine black pen to add doors and windows to the side with the small flap. Add roof tiles too if you want, and use felt tips or paint to add any colour detail you fancy. We put flowers along the front of some of our houses and tried a rambling rose too.

For a chimney or chimneys, cut a thin strip from the spare piece of card you painted, and cut in half.

11. When you're happy with your house, brush some glue on the short flap at the front (if your glue isn't very tacky, use a paper clip to hold the card together while it dries. To make tacky glue, leave some PVA  uncovered in an old jar or yogurt pot for a day or two. This should thicken it up. Very handy if you want things to stick quickly and not to slip!)

12. To add chimneys, make small cuts either side of the crease on the roof top - or just one if you only want one chimney pot. Put some glue on the bottom half of your chimney, and slot it into place. When you're happy with the height, stick the gluey part to the underside of the roof front and bend the chimney(s) into position.

Have fun creating your own houses/cottages/shops/schools! You could add a few trees from the city scene project too.