Cardboard monster!

I organized this paper craft a few years ago for work and it was a such a huge success with kids that I wanted to revisit it today. Anything they can create that is somewhat mechanical will be wildly popular. And this activity is additionally so simple and easy to make that it’s a win-win for all parties involved. If you are looking for something super fun and effortless to make with easily bored kids, this is the way to go. AND, you can use things that are probably already lying around the house!

material

See? How cool is that?! You only need a few things:

• 2 or 3 cardboard sheets (I used empty cereal boxes)

• A pencil

• Scissors

• A glue stick (you could also use scotch tape)

• A ruler

• A hole puncher

• Brass fasteners (at least 7)

instructions

Take a cardboard sheet and, with the pencil and ruler, draw a series of at least 6 strips, all of the same length and width. Make sure the strips are long enough or else the monster won’t be able to move! Our strips measure 3 cm x 18 cm.

Cut along the lines to obtain the desired strips.

Punch holes in the strips as shown in the photo : the first and last two strips should have a hole in the middle and on one extremity. The middle strips should have a hole in the middle and on both extremities. As much as possible, make sure the holes are all punched at the same place from one strip to another. A trick is to punch hole on one strip and use it as a reference for all others, by placing it on top of the others. That way, you’ll exactly where to punch the holes

Put the strips aside for the moment and take another cardboard sheet as well as a pencil.

Draw a horizontal line along the middle of the sheet, length wise. The ruler is not really needed here.

Draw the top half of your monster’s head above the horizontal line. That line represents its jaw line. If it has fangs, draw a zigzag on either side the horizontal line.

Cut along the lines you just drew.

Place your monster’s upper head on a sheet of cardboard to draw its second bottom half. If there’s enough space left on your cardboard, use it, or else take another sheet.

Draw a line along the top side of the monster’s neck.

Draw a line along the bottom of the monster’s neck. This is because the upper part of the head and the bottom half of the head will share the same neck so both neck should be of the same size.

Now draw the bottom half of the monster’s jaw, making sure to draw along the upper half’s teeth.

You should obtain something like this. Notice the hole on the top middle part of the lower head. All that is left to do is connect the two lines together (the upper part of the neck with the inside of the jaw).

Cut along the lines to obtain the lower half of the monster’s head.

Now that you have your monster’s full head, you can give it eyes and nostrils if you wish. I didn’t feel the need to do more, so I left it blank.

Superimpose the upper head’s neck with that of the lower head. The teeth should lock perfectly.

And punch a hole in the middle of the neck. Now you are ready to assemble your monster.

Take the first two strips. They should both have a hole in the middle and one at the right extremity.

Form an X with the 2 strips so that one middle hole is on top of the other.

Insert a brass fastener in the middle hole and open its arms on either side of the hole.

Take 2 middle strips. They should each have 3 holes on them.

Cross the 2 middle strips so that their middle holes are superimposed. Now superimpose their left holes with those of the first 2 strips, as illustrated in the photo above.

Insert a brass fastener in the holes and open their arms.

If you have more than 6 strips, continue as indicated above until you reach the final 2 strips. The final 2 strips should both have a hole in the middle as well as one on the left extremity.

Cross the final 2 strips so that their middle holes are one on top of the other, and then superimpose their left holes with those the previous strips.

Insert 2 brass fasteners where the final 2 strips meet the rest of the craft. Do not insert one in the middle hole of the final 2 strips just yet.

Take the upper half of your monster’s head, and superimpose the hole on its neck with the middle hole of the final 2 strips. Align the neck with the strip pointing upwards, and glue the strip to the upper head, as shown in the photo above.

Now do the same with lower half of the monster’s head, gluing the final strip pointing downwards to it.

Finally, insert a brass fastener in the remaining hole, and open its arms on either side of it.

And that’s it! Now have fun opening and closing your monster’s head!. You need both your hands to do so : each hand holds one strip on the left and see what happens when you pull them apart from or closer to each other!

For even more fun, play around with light and a white wall, creating shadows with your monster!

To see my cardboard monster in action, check out my in Instagram of Facebook account!

In the meantime, have fun!

DIY cup and ball game

Like the walking paper horse or the self-walking feet, this craft also falls into the “I’ll save it for when I have the time” category. A while ago, I saw a short video of someone playing with this homemade toy and I thought how cool a game this was! It looked really easy to make as well! I then forgot about it until now and took some of my free time to test out this activity. Is it as easy to build as it looks? Is it as fun as it appears to be? Yes and yes. The only “problem”, if you can even call it a problem, is that you have to wait a bit after each step for the glue to dry. If you have a hot glue gun, that should not be an issue, but if you use white liquid glue like I did, you’ll have to be a bit patient.

Material

• 3 popsicle sticks

• 2 small popsicle stick (or cut a normal one in half)

• 4 clothespins (ideally made of wood)

• 2 bottle caps (of the same size)

• a string

• Glue

• a bead (ideally, with a hole pierced in the middle)

• Not shown in the photo : a small piece of paper sticker. This is necessary if you’re not using hot glue.

instructions

Take 2 clothespins and glue them one on top of the other. Both clothespins should face the same direction. Do the same for the other 2.

Glue a popsicle stick on top of each clothespin duo. The sticks’ extremity should not go beyond the pins’ prongs.

Apply glue along the third popsicle tick.

Carefully place each clothespin combo on top of the third stick so that they both meet at its middle, without touching each other. Leave just enough space for your string.

While the glue dries, take the bead and the string.

Make a big knot at the end of your string. The knot should be bigger than the hole in your bead. Obviously, this step is not necessary if you do not have a hole in your bead. If that’s the case, simply glue the string to the bead, or tie it around the bead.

Insert the string inside the bead, until the bead reaches the knot. To make sure that the bead stays there, apply a little bit of glue between the knot and the bead, then apply some pressure. Set it aside to dry.

This next step is the trickiest part of the craft. Attach your string to the middle part of the bottom stick, all the while making sure that the bead reaches the lever part of the clothespins, but doesn’t go beyond that point either.

Cut off the excess string, at the bottom.

Now take your 2 bottle caps. If you are using regular white liquid glue, find 2 little pieces of paper stickers to put on the caps. Regular white glue doesn’t work well with plastic and as it dries, it will break away from the plastic. This is why paper stickers are recommended here. If you’re using hot glue, skip this step and go straight for the next one.

Apply a line of glue on the bottle cap.

Carefully place the bottle cap on top of the clothespins’ lever section, always making sure that the bead can easily go inside the bottle cap. The bead should not fall short or go beyond the cap.

Do the same for the other side.

Turn the whole thing over. Again, the glue must have dried completely.

Now glue the 2 small popsicle sticks under each bottom clothespins. The small sticks should be perpendicular to the rest of the craft.

Wait for the glue to dry completely and that’s it! You now have a cup and ball game that you’ve made yourself! You can have fun with it alone or play one on one with someone! If it’s your turn to play, place the bead inside your cup, press the lever and try to send it inside the opposite cup! Since this set is extremely light, make sure to hold the game down by applying pressure on the small sticks, coming out on each side! Otherwise, you’ll lift everything up when pressing on the lever!

Check out my Instagram and/or Facebook account to watch a short video of the game being played!

Have fun!

Yarn Easter eggs

I am always on the lookout for easy but fun activities for both adults and kids because I just love crafting. It relaxes me and helps me reconnect with my 5 year old self. Since Easter is just around the corner, I am going to share one of my favorite Easter crafts: yarn eggs! They are a bit messy to make but that is half the fun!

Material

• Small balloons or water balloons
• Colorful yarn
• Mod Podge or Elmer's glue
• Water
• Optional: tiny chocolate Easter eggs

Tools

• Old newspapers
• A bowl
• Plastic tubes (or drying racks, cookies sheets, small bowls or glasses)
• A pin or scissors and a tweezer

Instructions

1. Blow as many balloons as you like. Do not blow them too much, make sure they are blown just enough to be shaped like an egg. If you want to gift your yarn eggs with little chocolate ones inside, insert the treats in the balloons before blowing them. Tie the end of each balloon so it doesn't deflate.
2. Make sure that you have protected your workstation with old newspapers!
3. In a bowl, mix the Modge Podge (or white liquid glue) with a bit of water. Not too much water, though, or the yarn will not stick. Just enough to water the glue down a tiny little bit. The glue still has to be a bit thick.
4. Now dip your yarn in the glue mixture. You can either use a very long string if you want one color for your egg, or, if you want colorful eggs, use shorter threads. Just dip them one at a time or else they will form one big messy knot.
5. Once the yarn has soaked the glue mixture, pull it out and remove the excess.
6. Then, simply wrap the yarn around your egg. Let yourself go, there is no rule here! If there are little chocolate eggs in your balloons, just make sure that there are no big holes in the yarn pattern as you wrap it around the balloon. This will prevent the chocolates from falling out of the yarn eggs.
7. Once you are satisfied with the result, put the egg aside to dry and move on to another egg. I used small plastic tubes to dry my eggs but you can use whatever you have at your disposal: cookie sheets, small bowls, drying rack... 
8. Let your eggs dry overnight.
9. Once the yarn has dried completely, take a pair of scissors or a pin to pop the balloons.
10. The balloons will deflate and all you will have left is an egg shaped ball of yarn! How cool is that?
11. Retrieve the deflated balloon with a tweezer.
12. If you have treats inside the balloons, use the scissors to carefully cut the deflated balloon into pieces and, with a tweezer, delicately remove the little bits of balloon and extract the chocolate eggs.

These eggs are super easy and fun to make! If you have kids, it'd be a great family activity to organize for Easter or, you could hand them out as gifts and watch the joy in people's faces as they "crack" their eggs!