Some of my earliest craft memories spring from falling in love with characters from Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine and making gluey, scribbly plasticine-flavoured attempts at creating them myself. On the tiny TV screen craft came alive and it was magic to watch.
Last night London's Cartoon Museum held a private view of their brilliant Toy Tales exhibition and I was lucky enough to snag an invite. The exhibition features some of Britain's most cherished kid's TV characters, from saggy Bagpuss to cheesy Wallace and Gromit to the perky Peppa Pig.
What fascinated me about the exhibition is seeing how the magic was made. I was even luckier to meet Peter Firmin (co-creator of the likes of The Clangers, Bagpuss and Noggin the Nog with Oliver Postgate) who talked us through some of the untold stories behind the handmade beasts.
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Easter is upon us and that means disgruntled urchins hanging about the house peering out at the inevitable holiday rain and whining "I'm booooooooooored!" What to do with them when you can't release them into the wild to chase pigeons in parks or poke about in ponds for frog spawn? Children's book illustrator and cupcake scribbling Sarah MacIntyre has just the solution. Turn your tiny one into an illustrator.
Enter Sarah's website for a rocket ride into the crafty world of creating aliens, monsters, mini comics and rocket rides.
On the monster side of things get icky with Morris the Manky Monster, the lovable but oh so disgusting creature. You can make your own monster, let the world know just how yuck your creation is, decide just what lurks in a monster's food cupboard and go wild with a whole load of monster activities.
On the alien side of things you dream up your own alien, draw your own spaceship and embark on drawing your own mini comic adventure. All inspired by the "You Can't Eat a Princess" book.
Learning the craft of illustration from a real illustrator should keep them amused and crafty even when the chocolate eggs run out.
Snow snow snow. I love it. Other folks may moan on about chilly toes, slippy pavements and delayed trains but I can't help grinning like an idiot when the world gets all snowy. Which is why I love the idea of crafting your own little snowy world to keep year round with your very own snowglobe.
The crafty kids site Kaboose leads you through a simple tutorial taking jam jars (a bit of recycling while you craft), a glue gun, some crafty bits and a sprinkling of glitter to create your own winter wonderland.
The innards of your snowscene are entirely up to you. You can whip yourself a twee snowman scene or go a little nutty and make yourself a plastic dinosaur snow apocalypse or a plastic Spiderman taking on a yeti. I like the idea of a little London phone box from a tacky souvenir shop being given a bit of a snowy makeover.
See the full how to on Kaboose here.
If it fits in a jam jar you can snow it up. Go forth and snowglobe, crafty people.
There are probably about a million nativity plays going on this week as the mangers, wise men and donkeys are broken out to celebrate the tale behind the festive season. If you don't get the chance to get your nativity on this year then why not create your own in the comfort of your own home?
The Holy Handcrafters of Antioch's Bible Puppets are a nod in the direction of handcrafting the holy and add a bit of a giggle to learning a bit about all things biblical.
Witness Daniel and his terrifying finger puppet lions, a rather irate felt Moses with a burning bush, Jonah and a fairly sinister swallowing whale and a unsettlingly cheerful Gabriel bringing the good news in sparkly felt.
The Holy Handcrafter can't seem to explain why her whale puppet appears to be blessed with thumbs though. Not sure a person-swallowing whale with thumbs is quite my craft cup of tea but they do make me laugh.
So grab your felt and scissors and start making yourself your own little manger scene for Christmas.
November will always be the month of fireworks, so it's no wonder that many crafters like to include bursts of colour and glitter in their work at this time of year.
I think this cute and very simple 'magic' water bottle full of sparkly goodness sums up the seaaon pretty well. and will particularly appeal to those with young kids. Toddlers will be kept happily mesmerised by the swirling, sparkling beads inside the bottle. Instructions on how to make this fun and engaging toy can be found here.
Are your little monsters still a bit too little to do half the stuff you want them to be doing? Like solo tooth-brushing, retrieving toys from high places or peeping out of windows?
Whatever the reason, your house will look far more fun and kid-friendly with a little tweaking, and this is a project so irresistably easy I'd quite like to make one right now, just in case any passing small people need a bit of extra height. It would look spooky and fun for Halloween decor, too! The item you see pictured here is made up from an old orange box adorned with all manner of discarded junk, so this is a good one for those who tend to accumulate fabric. It's the work of Blueprints, who's blogged the instrucitons here. Enjoy!
This may look like a charming, childhood scene but don't be fooled: those girls have malice in their hearts, and it's all aimed at poor old Hello Kitty. What she's done wrong, we don't know - but what we do know is that these final sad images were taken shortly before she was beaten to a pulp, with sticks!
The reason for this seemingly unprovoked act of anti-feline violence becomes more obvious when you learn that Kitty's head was stuffed to the whiskers with sweets. She's a Piñata Kitty made by Ikat Bag - who was initially concerned that her papier mache mix had made the cat's head too strong, but reported that "it fell apart perfectly, thanks to some very good slugging by the kids."
You can see the sorry evidence here:
If you'd like to make any sort of Piñata of your own, there are some basic instructions to be found here.
Related: Sarah Palin Piñata! | How to make a rainbow zebra Piñata
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