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Easter Lamb

I came across this cardboard tube lamb tutorial on Crafts By Amanda.  I thought it was really cute (that’s right…I said it…cute).  I figured this would be great project for my son and I to do, especially with Easter coming up.  Be sure to check out her tutorial.  She has included a video tutorial as well.

First, I gathered my supplies:

  • Toilet paper tubes cut about 3″ tall.
  • Glue
  • Cotton Balls
  • Scissors
  • Googly Eyes
  • Black cardstock
  • Popsicle Sticks
  • Black marker

I would cut each cotton ball in quarters, then roll them between my fingers to make a ball.  Eventually, I found that pulling the cotton ball apart is easier than cutting it into quarters.  My son would then glue them to the cardboard tube.  We quickly figured out that gluing each one would take forever and be very messy.  So, instead, I spread the glue over a section of cardboard, then he can press the cotton balls into place.  That really sped up the process.

While he glued on the cotton balls, I colored some Popsicle sticks black, then broke them in half.  These will make up the sheep’s legs.  Amanda’s tutorial uses pipe cleaners.  I went this route just because it was easier.

I used the Cricut to cut out the sheep’s head out of black cardstock.  You could easily cut these out with scissors instead.  I’ve attached the Inkscape pattern for you Cricut/SCAL users out there.  For the rest of you, I’ve included a JPG template you can just print.  You can find the files at the end of this post.  Here he is gluing on googlie eyes.  Lets face it, everything is better with googly eyes.

Once the glue dried on the eyes and cotton balls, I used a hot-glue gun to attach the feet.  It would have taken too long (and a bit tricky) to clamp into place for the regular PVA glue to dry.  This was much easier.  Then, with a little glue on the back, he can press the face into place.  Voilà, an Easter Lamb.  He made 4 of them, one for me, one for mom, one for himself, and one for the cat…because cats like Easter too.

[Download the free SVG & JPG Pattern here]

Category: Craft

St. Patty’s Day Decorations

My son, Gavin, and I decided we needed some St. Patty’s Day decorations for the house.  I’ve been trying to do some sort of art/craft project with him every Saturday morning.  So I thought this would be a good project.  I was thinking of some sort of shamrock garland and a pot of gold.  I wanted to use the Cricut cutting machine to cut out my shapes, but I needed a way for Gavin to do a bit more than glue things together.  So I thought this would be a good way to practice his letters, one for each shamrock.

The shamrocks were cut from 4 different sheets of paper.  I went to the craft store and found green patterned sheets.  I used the stock shamrock design from Sure Cuts A Lot software.  I cut 8 shamrocks from each of the papers.  This gives me 32 shamrocks, which is a few extra in case we goof up.  Then I just piled them up in stacks and let him draw his letters on whichever he chooses.  I let him choose if he wanted to do uppercase or lower case letters.  Most of them he knew.  For the ones he didn’t know, I used a magna doodle pad to show him how to make the letters.  I was pleasantly surprised he knew as much as he did.  I think I only helped him on 3 letters!

After we were done with the letters, I grabbed some green yarn and taped it taunt (not tight) to the table.  I slid each of the shamrocks under the string face down and let him put a bit of glue beneath the string.  While that dried, we worked on the pot of gold.

The pot of gold was designed by me using Inkscape.  I’ve provided the SVG file for importing into Sure Cuts A Lot below.  The background is dark green.  The foreground is a lighter green.  I used a green Cricut marker to write the words “Happy St. Patty’s Day”, then cut out the foreground.  The coins were on a yellow card-stock.  First I used the green Cricut Marker to make the design, then I cut each of the circles.

To assemble the pot of gold, I glued the foreground to the background myself, since it required a more precise alignment.  Then I let Gavin glue each of the coins to the pot.  I pretty much let him put them wherever he wanted.  To finish off, I glued one of the left-over shamrocks to the side of the pot.

When everything was dry, we hung up the garland over a door way.  I must have been a bit dyslexic, because I put the letters on backwards.  Oh well.  Then we hung the pot of gold over the garland.

There we have it; our  St. Patty’s Day decoration!  We both had a lot of fun and it took maybe an hour.  Perhaps a half-hour prep.  It might have been a bigger project than 4yo can pay attention to.  But adding the letters to the shamrocks seemed add that extra element of fun.  He was very proud of his creation and is sure to show everybody that walks through the door.

[Download the Free SVG project file here]

Category: Craft

Cricut Expressions Personal Cutter

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I bought the Cricut Expressions personal cutter. Basically, this is a cnc cutter used to cut paper, vinyl, and other thin materials. Scrapbookers use this machine to cut shapes and stencils when putting together scrapbook pages.

By using a program called Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL), you can hook the Cricut up to our computer.  It works just like a printer.  But instead of printing, you’re cutting your own designs.  SCAL can use any font (including dingbats) and can import a number of different graphic files.  I use Inkscape to create my designs and import the SVG file directly into SCAL.  Then I organize the layers so I can cut the appropriate papers.  Then I click the Cut button and away it goes.

This is a really cool machine. It is so much fun to play with. I spent the weekend trying out different things. I’ve designed a couple cards (Valentine’s Day is coming up), cut name tags, bookmarks, some of my scroll saw patterns out of paper, and even cut some stencils so I can etch glass. I’m always getting new ideas on elements I can incorporate into my projects. This is really a neat tool to add to your crafting arsenal.  I look forward to sharing some projects where I used the Cricut in future posts.  Hopefully that will spark a few ideas for yourself.

We bought our Cricut on Amazon for $225. While the cartridges are ridiculous, spending the extra money on Sure Cuts A Lot pretty much frees you from spending your hard earned money on those cartridges. But if you decide you want a few anyway, I found eBay is the best place to find them at decent prices.

 

Note: SCAL no longer supports the Cricut Personal Cutter.

Category: Craft