With the Easter holidays and the long Bank Holiday weekend stretching out ahead of us, there are an awful lot of days to entertain the children coming up. So if you haven’t been able to book a Center Parcs break this Easter and you need to be inspired with ways to spend your days, why not dig out the craft supplies and spend an afternoon making something special?
Our first craft, Easter Sun Catchers, is perfect for little ones with foraging, collecting and sticking. While the second, Potato Printed Easter Tote Bag, is great for the not-so-little ones.
Easter Sun Catchers
These sweet bunny and egg sun catchers are like nature’s stained glass windows, with petals and leaves gleaming in the cut-outs. You can take a family walk in the woods to collect the materials first. Using sticky-back plastic means there’s no mess from glue, making it easy for everyone.
Suitable for: ages 4-7
Takes: 30 minutes to one hour
You will need:
- 2 sheets of A4 coloured card
- Sticky-back plastic
- Small leaves, petals and blades of grass
- Coloured tissue paper, torn into pieces
1 Start by folding your piece of card in half lengthways. Draw half a bunny (without ears) with its middle along the fold, and add a round section in the middle for its tummy. Cut out.
2 Draw the bunny ears on another piece of card and cut out, also removing the middle section.
3 Cut out a big rectangle of sticky-back plastic slightly larger than your bunny and its ears. Peel off the back and place your bunny on top, with the front (the neatest side without any pencil marks) face down on the sticky side. Then add your ears to the sticky-back plastic at the top of the head.
4 Use your petals and greens to create a mosaic in the tummy and ears. Add your torn up pieces of tissue paper to the gaps – these will catch the light really well.
5 Once you’ve filled in all the gaps, cut another large sheet of sticky-back plastic and place in on the back, over all the petals and tissue paper. Then cut round the edge, leaving a small border to keep it stuck together.
6 For the Easter egg, draw half an egg shape on a sheet of folded card. Add a crack down the middle and cut out both sections. Keeping them folded in half, add a border a couple of centimeters in from the edge all the way around and cut out the middle, creating two frames.
7 Place on a sheet of sticky-back plastic like you did with the bunny and fill with petals, greens and tissue paper before sealing with another sheet of plastic.
8 Add a dot of blue tac to the front of each sun catcher and put up in the window.
Potato printed Easter tote bag
This handmade tote is a great first sewing project and the perfect accessory for an Easter egg hunt! The bag can be made by hand or on a sewing machine, and the finished piece is 26cm square.
Suitable for: ages 8-11
Takes: one or two hours, longer if sewing by hand
You will need:
- Thick cotton in a light colour, measuring 28 x 56cm
- A potato
- Kitchen knife
- Leaves
- Fabric paint in whatever colours you prefer (we used turquoise and pink)
- Paint brush
- Black marker pen
- 80cm pink cotton tape
- White and pink thread
- Iron and ironing board
1 Lay the fabric out in front of you and fold the two narrow ends over by 1cm. Press with the iron, then fold over another 1cm and press again – this hides the raw edge. Sew all along the fold.
2 Fold the fabric in half with the folded edges facing each other on the inside. Iron the fabric to make a nice crisp fold line – this will help you see where to stamp later.
3 Cut a potato in half, lengthways. To carve the shape of a bunny body into your potato, it’s easiest to make a template in paper first that will fit onto your potato.
4 Place the template on the cut site of the potato and use a sharp pencil to draw around it, pressing down slightly to leave a groove. Remove the stencil and use a knife to carefully cut around the grooves to about half a centimeter deep. Then slice away the potato surrounding your bunny shape.
5 Open up the bag and place some newspaper underneath in case the paint soaks through. Using a paintbrush, apply your fabric paint to the potato and carefully stamp it onto the front of the bag, a little way above the fold. Push down hard to get a good print. Turn the fabric around the repeat for the other side.
6 For the bunny’s ears, paint a small leaf with turquoise fabric paint. Press the leaf onto the bag above the head and repeat the other ear. Add a little bunny tail onto one of the bunny prints with a dab of turquoise paint.
7 Use a marker pen to add a little face to the ‘front’ bunny (the one without a tail).
8 Cut the fabric tape in half. Fold the end under by 2cm and pin each end 6cm from the middle of the bag, along the top. Use pink thread to sew a square shape with a cross in the middle on the end of each strap to secure it in place.
9 Fold the bag in half with the bunnies facing each other and the top edges lined up neatly. Pin and sew all the down each side, 1cm from the edge. Turn the bag inside out and press with the iron to seal the fabric paint. Then fill it with Easter goodies!
These crafts were brought to you in partnership with Laura and Tia from Little Button Diaries. Take a look at their website for more crafting ideas, baking recipes and toddler activities.
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