Arts'n crafts ideas (Full version)

king, fairy and angel decorations


Here's how to make some fairy tale figures: kings, angels and fairies...

Materials needed

Fairies and angels
  • Glue gun
  • Wooden skewer for the bodys
  • Air-hardening modeling clay for the head
  • Brass wire
  • Colored drawing paper
  • Non-woven paper (of the type used to wrap flowers in, sold by the metre in some garden centers or perhaps your local florist will agree to give you a few metres' worth. This paper is very cheap)
  • Metallic-look drawing paper in different colors
  • Angelina heat-bondable fiber or wool for hair and beards
  • Little paper or plastic stars

Instructions

1 - The evening beforehand, prepare the head by forming little balls out of air-hardening clay which are then placed on a wooden skewer. Paint on a face when the clay is hard. I've prepared several heads, that I leave to harden on skewers thrust into a polystyrene base. The head

Patterns for the body

The patterns2 - Prepare the paper patterns for the kings' bodies: - Take a dessert plate and a teacup - Cut a circle in the colored drawing paper and the flower wrap with the help of the dessert plate, cut a circle in the metallic-look paper with the help of the teacup. - Cut these circles in two. - Reduce the size of the flower wrap circle a little so that the circle of drawing paper overlaps it by about 0.2 inches.

Making the figures

3 - Lightly glue the flower wrap to the top of the drawing paper then make a cone shape and glue the cone at the back with the glue gun. 4 - Put a drop of glue onto the head and fix it to the wooden skewer. 5 - Place the cone beneath the head and between the cone and head, insert the little arms made from brass wire. Apply a drop of glue to the inside of the cone to hold it fast to the skewer. 6 - Now put the cloak on, turning the front folds back a little, the metallic-look paper is two-sided and two-colored 7 - Make 'hair' from the Angelina fiber or wool, then make a little rectangle about 2.4 inches by 1 inch in which you should cut out long triangles to make a crown. Glue all this to the head. With the king figures, you may also add a beard, using wool or the Angelina fiber. Making the figure

the finish

How to finish off8 - Finish by glueing on the stars and whatever other little extra design details you want 9 - Finally, either cut the skewer below the drawing paper cone with pruning shears or leave the skewer untouched and use it to attach the figure to a Christmas tree or thrust it into a plant pot...

Angels model

AngelsThis basic design also enables me to make Angel figures, which look really cute as a Christmas table decoration...

Fairy model

FairiesI can also make fairies to stick into my plant pots. These fairies are made with just the flower wrap. Their dresses can be cut out with decorative-edged scissors so as to create a pretty effect for the lower part of the dress.