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

• 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

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.

2 - 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.

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.

8 - 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...

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

I 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.