fun2make

Summer is here and we have a new Shrinkles Project for you to try. Create this pretty pendant by tracing the pattern from our free printable instruction sheet on to a Frosted Shrinkle sheet from the classroom pack (item no. WZ114)

Shrinkles are still selling well, so we have created a free project sheet  for you to make a great pair of father’s day badges.

We’ve had a number of enquiries recently about scoubidous and sales of them have certainly gone up on a year ago.

We thought that those of you who are getting into scoubidous for the first time (or who have forgotten what to do), might appreciate our free instruction sheet.

Following on from our highly successful Mother’s Day project, we have now created a Brown Owl project for you to do on Shrinkles®.

The instructions are attached here, and as you will see, it is really easy to do and allows you to create a wonderful looking magnetic owl to keep or give as a gift. Good luck and don’t forget to tell us how yours came out!

Fun2make has just started stocking Shrinkles and we know that you’re going to love them. Imagine, drawing a picture, colouring it in, then shrinking it by 7 times (and making it 7 times thicker) so that you can keep it and use it as a keyring, card embellishment, pendant or mobile phone charm. Well, you can do exactly that with Shrinkles!

Create your pictures on the special Shrinkles (Shrinkies, Shrink Art) plastic sheets. You can use colouring pencils, permanent pens, Berol Fabric Pens or Sakura Stardust pens.  Don’t make the colours too dark because the colours intensify when the plastic shrinks.

To get you started, we have created a project for you to do. Click here to download it free. It will explain how you can make a mother’s day keyring to give as a gift. Remember, mother’s day is on March 22nd this year. The picture above shows what the finished article should look like.

The latest issue (the christmas issue) of ‘Let’s get crafting magazine’ features two products from fun2make in its list of the top 18 kiddiecrafts.

The first item listed is our creative hands foam art kit. These contain foam backgrounds with outlines on them, onto which children can stick the foam shapes that come with them. There are also glitter glues in the kit which add a wonderful sparkly effect to the finished picture. Our daughter and her friends have done several of these and love them so much that they have even been hung on their walls. Some are multi-layered and quite complex, so we woould recommend them for children aged 7 and over. Click here for more details.

The second item featured in the magazine is our easy to make fashion bag.

These felt bags are very simple needlework kits, with ready punched holes to make things straightforward for little fingers.

Don’t forget our new christmas products - the festive season wouldn’t be the same without fun2make craft kits!

Click on the image below to open free printable instructions (in Adobe Acrobat Reader) on how to make it.

Click on the title link below to open the guide in PDF format. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to see it)

Guide to plastic canvas

On Sunday, we hosted 16 lively 8 year olds for our daughter’s 8th birthday party. It was a real test for us of how well our ideas would withstand the harshest of critics, and whether we would have enogh to keep them amused for 2 hours (including tea time).

All the tables were covered in our plastic tablecloths.

Although thin, these really withstood well the stresses of 2 hours of various crafting activities, and were very easy to roll up and dispose of at the end. The first thing the girls received when they arrived was a pink box, about the same size as a shoe box, but half the height (not stocked currently on fun2make). They each had a little bag given to them full of self adhesive foam glitter hearts, self adhesive jewels, small flowers (not currently stocked) and glue dots. They had a great time doing this and having already completed one ourselves, we showed them what could be done which helped some of them a lot.

We had set up different tables for different craft activities. One group of girls went straight into making a bag charm which we had already presorted into small plastic bags. This comprised 4 different lengths of beading cord tied onto a split ring which was then attached to a lanyard hook. The theme of the party was ‘Hello Kitty’, so we had specially bought some HK beads to mix with our own, so that the bag charms would be really colourful. A little plastic bowl for each child was an essential, as was a pair of plastic safety scissors on the table, to cut off the surplus cord.

Another group of girls concentrated on each decorating a canvas bag with fabric pens. We had already drawn a hello kitty outline on each one, so they could then colour them in, and add to the design. On the table we also put a letter stencil, so that each girl could put her name on the bag if she wanted, plus some of our large foam shapes, which they could use as stencils and then colour in. Each canvas bag had a sheet of A4 paper in it, which stopped the paint going through to the other side, and allowed the girls to write their name on it to easily identify their creations.

We then had tea, which proved very successful, as some of the girls wanted to keep munching their kit kats and birthday cake long past the allotted time!! Then back to the crafting. The first lot of fabric paint had now dried, so the girls could now add to the bags some glitter textile paint, to create an even better effect.

Other girls were colouring in a HK picture we had printed off with a variety of Berol verithik pencils. They could then use a gluestick to stick the completed picture onto their white paper going home bag.

Lastly, some of the girls managed to do all the activities including the last one – making a beaded bracelet (we made up an HK one especially, but the heart ones are equally lovely). Those that didn’t manage to do that activity, got the kit to put in their going home bag (along with the sweets and other things already in there).

Quite a few of the children didn’t want to leave at the end, and the parents who came in couldn’t believe that when they walked in to the hall, all the children were sitting calmly crafting (rather than running around and screaming which is so often the case!). All in all, a really successful day for fun2make, and a wonderful celebration for our daughter.

Normally, fun2make resells on kits that it buys from manufacturers or wholesalers. Occasionally, we tweak them a little where we think the product can be improved, or the instructions made clearer.

This is one of the first product lines that we have put together ourselves, and we’re feeling quite proud of it. It is for older children, teens and adults. It is a little more expensive than our normal beaded kits because it uses the special glass millefiori beads.

The millefiori technique was developed in Murano, Italy. Glass canes are created with an intricate pattern running through the length of the cane. (Like a stick of seaside rock). Small slices of the cane are then cut and formed into beautiful beads, each with a unique design.