Scrunchy Tissue Paper Union Jack

What a week! This should have been one of the busiest weeks of my year. I have a small family tea in a few days, the toddler party of the century just one week away, horse should have had five coats of paint, birthday presents should have been bought and that is just the start of it all. What I have actually done all week is lay on the bed / sofa / floor feeling pretty awful with some kind of crazy tonsilitis which included stiff neck and all over aching. Even my eyeballs hurt which has kept me away from the laptop for most of it too.

To keep my son amused today, I turned to one of our easiest crafts. One that he can pretty much do by himself while I lay and point vaguely at his work mumbling things like ‘good job’, ‘looking good’ and ‘there better not be glue in my hair’. As it’s coming up to Jubilee weekend, I even made it topical. So, for my first craft tutorial, I give you… Scrunchy Tissue Paper Union Jack Flag Picture Thing.

Well, I say tutorial, I won’t insult you by explaining it in words when it’s so flippin’ easy. I might give you a couple of top tips at the end though.

Tadaaa! There you have it. Easy as pie. Probably easier, as pies can be quite tricky. Now, those tips I mentioned.

The easiest way to get lots of little bits of tissue is to use a palette knife. Fold sheet in half, run finger down crease, slip knife in, press firmly on top of paper with flat hand and slice through the crease. Fold all in half and repeat. You can get through several layers of tissue like this and it is so much quicker than scissors. Works a treat on wrapping paper too. This knife is probably older than me and I bet the closest it has ever been to food is my chocolatey fingers.

 

Use loads of gloopy glue. We tried spreading glue onto the card first, but the tissue wasn’t sticking too well. Also, the glue was drying too quickly so we had to keep reapplying. Much better to just get a tray of glue, dip the tissue in, plop it on the card.

Use card as a base. With the quantity of glue used, paper goes quite soggy, quite quickly. Artwork gets torn, toddlers cry. It’s not pretty.

Keep any leftover scrunchy tissue bits in a tub. After a couple of different projects you’ll have loads of different colours ready to start making something new.

That’s about it really. This little project kept son entertained all afternoon. He kept leaving it to go and play then coming back to it, but always seems to enjoy these scrunchy crafts. Have you made any Jubilee crafts, or any scrunchy crafts with your little ones recently? I’d love it if you leave me a link so I can come and see yours.