With the expert guidance of Tracey Radford, you can turn everyday cardboard into incredible, yet simple, craft projects. You’ll never look at an empty egg carton in the same way again…
You will need:
- Egg carton
- Ears template
- Cotton (wool) ball
- Paints in colors of your choice for rabbit fur, and white and red
- Fine paintbrush
- Glue (tacky glue is best)
- Craft scissors
- Small scissors
- (optional)
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Fine black felt-tip or gel pen
1. Roughly cut a whole cone from the egg carton. Use a pencil and ruler to mark 1¼ in. (3 cm) down from the top on one side and draw a line across. Draw another line on the opposite side, ¾ in. (2 cm) from the top. Join them with sloping lines either side.
2. To cut out the body, snip up two adjacent corners to the pencil line, fold the flap back, and cut it off—it’s now easier to cut along the rest of the line.
3. Copy the ears onto a piece of the egg carton lid and cut out the teardrop shape. Then draw on the ears using the dotted lines on the template as a guide, and snip out the small piece of card between them.
4. There are two options for attaching the ears. The first (and easiest) is to brush glue on the bottom part of the ears and stick them just behind the top of the cone (on the longer side). When dry, bend the ears back slightly. Go to step 6.
5. Or, you can make a slot for the ears. Use the small scissors to pierce a hole just behind the top of the cone, on the longer side—keep the scissors closed, press down carefully, and twist gently from side to side to make a hole. Snip the slot to make it wide enough to fit the bottom part of the ears. Dab some glue inside the cone behind the slot, and push the ears into place.
6. When the glue is dry, paint your rabbit any color you like, remembering to paint both sides of the ears. When touch dry, use a fine paintbrush to add a white fluffy chest. Mix pink from red and white, and paint a line inside each ear.
7. For the tail, pull off a tiny piece of cotton ball and roll it into a little ball between your finger and thumb. Glue it to the back of the body near the base.
8. When the paint is dry, use the fine black pen to draw eyes below the ears and a twitchy nose right on the edge of the cone top.
Make Your Own Farm Animals and More
by Tracey Radford, published by CICO Books (£12.99).
Photography by Martin Norris © CICO Books
Craft began to take centre stage for BBC journalist Tracey when she became a mum. She started making cardboard animals with her three children, and the growing band of creatures proved to be a big hit.
Visit Tracey’s blog at patchworkparent.blogspot.com