The Busy Hive Magnet

Hi Folks, Welcome to another Itsy Bitsy Craft Tutorial. Today we are going to make this super cute beehive magnet with little busy bees! A great weekend activity or a perfect gift J

Supplies:

1. Yellow Cardstock (A4 or 12”x12”) – 1 sheet
2. Orange Craft Foam
3. Yellow Pompoms (8-12mm) – 3 pcs
4. Black Chenille sticks – 2 pcs
5. White Pollen/Stamen- 6 pcs
6. Tempera Paint – Black
7. Silicone Glue or Craft Glue
8. Google Eyes - 1Pair
9. Magnet

Here’s How:

Cut a piece of cardstock – 13.5cm X 10.5cm. Refer to the diagram below. Score on the dotted lines and then cut on the solid lines. You will have 9 paper strips – each measuring 1.5cmX10.5cm, scored at every 1.5cm. (Scoring is important to fold the hexagons later.)

 

Make hexagons from the strips by gluing the ends as shown. Make more hexagons if you want a bigger hive.

Glue the hexagons together and make the hive. You can make some cells open or make it completely symmetric.

Apply glue to the edges and stick it to the felt piece.

Trim the excess felt. You hive is ready

To make the bees, cut a 2- 3” piece of chenille stem and coil it. Stick the pompom on one side of the 

coil.

Paint the pollen black, trim them to size and glue them to make the antennae. Stick the google eyes, and a small piece of cord for the mouth.

Make as many bees as you like and house them in your hive J. Just apply a little glue so they do not fall off. 

Stick the magnet at the back and proudly display your awesome creation!!

Do let us know what you think of the tutorial in comments below. Happy Crafting :)

Flip Flop Octopus

Good Morning Everyone!! Welcome to another Itsy Bitsy Tutorial! Another fun-filled tutorial for kids and anyone young at heart. Kids will just fall in love this cute little octopus. With eight swinging arms, big google eyes and a such a friendly smile, what's not to love?

It’s very easy to make and a perfect craft to do with young kids. Not only will the kids enjoy making it; once made, it has some serious potential to become a favourite toy! 

So let’s get started. And you only need following 4 supplies!

1. Yarn (we have used two colours but you can use more or less or even make a multicoloured octopus!)
2. Red Yarn for mouth
3. A 2” thermocol ball (take a bigger ball for bigger octopus and accordingly take more yarn)
4. A pair of google eyes
5. Craft Glue

Method:

Apply glue on the thermocole ball and wrap the yarn all over the ball.

Make sure that the ball is fully covered and trim the yarn.

Take a few lengths of yarn and wrap it around the ball as shown.

Tie at the bottom with a piece of yarn.

Divide the bunch of yarns in 8 bunches of roughly equal thickness. Braid all the 8 bunches to make 8 arms 

Tie off the braids with yarn of another colour.

Glue the eyes and the piece of red yarn for the mouth.

You flip flop Octopus is ready!!

You can also try out other variations, other creatures or even raggedy style dolls using the same technique. Try using fuzzy yarns or ruffle yarns for a more fuzzy and fun look.

Do let us know what you think of this tutorial and send us pictures on our Facebook page if you do try it. 

Happy Crafting :)

Oil and Chalk Pastels on paper - Part 2

Hello again! This week I will be continuing my post on using pastels on paper.
Chalk pastels are the simplest form of soft pastels that contain more pigment and less binding material ( like oil in oil pastels).Hence giving out brighter colours as compared to oil pastels.

Chalk pastels,as they are very dry and chalky, tend to leave behind a great amount of  dust after writing just like how the blackboard chalks do. So having them in the form of a pencil not only makes our lives easier, it can also be used for sketching the fine details which is very hard to do with pastel sticks. However, it is still a colored chalk and one must be careful not to rub off the sketch while resting the palm on the paper.

I’m using the Montmarte black paper sketching pad , the paper quality is exceptional for all types of sketching and Montmarte AUTUMN pastel pencils for my sketch. This pack mainly consists of great autumn shades i.e. tones of orange, red, green and blue. I have chosen to sketch a kingfisher bird to show that you can sketch anything with the autumn pack pencils and not just landscapes!

I have started off with a basic sketch using a graphite pencil. The autumn pack contains two great shades of blue and green, which I have mixed to get the below shade of the bird. Chalk pastels are very easy to blend, either by hand, a neutral colour or blending stumps .White pastel can be used to modify the shade to a lighter tone. 

I have also started the sketch from the top of the page, so I can avoid resting my hand and smudging the surface. 

The chalk pastels leave behind dust on the paper, so always blow the dust off instead of using a paper towel or your hand. You may also have to reuse the color several times to achieve a dark and bright shade.Since I have used pastel pencils, I'm able to bring out the details of the feathers of the bird and the fish its holding. 

The completed sketch is as below. I have added some green shading, so the background isn't  jet black anymore: 

Chalk pastels are very hard to preserve unless they are protected with a glass frame or have a protective coating on the surface. Make sure to spray the picture with a fixative. But due to the chalk property of the pastels, its better to be cautious, as fixatives may impact the color or texture of the sketch. 

Pastels are a great way to start, so grab your set and start sketching! 

Let me know what you think of my tutorial in the comments below.. 

Oil and Chalk pastels on paper - Part 1

Hello Everyone, This is Pooja here and I am back with my third art tutorial for Itsy Bitsy! This time I will be talking about using soft oil pastels and chalk pastels on paper. I will use both black and white paper to show the effect of both media.

Part- 1 : Oil pastels on white paper:

Oil pastels are usually buttery and contain more oil content, so they can be blended more easily either by hand or with a neutral colour pastel. Oil pastels work great on good textured paper, for a smoother blending effect we can use our normal sketching paper which is less textured. I have used MontMarte A3 size sketch book and MontMarte Oil Pastels. Since oil pastels work differently than paints, it is important to start with a good quality pastel that works and blends smoothly.

There are many techniques to use oil pastels. In today's sketch, I am going to use a technique called Layering, where you gradually build up the layers of pastels to achieve the colour and depth you want in your sketch.

I have sketched a scene of a small café in Europe, using a graphite pencil. Once the initial sketch was ready, I started with the basic shades in the picture. In this case, I start with pink/peach for the walls and tables, grey and black for the door, floor and parts of the background.

Its necessary to start with the basic shades as we can blend in more colours to produce gradients and we can also use contrast shades to highlight. You can either blend with your fingers or use blending stumps. I have used blue to highlight the chairs & tables and light/dark shades of green for the bushes and yellow for the flooring and door. (It is important to wipe your fingers and the pastel sticks in between so you do not end up transferring one colour to another)

Make sure not to use too many shades in the same area, as the colours stop blending at one point after which the pastels start to stick . So plan for the shade you require and work towards achieving it with less than 3 colours.

You can notice the shadow of the window grill on the wall and shades of yellow on the right part of the sketch which indicates that the light source is on the left top corner. Paying attention to light sources and their effects on the object can bring about a great difference on how the finished sketch looks.

The final part of the sketch is the flooring. I have used shades of yellow to show the light on the ground and the shadowed areas are dark brown. The blue highlights are used to break the monotony of browns on the tiles. 

After the major areas are completed and blended, I have outlined the details of wine glasses & plates on the tables. The completed sketch is as below. 

Since oil pastels are of oil medium, the sketches don't stick to other surfaces and hence don't need to be sprayed with a fixative. Though you could spray fix it if you like. 

Oil pastels can also be used for 'Underpainting' of water colours or for making patterns by scraping into built layers with a sharp tool, a technique called 'Sgraffito'. Another great way of blending oil pastels is by using a solvent medium like turpentine or linseed oil just like an oil painting. But this requires a oil sketching paper to hold the oil content.

Do let me know what you think in the comments below!