Creativity with Christmas cards

A box, a scene, a Midwinter moment?

recycling Christmas cards

inappropriately summery scene?

Having a bit of a fidget?
Nothing to do?

Bored?
And it’s raining again?


 

Make a little winter a scene to hang on a tree, a branch, a hook on the walll to stand on a shelf, or make a box to put that extra special present (or maybe just the key that makes it go) in

Why not dig out last year’s Christmas cards from the bundle at the bottom of the cupboard, or stealthily purloin one of this year’s, or the birthday cards you don’t quite want to throw out, or use a cereal packet (good card for making and folding, just maybe not as exciting in images as cards) and make a lovely little box?
 
You will need: a card or two, sharp scissors, a ruler, pencils or pens, glue (PVA is good here) and glue spreader, stapler, bradawl (or something for making holes - a pair of compasses would work), thin string

1. Cut the card in half along the fold - keep the “plain” half, you will need it later

Stage 1

2. Using the picture half of the card, on the plain side, draw a margin maybe 2 cm from each edge of the card

Stage 2: drawing margins

3. Where the lines cross at the corners, carefully cut along one of those lines to the point where the lines meet

Stage 3, cutting into corners

4. This card usually folds quite sharply, so now (use the ruler for a straight edge if you want to) fold up along each of those lines and where you have cut in, fold the short bit to make a corner

Stage 4: folding

Stage 6: glueing corners

 








5. Before glueing it all together, decide: if you are making a scene, keep the picture on the inside of the box. If you are making a box: you might want the picture inside or on the outside (you could always line the inside with some spare wrapping paper, or make a bigger box to become a lid.). Reverse the folding if you want to change the position of the picture

6. Making sure the sides of your box are sharply upright, glue the corner tabs onto the next side. A staple will hold it all in place. If the outside is too plain, you could colour it in or add some coloured tape. Or sprinkle it with glitter!

Stage 7: tab

Stage 7: an owl!

7. While the glue dries, prepare the scene to go in the box. Using the other piece of card (from stage 1 above), you could make a little tab to fix a figure to (we used some “embellishments” bought cheaply in a local craft shop), or you could draw your own character. Fix by glueing the tabs into the main scene. Again a staple might help. You might want to colour the tab so it fits into the background of the scenes. Some extra glitter might help again.

Finished scene

8. Use a bradawl or compasses to make a couple of holes (aim for places about 1/3 and 2/3 along the top side), thread a piece of glittery string or ribbon through, know it and hang your scene.

 Experiment with papers, colours, tapes, sequins.

Try different places to hang your scenes: a picture hook on the wall? from your ears? on your fingers (and create a fabulous dance around them)? a snowman’s nose?

box with picture on outside

Burning red fireweed

Global Warriors

Fallibroome Creativity Week, 2019

Crab masks taking shape

At the Beach

storymap and puppets

Have you walked on the sand?

Pink sand and seaweed,

Yellow sand and

Red ribbonweed.

There is red coral under the waves

And rocks and

Light green, square jellyfish.

There are

Pufferfish here

And bubbles,

Giant blue fish

And sharks.

There are

Stones here and shells 

and smiling jellyfish.

There is red fireweed here.

It burns

From Gawsworth Primary School, Year 1

precise drawing!

Every February, Fallibroome Academy in Macclesfield coordinates a Creativity Week with the other schools of the multi-academy Fallibroome Trust. This year’s theme “Global Warriors” produced some wonderful work. At an evening of shared performances, there was a song written by children from all the schools skillfully weaving lines and chants from different schools into a single whole. There were dances, too, and some wonderful drumming, some telling drama and lots of delight. One school was riasing funds towards supporting an orang-utan orphanage in Malysia (hope I've got that right). Others were taking up pledges and working to reduce their own plastic footprints.

One of the strands within the Warriors theme was marine pollution, especially plastic pollution, which is where Creeping Toad came in….I spent a week wallowing in the despair of seas….or not quite. The impact of plastics on marine life set my groups off…..

a fish sees its fate in plastic

As a storyteller, I am often in an awkward situation with modern issues like pollution. There is little comparable in the story-record. Telling tales that have grown over centuries there is not much that directly addresses situations like a whale trapped in abandoned fishing nets. Yes, I know that the underlying principles of respect, connectedness and belonging always apply but that isn’t the point here!

So, as we went through the week, I told old stories and we listened for new stories and tried one school’s stories on the next one I worked with….

"The orca and the angel fish"

We heard about the ray that swallowed a plastic bottle thinking its shining shape was an ailing fish and the rescue attempts that followed by its friend a dolphin and the Doctor Lobster and sometimes by a child with courageous fingers and a long reach.

We recoiled from the misadventures of the school visit to a litter-strewn beach.

We encountered the Genius Fish who was finding ways of processing plastic so fish could use it.

We met the whales who were simply flipping rubbish onto the decks or preferably the heads of passengers of ships who were passing.

We made puppets.

Drew storylandscapes of marine worlds.

Made an unfolding sea.

Created ecologies of plastic creatures.

We had fun.

we entered freshwater - aoxlotl hats!

This post sets out to catch my activities. There will be other posts from individual schools and rumour has it an instagram post from Fallibroome of the Global Warriors song performance which I will add as links as I find them….

a scrap coral reef

Meanwhile, many thanks to all the artists, welcoming teachers 

and enthusiastic schools of the Fallibroome family

Trays for treasures activity

Trays for treasures

 make your own box for bits, 

for wonders and curiosities

 

Following up our Cabinets workshops (make your own, here, and see some examples, here), here is an easy way of making your own open-topped boxes to go in a Cabinet of Curiosity (or any other place that needs them!)

What you will need:

• A piece of card – our examples are done with old Christmas cards
• Ruler
• Pen
• Scissors
• Glue (PVA is better than glue stick here)
• Paper clips or maybe a stapler

1. If you are using a greetings card, cut your card in half along the fold

2. Measure and mark  3 cm from each corner on each side. Join these up so you have a smaller shape within the main card. Our cards were square – it does not matter what shape you start with (squares and rectangles are easiest!). 

3. Cut along along every other line from the edge of the card to the edge of the new box

4. Fold along the lines, folding the sides up to make a box. The cut sections will stick out. – a ruler may help but greetings cards often fold readily into straight lines

5. Use the cut to fold a short tab and tuck this either inside the new box or fold it round the outside. Either way this reinforces the corners. Glue or staple (or do both) to hold the tab in place. If you glue your tab, a paperclip can hold it in place while the glue dries

6. If you use greetings cards, you could fold them so that the picture forms either the inside or outside of the box

inside or outside?

More boxes: change the initial measure to make deeper boxes

  

This is a blog to support activities that are part of the BM125 project celebrating Buxton Museum and Art Gallery's 125th Birthday. You can find out more about the project here