Craft Ideas for Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is for all with no restriction on the mode of personal expression. Even the wildest imagination with a creative bent is encouraged. Whatever the decorator wants...the decorator creates.
So unleash your creativity. And enjoy crafting!
Here comes the ignition key: Jester's Hat , float , cap , costume , doll , paint-a-face

Design a Mardi Gras Miniature Float:

All you need are:
Round foil baking tray, 1 large size shoebox, green tissue paper or foil,sticky transparent tape, 1 Jester Doll, aluminum doubloons,Mardi Gras beads,glitter.

Open the box and cover the open side of the box and the bottom with paper. Glue the center of the lid. Fix one uncovered end of the box on it. Now the box stand erect on its lid. Let it dry while you take care of something else.
Take the baking tray. Place the Jester Doll on the wrong side of the tray and glue it thoroughly at the area of contact. The doll has to be fixed at the center of the tray with two long strips of tapes. Take one strip. Fix one end at the edge of the cardboard. take the loose end of the tape across the top of one shoulder and stretch it further across till it reaches the other edge. Fix it there again. Repeat the process with another strip over the other shoulder. Take doubloons, candy wrappers, paper stars and fix them over the tray using your artistic bent. Glue inside over the uncovered side of the of the paper wrapped box.

Take colored ribbons. Glue beads along the surface. ...Hang the ribbons along the edges of the tray at equal intervals. The high rise float is ready for the parade show. Place it on the top of a shelf of freezer so your friends can appreciate your creativity.

You can also use:
Food items like cookies and candy, ribbons, beads, GI Joe,
Peoples, Barbie, etc., and make any theme you want.

Top

Mardi Gras Cap:

One black hat, doubloons of different colors, Soft embroidery colored thread, small and medium colored beads, PVA glue.

Thread small and medium beads along each embroidery thread. Tie a knot on each thread to stop the beads falling off. Thread the other end along the edge of the hat's brim. Again tie a knot at the other end piercing through the brim.

Smear the PVA glue on one side of the doubloons and fix them up along the dome of the hat in a row.
This is it! The black hat is embroidered with the colors of Mardi Gras - purple, green and yellow.

Top

Dazzling Costume:

All you need are a black T-shirt, hairdryer, large sheet of card medium paint brush, chalk fabric marker, fluorescent fabric paint (yellow, blue, pink, orange, green), Puffa fabric paint (yellow, green, orange, red, purple), pot of water.
Insert pieces of card inside the body and sleeves of the T-shirt. Use the chalk fabric marker to draw the outlines of triangles, spirals and zigzag patterns all over the front and the sleeves of the T-shirt. Draw a zigzag pattern along the bottom edge of the T-shirt.

Use fluorescent yellow, green, orange, purple and blue fabric paint to fill in the outlines. To make other colors, simply mix different colors together on a palette. Allow the fabric paint to dry before painting patterns on to areas already painted.

Decorate the T-shirt with dots and squiggles of orange, yellow, purple, and red puffa fabric paint. You can make your patterns as wild as you like. To make the puffa fabric paint puff up, dry it with a hairdryer. Set the hairdryer to its coolest setting.

Go over the zigzag at the bottom of the T-shirt with orange puffa fabric paint. Use other puffa fabric paints to add circles and dots. Once again, use the hairdryer set to its coolest temperature to dry the puffa fabric paint.
You can also continue the zigzag pattern on the back of the T-shirt with the card placed inside. But before starting check if the paint on the front side is fully dry.

Allow your T-shirt to dry thoroughly before hitting the Carnival party and dazzling all your friends.

Top

Jester Doll:

What you need:
an old tennis ball , multicolored silk ribbons, acrylic paints, black adhesive tape, green yellow and purple colored felt, PVA glue, scissors, plastic modelling material sufficient to make a 12" doll, a butter knife or modelling tool, painting brush(thick and thin).

Use thick brush to paint large areas and a thin brush to paint details.

Getting started:
Start with the old tennis ball. Ask an adult to help you cut an old tennis ball in half. Paint one half of the ball. First draw a fine line across the middle of the ball's face. You can use a ruler to draw that. Then paint two small dots, say in blue, with the thick brush on both sides of the line so that they are just half an inch away from the line. These two will be the two pupils.

Then take one of them. Draw a larger thick circular rings in, say orange, around the pupil. The circle should be drawn in a way that leaves some white space around the blue pupil.

Repeat the same process for the other pupil. You can change the colors of the circle for the two eyes. Say, one in red, the other in orange. The choice of color is on you. But remember it should be bright enough.

Now the nose:
Take a small crown from any bottle of Coke, Pepsi or any other drinks. Place the crown on the pencil-drawn line, away from the end where the eyes have been drawn. So it the nose tip looks to be a nice fit.

Mix a little PVA glue into some red paint and draw a circular ring around the crown. Now, take out the crown and fill the ring with deep red paint.

Lips:
Then a little below the nose tip draw the smiling lip lines using your imagination.

The Cheeks:
Paint rounds or red and orange a little below the end of the two eyes away the the pencil drawn line. They will be the nice healthy cheeks of your jester. When finished leave it to dry. Now roll out four small sausages from the yellow plastic clay. Use one large sausage for the body so it should be narrow at the top and wide at the bottom.

Now firmly press the two small sausages n to the body to make the arms. To make legs of the jester doll use one long sausage. Use your fingers to carefully bind and smooth the joins. Make sure that your model can stand.

The fists:
Shape two white balls to make fists. And also shape two red balls to make a pair of shoes. Press the pieces into position and decorate. Make sure the bottom of the shoes should be flat enough the help the doll bear the weight of the body and stand.

The head:
Now shape one large size ball from the clay. Make it large enough to fill the cut out tennis ball. Use glue so that the face painted tennis ball covers one side of the clay ball. When the tennis ball sits tightly against the clay ball, press the clay ball on top of the body.

The neck:
Roll out another smaller sized ball from the clay. And press it between your two palms so that two sides comes flat. Then press one the flat end tightly over the body. Now press the head at the other flat end in a way that the clay part of the head sits over the neck. This will make the tennis ball face appear more realistic. You can use the PVA glue to fix up the head over the neck, and also, the neck over the body.

Use the colored felt as the cloak by pasting it around the neck joint. Now paint the uncovered parts of the limbs and the cap with big rings and circles of different sizes. You can also use the felt at the ankle just over the shoes.

The clown's cap:
Shape out a cone like shape out of a small sausage roll of clay. And fix it on the clay ball serving as the head.Then from another clay brick make some very small sausage like rolls. Press them up along the edges of the cone. It will serve as the brim of the cap.

The hair:
Now place some multicolored silk ribbons in a straight line. Then spread them out along the glued face of a black adhesive tape. Now, fix up the black tape with dangling ribbons from the top of clay ball.

Finally drape the felt around the lower limbs so it serves as the pants of the doll.

With all these it must look captivating and majestic Sure, you'll fall in love with this precious looking jester doll. Ornately decorated with the vibrant colors of Mardi Gras, the detailed faces show the enchantment and wonder of carnival as only a child could see it. Refined with a nostalgic simplicity, let the fun begin as you experience the joy of Mardi Gras all year long.

Top

paint a face

Paint a Face - Waterworld:

All you need are palettes of face paint colors of all available shades, face cleansers, eye make-up remover cream, flannel, cotton wool pads, pieces of sponge, bowl of water, scissors, a set of brush - fine, medium, thick, body and face painting kit, absorbent paper towel, glitter gel make-up, card, make-up pencil, shiny stars, black wide hair band.
If you have long hair first tie the hair back. Paint a brown outline of a ish around one one eye and on one cheek, preferably on the opposite side. Do this with the fine brush. Paint a turquoise circle around the face. Fill the circle using the sponge.

When the turquoise face paint is thoroughly dry, use the thick brush to paint one fish a glowing orange color and the other a bright yellow. Allow to dry.

Paint the eyes, mouth, scales and fins on to the fish, using blue face paint and a fine brush. You must sit as still as possible while this is being done as it is quite fiddly.

Break into a smile while your lips are being painted pink. Paint four crab claws in pink just below the lower lip. The fine brush works best for detail work like this.

Use blue paint and a clean fine brush to outline and decorate the claws. Paint the face of the crab on the lower lip and draw in the stalks. Paint the crab's eyes red.

Use the fine brush to paint wavy green fronds of seaweed stand out, outline it in black face paint.

Draw stars on a colored card board. Fill them with spots of bright colors and dots. Outline them thick and dark. Cut them out. They are your star fish earrings.

Add some corals, shells, pebbles, and if you like a pirates' treasure chest.

Your friends will love this moving water world for sure.

Top

Hot Holiday Events