Hello every body

Are you fed up with boring and expensive baubles on Christmas trees? Why not try making some Art Attack baubles instead?

You will need:
a balloon
some wool
PVA glue
a cup or mug
a ruler
a pair of scissors
a carrier bag or plastic bin liner
some glitter


Start by blowing up a round balloon so that it fits roughly into the palm of your hand, like this.

Don't make it too big!

Stand the balloon in an old cup or mug, so that it holds the balloon steady.

Now you need some wool. It doesn't matter what type or colour you choose - any will do!

The idea is to cut about thirty strips of wool, roughly about the same length as a 30cm ruler.

Then put some PVA glue into a bowl, and dip one piece of wool into the glue, pressing it in with a finger.

Pull off the excess glue like this.

Lay your wool pieces on a carrier bag or a plastic bin liner, and let it dry off a little - but not too much, because you don't want it completely dry!

It still needs to be sticky for the next step.

And don't let the wool pieces touch, otherwise they'll stick together!

When you've done lots, you're ready to start wrapping the wool pieces around the top half of the balloon.

Take one piece of the sticky wool string, and wrap it around the top of the balloon like this, curling it this way and that way.

Now take another length, and do exactly the same, just wrapping it around so that you get a criss-cross pattern with small gaps in between.

When you've finished the top, leave it to dry.



Then turn the balloon over and do exactly the same on the other half.

It's very important that the new wool string you put on now touches the already dry string.

When you've wrapped all of the other side and left it to dry, you'll have something that looks like this.

It should only have a few gaps, and the glue will have dried solid.

Now, carefully pop the balloon with scissors!

Then remove the balloon from the inside very carefully.

You'll now have something that looks like this.

Add some dabs of PVA glue all over the outside, and then roll it in glitter!

When it's dry, you'll have something that looks like this.

And there you have it - a cheap but brilliant bauble! You'll need to tie on a loop of cotton so that you can hang it on your Christmas tree, of course.

You can use lots of other types of wool to get different effects!

Try it yourself!

Bring outer space into your bedroom by making your own cosmos.

You will need:
a round balloon
a bowl
PVA glue
tissue paper (or kitchen roll)
a pin
cotton
sticky tape
scissors
cardboard box card
newspaper
paint
a pencil
a black felt tip pen.


Start by blowing up a round balloon.

Blow the balloon up to any size.

Sit it in a bowl with the tied bit at the top to keep it steady.

Mix some PVA glue with a little splash of water.

Paste the glue onto your balloon and cover with strips of tissue paper or kitchen roll.

Cover the whole thing in four layers of this tissue paper.

It doesn't matter if it's a bit patchy or wrinkly as that all adds to the surface of the planet!

Add the papier-mâché right up to the knot and leave it to dry.

Now very carefully hold onto the tie, and with a pin, pop the balloon.

Then take out the balloon!

Take a piece of cotton and tape it over the hole to keep it in place.

Paste some glue mixture over the tape and over the end of the cotton and lay on some more tissue pieces.

Once the tissue and glue has dried, you now have some cotton attached to the planet to hang it up by.

That's all good for a basic round planet, like Earth or Venus.

But what do you do if you want to make a planet that has rings around it, like Saturn?

Well, make a round planet first, and then draw a big ring onto some cardboard box card. Make sure it is big enough to fit over your balloon.

Draw four tabs on the inside of the ring, each approximately four centimetres long.

Cut it out, and you'll have something that looks like this.

Bend the tabs up and then slot the ring over your planet.

Tape the tabs to your planet.

Glue and tissue over the tape to neaten it up.

So that's a planet that has rings, but what about a planet that has craters like the moon?

Well, just twist bits of newspaper into different sized rings and tape them down!

When you've taped lots of them all over your planet, go over the whole thing with one layer of tissue and glue mix.

How you paint your planet depends on which one you're making. You could look in some books to find pictures to copy.

For Earth, using a pencil, roughly copy the country shapes from an atlas onto your planet.

You don't need to add every country or island.

Paint it using poster or acrylic paints.

For the countries, use different shades of green to give the effect of raised and lower areas.

For the sea, use a nice deep blue.

Go around all the countries using a black felt pen, and you'll have something that looks like this.

For Saturn, paint in streaks of swirling gas.

Blend orange and yellow strips together for the surface.

Paint the rings bright purple, and you'll have something that looks like this.

For a moon, paint it grey!

Use a darker paint for inside the craters.

When your brush is getting dry, stipple it here and there to get a sort of mottled surface effect.

You could even sprinkle on some glitter for some moon dust, and when you've finished, you'll have something which looks like this.

When you've painted your planet, hang it up in your bedroom.

Turn out the lights, and take your own trip around the universe.

Try it yourself!

Ever wanted your own priceless figurines? Here's your big chance!

You will need:
Sticky Tape
Newspaper
Aluminium Foil
Cardboard Box Card


Start by scrunching up newspaper into a body shape.

Use plenty of stciky tape to hold it in shape

Twist some strips of newspaper into arms and legs.

Again, use sticky tape to hold them in shape.

Bend the bottom of the legs to make feet.

Then scrunch up a thin ball of newspaper to make a head.

Use more sticky tape to hold it in place.

Now that you have all the body parts made, tape them all together.

Attach one at a time.

Just use plenty of tape and take your time - don't rush!

To make your figure stand up, you need to make a base.

Just cut a piece of cardboard box card to the right shape, and tape a scrunched up pad of newspaper onto it.

Now position your figure on the base.

It doesn't have to be in a standing position it can be in any position you like. This one's walking, for example.

To create the effect of a priceless figurine, cover your creation in aluminium foil.

You'll need to use some double sided sticky tape or sticky tape loops for this.

Put your sticky tape loops onto the back of your figurine's back, head, chest and so on, then simply cover with pieces of aluminium foil.

Remember, you can do any shape, size or pose of figure that you like.

Try it yourself!

Pablo Picasso was a master of abstract art. Abstract art is artwork that doesn't seem to show objects the way they normally are, but instead looks for a different way of representing them.

Now you can learn this technique too, and what's more, in three dimensions!

You will need:
Teabag box, or other boxes
Tape
Scissors
PVA glue
Kitchen roll
Acrylic paint
Black pen


To begin with, you need to find a box like a teabag box, or biscuit box. The ones in this picture are some examples of the kind that work well for this Art Attack.

Start thinking... but think abstract!

Well, this is a boring, ordinary rectangular box right now. So start by breaking up its shape.

You can do this any way you like, but Neil started on one side of his, about half way up.

Cut a diagonal to the bottom.

Do the same on the other side but this time continue around the side...

... and down the back, again on the diagonal.

On the first diagonal just cut out a triangular eyehole.

Then lift the lid and just crush the top corner a bit to alter the shape of the box. This doesn't have to be perfect.

The idea is to just alter the shape!

When you've done that, tape it all into place.

This will be the basic head shape.

Next you need to add some features.

Do this using the corners of the other boxes you collected. Here's one for an eye.

One for a nose, slightly off centre.

And another eye in a different place.

You could even do it upside down like Neil you can see here. Just keep experimenting and eventually your abstract face will start to appear. When you're happy with your arrangement, tape everything securely down.

Go over everything with some PVA glue mixed half and half with water, adding on a layer of kitchen roll.

Make sure you get into all of those nooks and crannies, sealing over all the joins.

When you've covered over all of theface and it has dried, you'll have something that looks like this.

Now you can paint it in an abstract way!

Acrylic paint works really well for this. As you can see here, this one has angular shapes painted all over the face, and every shape is a different colour.

Don't forget the eyes, and you can even use a black permanent pen to pick out all the details. This is called a "cubist" style.

If you really want to go crazy, you can even make your own abstract art gallery!

Try it yourself!

Here's how to make your own crazy golf course.

You will need:
a dinner plate
cereal box card
a cup or mug
scissors
sticky tape
some cardboard box card
a piece of garden cane
PVA glue
tissue paper
acrylic paint
a ping pong ball


Start by drawing around a dinner plate onto some cereal box card.

Take a cup or beaker and place it in the middle of the circle.

Then draw around it, making sure that there's an even space between the beaker and the circle you drew first.

Carefully cut it out so that you have a cardboard hoop!

Take some scissors and carefully cut through the ring.

Curl it around slightly and tape into place to make your hole.

Put lots of tape on this, to make it nice and secure.

You should have a sort of cone shape with gentle sloping sides. Try not to make your sides too steep, or it will be too difficult for your ball to roll in!

Draw around the bottom of your cone (the wider bit) onto some cardboard box card.

Now put your cone shape to one side.

Draw a slightly smaller circle inside the one you have just done on the cardboard box card.

Make it about 1cm smaller all the way around.

Ignore the bigger circle and carefully cut around the smaller one.

Now take your cone shape again and tape the cardboard circle to the underside of the cone.

It will sit a little way into the cone, as it is slightly smaller than the bigger end of the cone.

The reason why you make the card smaller is to avoid creating a step under your rolling edge, leaving it nice and smooth for your ball to roll up.

Now mix some PVA glue in equal parts with water and paste it on.

Stick on pieces of tissue paper and cover the whole thing in two layers of papier-mâché.

It's a good idea to paste on your glue and tuck the tissue paper over inside the hole so that you don't get any rough or jagged edges. You want it as neat as possible round the top so the ball plops in easily.

To make a crazy golf club...

Find either a smooth straightish stick, or a piece of garden cane.

Take a double page spread from a small newspaper, close it and fold it in half lengthways.

Place your stick onto one of these shorter edges and tightly roll the paper around your stick.

Tape the stick into place on the newspaper.

Your club now has a handle!

Lay your stick down onto a piece of cardboard box card and draw a large capital D to the right hand side of the stick.

Then take the stick away...

Join the two ends of the D up.

Cut that shape out.

Use lots of tape to stick the D shape to the bottom of your stick.

This should be on the opposite end to the newspaper handle you've already made.

You've now made the head part of your club - the part that you hit the ball with.

Next pad out the club. Tightly scrunch up another double page spread of newspaper.

Use lots of tape to tape it onto the back of your D shape.

Take your PVA glue & water mixture...

And paste it onto your club. Lay on pieces of tissue paper.

Cover the whole of your club in two layers of papier-mâché.

Leave this to dry... and when you've finished, it should look like this.

Now paint it all.

Use poster paint or acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is better for this because it dries nice and strong, so that when a ball plops in, it doesn't chip off the paint.

However, you can use poster paint if you like!

You can paint the hole green if you wish - like grass - and you could even stab or stipple in some slightly darker green to give a real grassy effect.

It's also a good idea to paint the inside of the hole black.

The club itself can be any colour you like.

Neil painted his with a black handle, silver shaft, and the head was brown for a wood effect, with a painted-on silver plate to hit the ball with.

If you like, you can add a flag to the hole. Make it out of a stick and a bit of bent cardboard.

You could do some really crazy designs. You can do a palm tree instead of a normal flag, and make a little papier-mâché crab to put on the side of the hole, using scrunched up paper and glue to create a desert island hole!

You could even add in more holes like the craters on the moon's surface.

Again, build them up with papier-mâché and paper.

All you need now is a ping pong ball and you can start to play Crazy Golf!

Try it yourself!