By Dee Archibald
A cute addition to the kids bedroom, these toadstools would make a great school holiday project for the kids to get busy and messy with!
You will need:
- The cardboard cylinder from the inside of a paper towel roll (or two toilet rolls taped together)
- Some glossy paint in the colours you wish to paint it
- A paper desert bowl
- Some strips of paper (newspaper will do if you don’t have any plain newsprint paper)
- PVA glue
- Flour
- Salt
Step 1
Start by mixing your glue in a large bowl. Mix 1/4 of a cup of flour with 1 cup of water then add a tablespoon of PVA glue and a tablespoon of salt. The salt stops it from growing mould and the glue just makes a stronger solution. Use a whisk to get any lumps out.
Step 2
Now to create your base. Use a glue gun or strong glue to stick your paper roll to the bottom of your bowl and stuff the rest of the bowl with screwed up paper, stick down with glue gun. Start to place strips of paper over the top by first dunking them in the paper mâché glue and squeezing excess off between your fingers.
Step 3
You might like to add a ridge around the stem of the toadstool to give more definition. To do this roll some bits of paper into long sausage like pieces and attach somewhere near the middle of the stem. Wrap them around until they meet and then add strips of paper over the top so it becomes once again neat. You can add more paper to the top to create more of a bump by scrunching some balls of wet paper and adding strips over the top. Continue to add strips of paper until it is completely covered and you are happy with the shape. You will need at least 5 layers of paper to make sure it dries solid enough.
Step 4
Make sure you put it somewhere warm and dry to avoid it growing mould. The drying process can be sped up in the hot water cupboard if you have one, make sure it is completely dry before painting to your desired look.
Happy crafting!