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Why not get crafty this Easter with our homemade Easter crackers. Not only do they look great, you get to choose all the fun stuff that goes inside them. So who say you only get to pop these on Christmas, get involved today!
For this project you will need:
Easter wrapping paper
Pencil & ruler
Colour card (similar to the colour of your wrapping paper) – I chose pink and blue
Scissors
Toilet roll
Cracker snaps
Tape
Ribbon
Cracker items – i.e. paper hat, joke, keyring, confetti & chocolates
Instructions
1. Cut 30cm x 20cm out of your sheet of wrapping paper. On the plain side of your wrapper paper 7 columns. For the columns labelled 1 you want this to be 6 cm wide, for the columns labelled 2 and 3 you want these to be 2 cm wide each and for the column labelled 4 you want this to be 10 cm wide (which should be the length of your toilet roll).
2. Now you want to start folding your sheet of wrapping paper following the lines of the columns. Firstly fold between columns 3 and 4 with the plain side of the wrapping paper facing towards you. Then fold between columns 1 & 2 with the fancy side of the wrapping paper facing towards you. Finally fold between columns 2 and 3 with the plain side of the wrapper paper facing towards you.
3. Put your folding wrapper paper to one side and take out your coloured card paper. Stencil two 6cm x 20cm strips and cut this out using scissors.
4. Going back to your folded wrapping paper stick each pink card strip on top of column 1 of your paper.
5. Once the card is glued on fold the card between columns 2 and 3, where the pink card is facing towards you. Using scissor cut an upside down V shape along the sides of column 2. Make sure you leave a small gap (approx 5 mm) between each cut out.
6. Once you have cut along the columns, open your folded wrapping sheet of paper. You should now see cut out diamond shaped along columns 2 and 3.
7. To start forming the cracker, take your toilet roll and stick this to the end of your wrapping paper, make sure this aligns perfectly along column 4 of your wrapping paper.
8. Before you start rolling the toilet roll to the end of the wrapping paper, you want to add in a cracker snap inside your toilet roll and tape this in place.
9. Finally roll the toilet roll to the end of the wrapping paper and tape in place. You will also want to clean up the ends of your Christmas cracker by taping these in place too.
10. Next cut a piece of ribbon or string (approx 20cm) and tie this (reasonably tight) on one of the ends of your Christmas cracker, forming a small bow. Tip: add clear nail varnish to the ends of the ribbon to avoid them from fraying.
11. Assemble the items you want to add into your Christmas cracker. Using the open end of your Christmas cracker, fill this in with the items from point 12 and tie this in place with another piece of ribbon (again approx 20cm).
12. Voila, your Christmas cracker is ready to be popped open! Create as many as you want and feel free to experiment with the colours.
