With Camp Bestival less than 3 weeks away we are in full prep mode! With the 'Popstars and Rockstars' theme this year we decided we wanted to make a guitar as a fun prop for Finn to take with him. I enrolled the help of my lovely friend Kristal - best known for her glittery magic she creates over at Sparkle Child. We spent a morning with the kids making this gem of a guitar and wanted to share how easy it is for you to make your very own version at home. Props are a really great way to transform an outfit for fancy dress or just fun to carry around at a festival! Now we just need to decide on his character - Buddy Holly or Guns N Roses?! Rock on!
Hopefully most of this stuff you will have at home anyway. You will need:
- Cardboard (we used an old cardboard box) but you could buy some card from your local craft shop - the thicker the better
- Felt, tissue Paper or leftover fabric to cover the cardboard. Felt is really easy to pick up from your local craft shop but scraps of old fabric, even an old cut up pillowcase will work too
- Colourful ribbon - narrow and wide, but string will also work as an alterntive
- A Guitar or ukulele to trace around, otherwise download one here
- Stickers, glitter or anything you may want to decorate the guitar with (or contact Sparkle Child if you want any of her lovely glittery shapes!) You can easily make glitter shapes like ours with sparkly glitter sheets or foam sheets available from craft shops.
- Scissors for cutting out
- Glue (we used UHU but you could use pritt stick or a glue gun)
- Pins - paper fasteners with the split butterfly ends work best or a stapler
- Skewer for making holes through the fabric and card
- Pen for tracing shapes
- Sellotape
You will need to assist in making this with your little one, be careful with the scissors, glue and skewer! The best bit is decorating so get your little one to pick what they want to stick on it!
How to make your guitar..
1. Trace your guitar shape out on the piece of card or cardboard - tweak if to feel more like an electric guitar shape if you like - we added a couple of extra side knobs and also squared off the bottom end slightly
2. Cut out your guitar shape - if you have any bits with a cardboard crease in (like we did on the guitar neck) you can strengthen it by laying another strip of cardboard over the top and sticking it down with sellotape
3. Lay out your piece of felt (we forgot to iron ours - do I if you can be bothered!), fabric or tissue paper and glue one side of the guitar, stick to the felt/fabric/tissue paper and hold until it's fairly dry and not flapping around. Cut around it.
4. Glue the back side of the cardboard and stick this to some more felt/fabric/ tissue paper so it is now completely covered. Cut around leaving a small amount to fold up and over, glue the sides to cover them up with the little flap of fabric. Snip any fiddly bits and fold and mould them into place (such as the knobs at the top of the guitar).
Now you are ready for the fun bit - decorating!!!
5. Cut out your guitar hole centre on black felt, card, paper or fabric - trace around a jar lid and stick with glue towards the top of the guitar
6. Now you can decorate with anything you may have to hand - we used some lovely glittery shapes (you could buy some glitter foam sheets and cut shapes and stick them on) including stars, bolts (very Bowie) and circles. For the ribbon strings we used butterfly paper pins to push through (or use the skewer to make a hole, please be careful of fingers!) the felt before pushing the pin through the ribbon and felted card and opening it out the back to secure it in place. You could just use a stapler but I like the effect the pins have and make it a little more finished. You could easily use string here instead if you have no ribbon.
7. Lastly we measured Finn up to check how long his 'strap' should be and again used the skewer to make a hole at the top left and bottom left sides to push the pin through the ribbon, felted card and out the back to bend the ends out to secure it nicely in place. We used a wider ribbon for the strap. You could even decorate the strap if you like!
And there you have it - your very own rock guitar!!!! Embrace the chaos and spend a morning getting crafty with your kids. Finn has been enjoying practicing his best rock pose...
A massive thank you to Kristal for collaborating with me on this blog post! Sparkle Child have a glittery pop up shop at Fount London E8 18th - 30th July.
Also check out my Camp Bestival Pinterest board here for some more ideas