How to make a Medieval Bride and Groom Wedding Cake Topper

Are you having trouble finding a medieval bride and groom for the top of your wedding cake? I was. My husband to be was going to be dressed as a knight, and I was going to be a princess with long pointed sleeves and a crown. I trawled the internet looking for a suitable bride and groom to adorn the wedding cake, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked.

I did however find websites offering to make personalised cake toppers with prices starting from £150. What I did like about this idea was that the bride and groom are based on you; your colours, your costumes and your design. This sounded perfect except for the price.

After further searching I found a blog that customised salt and pepper pots to make personalised bride and groom cake toppers. This is where I got my idea to make my own bride and groom based on the salt and pepper pot shape and simple-ness, made from air drying clay.

To make a personalised medieval bride and groom cake topper you will need ..

A block of DAS air drying clay in white, Air drying clay doesn’t need firing.
Humbrol enamel paints,
Paint brushes,
Stick on daimante gems and maybe some Organza or fabric from your dress.

DAS is the original non cracking air drying clay; it can be drilled, sanded, painted and varnished, so it is perfect to make your medieval wedding cake bride and groom.

To start with I created the basic pepper pot shape. The bottom is a short stubby cone shape with the point cut off. If you start off with a chunky sausage, and then roll one end to be a bit slimmer. Stand it with the slimiest end up.

Then I rolled a ball for the head, and fixed it on top.

This is the basic shape for both the bride and the groom.

From there I rolled smaller sausages for arms, and slimmer sausages still for the hair and crown.

For the knight’s helmet, roll some clay out flat with a wooden rolling pin. I cut a strip of clay, with some slight shaping at the mouth. Wrap this around the head, and cut out a circle for the top of the helmet.

The knight’s cape was also cut from a rolled out piece of clay. I ‘gathered’ the cape a bit at the back so that it gave the appearance of cloth.

The shield is also cut from rolled out clay.

The sword I made from slightly squashed sausages.

I did have problems getting all the clay to stick together and as it dries some parts did break off. Don’t worry about this if it happen to you. Simply use some super glue to stick back together when the clay has dried.

Because the bride and groom are quite chunky, they do take a week or so to completely dry. Once dry you can paint. Painting your medieval bride and groom is time consuming because you have to keep waiting for the paint to dry, and you can only really paint one colour at a time.

After painting you can other embellishments to make the toppers look more like you. I stuck on daimante gems to the bride where I would be wearing a crystal necklace, and I also added daimante gems to my toppers crown.

With a small piece of organza and fur fabric I made the bride a cape which was similar to the one I was going to wear on the day.

One thing to bear in mind if you are making your own personalised bride and groom is that you need to prevent the real groom from seeing your cake topper bride, otherwise they will know what you are going to wear for your big day, and you don’t want to spoil the element of surprise.

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How to make a Medieval Hair Braids Hair Piece

In medieval times, hair braiding was popular, and many attractive hair styles could be achieved with hair braiding. However, such elaborate braided hairstyles were usually worn by the rich, who had a lady in waiting or a servant to style their hair for them. If you don’t have a lady in waiting but want to achieve the medieval braided hair look, its probably best if you make yourself a braided hair piece that you can slip onto your head a bit like a hat or a wig, and instantly have the latest medieval fashionable hair do.

To make a Medieval Hair Braids Hair Piece you will need,

3x Platted Alice bands or hair bands, (the ones with two plats,) in a colour that matches your own hair,
Needle and thread
Fascinators,
Dress making pins, the ones with coloured beads are best because they are nicely visible in the hair braids.

To start with you need to join two of the hair bands together so that there are 4 plats that will go across your head. Snip the elastic out of one hair band and sew the end of the plats to the main hair band.

The next part is easier if you get someone else with a similar sized head to wear the hair band, Or if you wear it and ask someone else to do the pinning for you. The model should have their hair loose, so any pins wont attached the braids to their hair.

Put the 4 braided hair band on the models head, and space out the braids so that the lie evenly between the forehead and the crown of the head. If the braid at the crown is too long and wont lie flat, make a little loop out of the excess and lay inwards towards the forehead. Pin in place without stabbing the models head.

Next you need to dismantle the final hair band, taking everything off so that you are just left with braids. The ends of the braids should be melted together, if you disturb the ends, sew them back together with some similar coloured cotton.

Tuck one end of the loose braid behind one side of the surplus loop braid. The end should be hidden behind. Then bring the loose braid forward in a downward angle crossing over all of the main braids on the head, then take the braid down in front of the first braid in the set of four and turn at the ear again crossing over all the four main braids. Then on the back behind the forth braid, travel back up to the starting point and tuck the end of the braid behind another to hide it. Where the loose braid crosses other braids, pin it in place. Repeat this process on the other side to match.

Remove the hair piece carefully from the models head. Then sew the braids together where ever there is a pin. Keep the stitches small so that you can’t see them.

Now you can add fascinators to the braids. Bear in mind, that if you are wearing a tiara, you probably need to cluster the fascinators behind the ear, but if you don’t have any medieval head gear, you can add the fascinators around the top and front of the hair piece.

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Medieval Wedding Car Tin Can Helmets

I know it’s not customary during medieval times to have tin cans jingling behind the wedding transportation, but if your going to have a medieval wedding but you still what to do the whole tin cans thing, medieval helmets are the perfect thing!

To make Medieval Wedding Car Tin Can Helmets you will need…

Tin cans in assorted sizes. But Baby milk tins are good because they are nice and big and made of thin metal that you can bend. Cappuccino stick tins are also good, and disposing of the contents is rather enjoyable. The number of tins depends on how many you want to trail behind. I made 9 helmets to trail off 3 lengths of string.
You will also need silver paint,
Black Humbrol paint,
String,
Beads,
Tin snippers,
Marker pen,

First you need to empty the tins, wash them out and leave them to dry.

Then take a hammer and a big screw, and with the tin upside down, make a hole in the base of each of the tins.

With a marker pen, measure about 7cm up from the open edge of the tin all round. Mark one point on the open edge on the tin – This is the front, its best to have the seam of the tin directly behind. Draw a straight line from this point to the base of the tin.

From this point measure 3cm around the edge on either side of the point.

Now go to where the line crosses the line around the tin. Mark 5cm around the tin and mark on the line on both sides of the crossing point. Then join up the measured points to make a ‘roof’ like shape on the tin. This will be the helmets mouth guard.

Use the tin snippers to cut out the roof shape and to cut along the line around the tin. Discard the left over bits of tin.

If you want to add shape to your tin, simply bend down the front edge line of the helmet, so that that line has a bit of a crease.

Then spray paint your tins Silver. Keep the tin of paint moving whilst you are spraying and try to make the coats even. You may need a couple of coats to get it covered properly. Follow the instructions on the spray paint tin and make sure you are in a ventilated room.

When the paint is dry, you can use the black Humbrol paint to paint on the helmets features, eye holes, and holes in the mouth guard. I pained each of my helmets differently. Again leave to dry.

Next you need to thread the tins onto string. I tried threading onto ribbon, but the tin cuts through the ribbon in next to no time. The tins still do cut through the string, but it is more durable then ribbon, and takes longer, giving the bridal car time to get down the road before they start to loose helmets. Make yourself a makeshift needle with some wire to make life easier.

First tie a knot in the string where you want the tin to rest, and then thread a bead on, and then thread a helmet on, then another bead and then make another knot. Leave a foot or so, and then make another knot, bead, helmet, bead, knot for the second helmet. And repeat the process for the third helmet. This spaces the helmet tins out so that they look nice, but they can still jangle together.

Then simply tie the string ends to the centre of the back bumper.

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How to make a Medieval Wrist Watch (Joke Sundial Watch)

If you are having a medieval theme wedding, it’s nice if you can keep the medieval theme going through most of the day. Medieval gifts for the important guests who played an active role in the wedding can be tricky, if you want it to have a medieval association. It’s traditional to give the best man a sentimental gift and watches are popular. With this in mind, I made our best man a medieval Rolex watch, which we introduced as a Rolex prototype that was being developed during medieval times. We advised the best man as he unwrapped his gift, that it worked on solar power so would only worked if the sun was shining. This sundial got great laughs during the Grooms speech, and was really good fun.

To make a medieval sundial wrist watch you will need...
6mm thick scrap of MDF,
Strong clear drying glue,
Brass paper clip – the type with opening out wings at the back,
Gold ink gel pen,
Wood stain,
Varnish,
Rock leather wrist strap,
And a drill bit attachment that cuts out circles this is to create the sundial face, so select an appropriate sizes drill bit.

Start buy cutting a circle from the MDF close to a corner. You need to cut it close to the corner because not only do you need a circle, but you also need a small triangle, and cutting the circle close to a corner means that you will cut out the two shapes in one go.

Give the circle and triangle a light sanding to make the edges neat and smooth.

Give the MDF a coat of dark wood stain. MDF is essentially wood dust glued together, so it doesn’t have a grain to it, but if you pain the wood stain on with a brush and paint in the same direction, you can give the wood an appearance of grain. Leave to dry and them apply wood stain in the same way to the other side and edges.

Next with the gold ink gel pen you need to draw on roman numerals in the correct places on the face of the sundial. You could search Google images for a sundial faces for an example to copy.

You could also add a logo to the bottom part of the face. I chose to add the Rolex logo, which is a simple crown shape. Again you can search Google images for watch logos to copy.

The medieval way was to embellish everything. So I drew gold borders on both sides and edges of the sundials triangle.

When the ink has properly dried, apply a coat of clear varnish to the wood to protect the ink.

When the varnish has dried, take the brass coloured paper fastener and open up the flaps at the back and fold them out flat. Put the fastener down on the table vertically, with the head facing upwards. Then with the wrong side of sundial, add a blob of clear drying glue to the drill hole that the circle left in the face of the sundial. Turn the face over and hold it the right way up, (on a modern watch this would be with 12 at the top or furthest away from you). Then stick the face onto the paper fastening head.

If you imaging there’s a line coming down from 12 to 6, this is the line that the paper fastener need to follow at the back of the face.

With paper fastener in place, apply some glue to one edge of the triangle, and stick it to the top half on the sundial along the 12 to 6 line. The curve of the triangle should curve from the ‘12’ position and there should be a tall point in the centre of the sundial face. Clean off surplus glue and leave to dry.

Put the leather wrist strap on, and do it up. If the recipient is bigger or smaller than you need to guesstimate the size that it would be done up at. With the buckle at the back of the wrist, make a mark with a pen on the strap on the top middle of the wrist. This is where the sundial face will attach to the strap.

If your leather rock wrist strap has studs, simply remove the stud where you marked the centre. If it’s just a leather strap, you will need to make a hole at this point.

Close the paper fastener wings together and push them through the strap and open them out again on the other side of the strap. Add a bit of glue to stick them to the strap. You could also stick some ribbon over the wings to conceal them and to make the sundial watch more wearable.

And there you have it, a medieval Rolex watch – solar powered because obviously you do need the sun for it to work – the perfect gift for any medieval lord.

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How to Make a Frilly Collar or Ruffle for your Dog

Has your dog got somewhere special to go a party or a wedding maybe and you want them to look dressed up for the occasion? Well a frilly dog collar or a Ruffle for a lady dog is the perfect accessory and quick and easy to make.

If you are going to a medieval wedding a Ruffle is also great for a male dog.

To make a frilly dog collar for a medium sized dog you will need…

Fabric – I used Velvet, but anything you have to hand will do.
Wide lace,
Ribbon,
Satin roses to decorate if desired.

Cut out a rectangle of fabric 50 inches by 8 inches. Fold the two ends together and cut the corners so that they are rounded. Over lock or zigzag the edges of the fabric.

Sew the lace to the edges of the fabric to cover the zigzag stitching. There’s no need to gather the lace sew it on flat. When you get back around to the beginning, let the lace overlap the starting lace by an inch or so.

Fold the fabric in half lengthways with the right sides together and pin. This will show you where the centre of the strip is. Hand sew running stitches up the middle of the fabric drawing up the fabric tightly as you go.

Un-pin and lay the fabric out wrong side up and mark the centre point.

Take 54 inches of ribbon and cut the ends on a slant to prevent fraying. Find the middle of the ribbon and pin it into place on the centre point of the ruffle. Pin the ribbon onto the ruffle on the running stitches and then sew into place.

Allow the wrong sides to close together to complete the frilly collar, and simply tie the ribbons in a bow around the dog’s neck. You can add satin roses or ribbons to the ruffle at the front if you wish to.

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How to Make Medieval Cannon Wedding Favour Boxes

Medieval cannon wedding favour boxes are unusual and look really nice at a medieval theme wedding. I wanted to make medieval wedding favours something special, and really look the part. I found lots of organza wedding favour bags on the internet and velvet pouches which do look medieval, but nothing that was ‘different’, a medieval wedding is a bit over the top and I wanted wedding favours that were a bit bonkers too.

I had the idea to make medieval cannons that went bang. Cannons were becoming popular in Europe during the end of the medieval era, so that all fitted, and I thought that cracker snaps would provide bang for my unusual wedding favour boxes, and from this starting point I designed the cannons.

Medieval Cannons do take a while to make, and there is a lot of preporation work, so you either need to start early, or only make them if you have an small number of guest – 50 or so.

The cannons dimensions are: Height 6.5 cm, Length 10cm, depth 7cm

To make a Medieval Cannon Wedding Favour Boxes you will need...
A print out of the cannon parts (click the pattern on the right and save image)
Thin black card,
PVA glue,
Cracker snaps,
Black tissue paper,
Wing back paper fasteners,
Silver Glitter Glue,
Chunky lolly pop sticks (you can buy these from craft shops),
Trinkets to put inside the cannons – I added, chocolate gold coins, ‘Thank you for coming’ poems and medieval looking rings for ladies and medieval key rings for the men.

Stick the print out onto card and cut it out – use this as the cannon stencil and draw out one of each pattern part for each cannon and cut them out. I found it easier to keep all the parts separated so that instead on making one cannon in turn, I could have a conveyor belt of tasks and make all the cannons in stages together.

Take the cracker snaps and write ‘Pull >>>’ about 2cm from the end, then paint some glitter glue on the same end about 5mm or so to the end. Leave to one side to dry.

Cut your lolly pop sticks to be just shy of 10 cms. You will need one lollypop stick for each cannon.

Now all the parts are prepared, you can begin to build your cannons.

Stage One – The Barrel
Always make sure that any pencil marks that are left over from drawing around the stencil end up on the inside of the cannon where no one will see them.

Take the body part and apply PVA glue to the tab, curl the other straight edge around to stick onto the glued tab. This makes the barrel of the cannon. Close pegs are great to hold the card in place whilst the glue dries.



Stage Two – The Wheels
First you need to make a hole in the spindle part of the wheel spokes. Put a blob of Blue-tac on the table and push a sharp pencil through the card on to the Blue-tac, and voila you have a neat hole.

Next turn back the tabs on the wheel spokes and apply some PVA glue to each, then take the wheel rim and wrap it around the spokes to form a wheel. Again Pegs are really useful here to hold the ends of the rims whilst it sticks.

Stage Three – The Cannon Stands
Again the stands need some prep work. Make holes in the stands on the cross. There should be two holes in each stand. Also the fold lines need scoring to make sharp folds later on in the process. Use a compass point and a ruler to score all of the fold lines.

Then take a wheel and push a paper fastener through the hole of the wheel and through one of the holes of the stand and open the wings of the fastener up at the back. Add another wheel in the same way to the other side.


Stage Four – Adding the Cracker Snaps
Run some PVA glue down one side of a lolly stick. Onto the lolly stick add the non glittered side of a cracker snap – at the other end make sure that the pull writing is face upwards. The bang part of the cracker snap should be about 5mm away from the end of the lolly stick.

Apply more glue onto the lolly stick and then turn it over and fold the glittered half of the cracker back onto the un-glued sided of the lolly stick. Then stick the stick to the inside of the cannon barrel over the seam where you glued the barrel sides together.

The glittered cracker snapper should be sticking out of the top of the wide end of the barrel.
Snip off any excess cracker snapper (non glittered end) from the lolly stick.

Stage Five – The Cannon Ends
The cannon caps fit onto the slim end of the cannon where a cannon ball would shoot out. You can leave a hole because the trinkets inside would fall out.

Make some of the snips in the sides a bit deeper as this will help when you slot it into the barrel. Then fold each on the tabs inwards and then push them out again so that they stand up. The caps back into the cannon ends leaving a small ridge, with this in mind, apply glue to the out side of the tabs. Then push the cannon cap into the cannon and press firmly so that the cap tabs stick to the barrel.

Snip off any surplus cap tabs that over hand the barrel.

If you make a bit of a gluey mess on the black card, wipe off straight away with a damp cloth and it should be fine.

Stage Six – Filling the Cannons
The glitter end of the cracker snap will be sticking out of the cannon and will start to get in the way at this stage, so just fold it where the top of the cannon touches it so that it bends over the barrel. The cracker snap should run diagonally from the front bottom of the cannon, to the top back of the cannon.

Find something circular which is about 5mm bigger than the end of the barrel. I used a small wine glass. Fold up the black tissue paper and draw around the wine glass on to the tissue paper and cut out. These circles close the end of the cannons.

Put your trinkets inside the cannon, and then apply some PVA glue around the outside of the cannon where the opening is. Then lay one tissue paper circle on the top of the cannon opening, and fold down the edges of the tissue paper on to the glue. Leave the cracker snap end to stick out of the back of the cannon.

Apply glue to a cannon rim, and starting at the bottom where the barrel seam is, stick on the rim to cover over the untidy ends of the tissue paper. The rim goes all the way around the end of the barrel and meets back at the seam at the bottom.

Stage Seven – Finishing Touches
Fold the wheel stand and apply some PVA glue to the top parts of the stand that hold the wheels. Note that the highest part of the stand is at the back and this should be stuck next to the Cannon Rim on the back of the cannon. Stick these parts to the barrel but allow the barrel to be elevated somewhat. If your trinkets are heavy you will need to point the cannon downwards otherwise it will tip that way and the wheels will be up in the air.

Then add a final bend in the glitter part of the glittered cracker snapper, bend it in half so that the end points to behind the cannon.

There you have a very unusual wedding favour box which not only looks fantastic but also provides some fun with the bang when your guest pull the cracker snapper tab.

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Make a Ring Box Treasure Chest

This is a cute craft to make a ring box treasure chest. The chest is ideal for gift boxing a ring or you could just make it for fun to hold your own rings. The Treasure chest has a look of pirates treasure or a medieval box. To make a Ring Box Treasure Chest you will need... A Treasure chest style box – you can get these for a couple of pounds at HobbyCraft, Wood stain, Brass Paint, Clear varnish, Satin Fabric, Velvet fabric, PVA glue, Thin card, And a plastic pop bottle. Give the box a light sanding. Use the wood stain to paint the out side of the box not forgetting the bottom. Paint in long straight strokes to simulate wood grain.

Click Images to enlarge them

Slightly over lapping the brushstrokes make the grain look really good because some parts stain darker than others. A dark wood stain gives the box age and makes it look like it’s much older than it is.

When the out side of the box is dry, paint the inside with the same wood stain that you used before. The top edges need painting because they will be visible when the box is finished and paint slightly down the four sides. In the same way, paint the inside of the lid.

When the stain is dry, apply a coat of clear varnish.

With brass coloured paint, paint thin strips following the ends of the box on the ‘D’ shaped sides and follow that brass line onto the back, front and top of the box to give the classic treasure chest look. Also paint a ‘lock’ on the middle front of the box and lid.

Lining the Box
Measure all of the sides of the inside of the box and cut out thin card panels. Test the panels out to see if they will all fit neatly inside the box and inside the lid. The card panels need to be slightly smaller, rather than being a tight fit.

Put the card on top of the wrong size of the satin fabric and cut the satin 5mm bigger than the card. Apply glue to the edges of the card and stick the 5mm of fabric to the card to cover the card neatly. When you cover the ‘D’ shaped pieces of card for the lid, instead of gluing, sew a row of running stitches around the curved edge and draw up around the card.

Once all the card panels are covered, glue them into position inside the box and leave to dry. Pegs make great little clamps to hold the panels in place.

To make the arches that hold the rings you need to cut a plastic pop bottle so that it is a sheet of plastic. It’s a good idea to tape the sheet to the table with parcel tape so that you can work on it.

Draw a rectangle that is the long length of the box by the height on the bottom part of the box, doubled.

You will need to cut out 2 of these rectangles from the plastic bottle.

Lay the plastic rectangles on the wrong side of a piece of velvet side by side with the long sides about 5mm apart. Make sure that the natural curve in the plastic means that the long sides curl upwards. Cut the velvet out in one piece about 1cm bigger than the rectangles. Use the velvet to cover the plastic as you did for the satin covered card.

Push the plastic rectangles into the box so that they create an ‘m’ shape. Put the first long side of the plastic at the back of the box, and then push the other side of the plastic rectangle, plus the first edge of the next rectangle, in next. The natural curve of the bottle will help this process, but it does make it a bit springy. Then push the last long edge in the box at the front. This makes a griping ring holder to hold your rings upright.

As a final extra finishing touch, stick a clasp from a kid’s diary onto the front of the box to give it a real looking lock.

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How to Make a Pecking Chicken Game

This was a game I thought up to entertain children during a medieval theme day. The clockwork chickens hop along and do battle knocking over their rivals. The game looks medieval and children love the fun of it.

To make a pecking chicken game you need...
MDF wood,
Hard Board,
Wood glue,
Doweling,
Paint,
7 wooden dolly heads or other wooden balls,
Oddments of colourful fabric and thin ribbon for the bunting.

You will also need 5 or 6 wind up chickens that hop about, a bag of plastic gold coins and the Game Rules, that you can download here.

First cut out a big circle of MDF wood for the arena. The size of this circle will determined how big the arena will be. Make sure that all of your clock work chickens will fit onto it at the same time. My arena 39 cm in diameter.

Cut out another circle inside this circle to create a hoop shaped border. The border should be about 5 cm wide all the way around. Sand all the edges after cutting.

Take the hardboard and cut out a circle 39 cm in diameter to sit on top of the hoop. Glue in to place and sand edges off so that it’s all flush.

When the glue has dried, you need to shape the hardboard slightly so that it is bowl shaped so the chickens always hop towards one another. With the hard board on top soak the arena and put something heavy (I used a brick) in the centre of the wood and leave for a day. If you leave it out side it will dry naturally and develop a slight dip. You can check to see if it has done the trick with a marble, if the marble rolls to the centre that’s perfect, if not repeat the process.

You need to 8 drill holes through the hard board and the hoop for the doweling. I used 15 mm doweling, so my holes required a 15 mm wood drill bit. When measuring where the holes should go, use a protractor and place them 45 degrees apart. Drill the holes and tidy them up with a light sanding.

Cutting the doweling – You need 5 long lengths that go through the arena; these are about 40cm long. And you will need 3 short lengths for the legs at the front edge, these are about 7 cm long.

First, apply some wood glue to a hole and push a short length through so that the top of the dowel is flush with the top of the arena. Then add the other two short lengths in adjacent holes. You may need to sand the tops of the doweling.

The bigger poles need pushing through to with a ‘leg’ left at the bottom which is about the same height as the short doweling. This raises the arena off from the floor. Glue the tall poles into position.

Undercoat the arena and then paint in bright colours.
You also need to paint the wooden dolly heads. I found them easier to paint after I had pushed them onto a few wooden skewers; I then stood the skewers in a mug. 5 beads need painting in a contrasting colour to the poles, and the other 2 need to be the same colour as the poles.

Whilst you are waiting for the paint to dry, you can make a start on the bunting. Cut our some triangles of material from brightly coloured fabric. Make the triangles elongated to make them look medieval. My triangles are 4cm by 9cm. Sew a zigzag stitch with a sewing machine around the edges of the triangles to prevent fraying. I used 12 triangles.

Next you need to sew the triangles onto the ribbon to create the bunting. Measure 30 cm and then sew on the first triangle, leave a 4 cm gap and then sew on the next triangle, this is for the slopped start to the bunting. The rule of thumb is that you need to leave about 6 cm of ribbon to pass by a pole and then a 1.5 cm gap between the two triangles that hand between poles. This gives the bunting a nice swag. You need to sew 4 sets of triangle sin pairs, and then leave 6 cm and then add a triangle, leave 4 cm leave a triangle and then leave 30 cm of ribbon before cutting.

Put a blob of glue on the top of each post, and attach the bunting with the ribbon tops at the back. The ribbon should sag slightly between poles. Once the ribbon is in place stick a contrasting dolly bead on the top of the pole to finish it off. Wipe off any excess glue. At the two ends of the bunting, glue or staple the ribbon to the arena floor half way between the last pole and the first leg. Cut off excess ribbon and glue a pole coloured dolly head on the ribbon end.

If your dolly heads have holes in them as mine did, you will need to fill the holes with wood filler, sand flush and paint. This also gives you the opportunity to touch up on the paint in other places.

Your pecking chicken game is now complete, you just need to print of the rules, I framed the rules in an inexpensive gold looking frame. And you need to stick coloured pompoms to the tops of the chicken’s heads so that you can tell them apart.

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How to Make Decorative Medieval Shields

Decorating a room to look medieval can be costly if you buy or rent authentic looking props. However, you can make medieval decorations to make a room look fit for a medieval knight and making medieval shields is a great way to add a taste of the middle ages.

To make a medieval Shield you will need…

6mm think MDF wood,
Paints,
Clear Varnish,
Wood Glue,
Webbed tape,
Design Ideas.

First you need to make a Shield template from a piece of paper. Get a sheet of paper about the same size as you want the shield to be, and take into account the size of the sheet of wood. Fold the paper in half lengthways, and then in half again. Open out the second fold. From the crease of this fold, on the edge of the paper, draw a curve to the centre fold at the bottom of the paper. Cut out this curve and unfold the paper – you should have a shied shape.

Use the template to draw out a shield onto the MDF. Cut out the shield with a Jigsaw and sand the edges off.

Undercoat the shield on both sides and the edges.

Select one side to be the front, and give this side a couple of coats of the base colour paint. Use left over house hold gloss, satin emulsion paints or Humbrol paints. Poster paints aren’t very good to use.

If you need help selecting a design you can search Google Images. When looking at the search results, if you look down the left hand side you will see an option to look for line drawings. If you only search line drawings you can use these as a guide to draw a design onto the shield.

When you have selected an image – if you know how to use your graphics package, you can enlarge the image, print it off and cut it out and use it as a stencil. Otherwise you will have to draw freehand.

When you have drawn the design onto the shield front you can begin to paint it. Be careful not to rest your hand on wet paint.

Finishes the shield by painting the sides Gold – the medieval folk liked gilded embellishments, and give the shield a couple of coats of varnish to make it more durable and shiny.

To make a handle, cut out a 20cm length of webbed tape and glue it to the back of the shield about 8cm down from the top edge. This tape acts as a handle to hold the shield and can also be used to hang the shield up.

Perfect Valentines :: Tea Cosy Folk :: Santas Postbag::Halloween Mania ::Zafyna

Medieval Castle - Print Out and Make

Build a medieval castle! Well at least build a tower and a portcullis. Simply print off the Castle net onto so thin card, colour in, cut out, score and glue!

Great for keeping kids busy on rainy afternoons. Great if you have some Knights on horseback toys and things or princesses!

Click on Picture on the right to see the full size medieval Turret to print out.

To make a complete castle - try printing out 4 turrets and making them in the usual way and then glue them together for form one medieval castle.

Perfect Valentines :: Tea Cosy Folk :: Santas Postbag::Halloween Mania ::Zafyna

How to Make a Quill Biro Pen

Quill pens are great fun to write with, but not completely practical with the ink pot and the problems with ink dripping and blotting. Thank goodness for twentieth century biro style pens, they eliminate all that messiness, but do lack that je ne sais quoi.

Making a quill pen from a feather and a biro pen is quick and easy to do, and also much more cost effective than buying a ready made quill pen.

All you need to make your quill pen is…

Some large feathers, one for each pen. You will find packets of feathers in most craft shops. They usually have both dyed feathers in vibrant colours as well as natural looking feathers. Choose feathers with quite a big shaft, because this has to be big enough to house the biro.

You also will been a biro pen for each quill and you will need a bamboo skewer to use as a tool.

First take a feather and cut off the end of the shaft at the writing end. The cut needs to expose the hollow cross section of the feather, and be a large enough hole to slot the bamboo skewer up. Push the skewer up inside the feather as far as you can, and then pull it back out again.

Next take the biro pen, and take it to pieces. All you need is the plastic tube part that holds the ink and the nib. Discard the casing of the pen.

If you take a look at the plastic tubing on the pen, its probably not filled to the end with ink. Snip of the surplus tubing so the plastic is just a couple of centimetres away for the ink line.

Push the ink filled plastic tub up into the feather so that only the nib of the pen is showing; the rest of the biro should be in the feather shaft. If you can not push the pen up into the feather this far, you need to repeat the procedure with the bamboo skewer and try to push it in deeper.

Once you are happy that the biro is snug inside the feather, you can add a small amount of glue just to keep it securely in place. You quill pen is now ready to use, However, you could make the pen more glamorous buy tying a ribbon around the shaft or maybe you could add some glitter to the feather.

Quill pens make a great gift for people who like writing and can be given in a long slender box, or can be given with a notebook or diary.

Perfect Valentines :: Tea Cosy Folk :: Santas Postbag::Halloween Mania ::Zafyna