Turtlette - Turtle Backpack Tags

We are starting a slow wind down of our Summer theme and this week we are looking at a shade called “Turtlette” by Tarte. I know you’re thinking green but this shade is actually metallic silver. Maybe they had a Silverback Turtle in mind? It’s a nice party shade.

We thought we’d do something for back to school. We had some of our key rings leftover from our Father’s Day post so we decided to make use of those and we are making turtle shaped nametags for kid’s backpacks.

There are a couple designs that we came up with so take a look below and see how to make your very own turtle backpack tag.

The first one is very easy and simple. All you need is a turtle template. We chose this one...

You will also need some green felt and some twine.

We printed the turtle so that when it was cut out it was about 4 inches long. Then we traced the turtle with a felt pen onto the felt and cut it out.

Instead of an eye we made a little hole where the eye would be and we strung through some twine. To make sure that the twine knot is secure, you can put white glue or clear nail polish on the knot to prevent it from coming undone.

Lastly, we wrote a name (with a felt pen r Sharpie) on the body of the turtle.

Our second turtle is a foam turtle.

We found another turtle template and printed that and cut it out. We actually printed it twice (more on that later). It measures about 4 ½ inches.

On a quick shop at the Dollar store, we bought some light green foam sheets and then also found a darker green foam sheet. The darker green was sparkly and also had an adhesive backing.

On the lighter green foam sheet, we traced the outline of the turtle. We used a black felt pen, it smudged slightly but we were able to fix it by wiping it off with a damp paper towel. You can use a regular ball point pen if you prefer or even a pencil might work.

Now cut that turtle out.

Next on that other turtle that we printed, we cut out just the shell pieces. We had six of them.

Then we traced those onto our sparkly foam. To keep track of them all, we numbered them so that we knew where to put them when we attached them to the turtle.

After tracing them all, cut out all of the shell pieces.

Punch some black “eyes” from a black foam piece (you could also use googly eyes) and glue them on with a glue stick and then attach the the foam shell pieces to the turtle.

When that’s all complete, we grabbed some floral wire and pushed that through one of the legs. Then we twisted it like a chain (feel free to use a chain if you have one) and then attached the end to the key ring.

Write the name of your child on the back in felt pen and you’re done.

DIY Paper Basket

With Spring in full gear now we are going to share with you a little how-to Spring/Easter basket that you can make. These are perfect to use as an afternoon craft project with the kids on Spring Break so they can have them ready for egg collecting on Easter morning or you can use them as decorations or even as a goodie “bag” at a party or gift basket to give to someone. They can be as cute or as sophisticated as you want them to be.

Here’s how to make them...

We actually made two different sized baskets. The first one (blue) is made from regular sized paper that we cut into a 8 ¼ x 8 ¼ inch square. You can really use any size paper but it needs to be cut into a square. The bigger the paper the bigger the basket. We also made one (pink) that was slightly larger so we made that a 12x12 inch square. We have also provided lots of step by step by step pictures as some of the steps are hard to explain.

So the process at the start is the same for any size. You will need to start off with a square then you mark it into thirds in both directions so you end up with nine smaller equal squares.

Then you cut the two lines on the bottom third and the two lines on the top third (as shown in the picture below).

Now fold all the side towards the middle along the lines.

Here’s where things get a little different.

Blue Basket (wider shallower basket): Put glue on the sides of the bottom middle square and then glue the bottom corner squares to the middle so it forms a triangle. Repeat at the top.

Then use scissors to round the four corners of the basket.

Take a long thin strip (ours is from what was left over of the paper that we made into a square which was about 8 ½ inches long but you can make yours whatever size you like) and glue the strip on like a handle.

Now you can decorate. We used some punches but you can draw, stamp, or sticker things to it. Keep in mind that stamping and drawing would be more difficult when the basket is already assembled.

Pink Basket (taller deep basket): Take each corner and spilt into thirds again and cut. 

Now take the middle bottom square and mark the middle of the edge and cut into a triangle and do the same on the other side. Fold along lines. 

Glue the inner third from the right hand side to the inner third from the left hand side so they are perpendicular to each other.

Then continue overlapping and gluing sides, adding thirds and alternating sides until you’ve used them all.

The last ones should be in line with each other.

Glue the remaining triangles upward to hide all of the overlapping gluing that you’ve just done and probably to hold things in place as well.

Fold little one inch circles (ours probably could have been a little bigger) to help hide all of the edges and corners at the top

Attach a handle. Again it can be whatever size and colour you choose. Lastly, decorate!