I belong to a sewing and craft group in our local village, which meets on a Monday evening. Last Easter were were talking about making cards, so I went home and designed these stand up characters from some foam sheet I had.

They are all based on the same body shape and have a paper hinge to make them stand up.

The cow and pig have a round body and the chick, rabbit and sheep have been shaped to give a ‘fluffy’ appearance.

I loved the fact that I could take the same basic shapes to create different characters. I knew I had some google eyes somewhere and dug them out. What a difference they make to animating these friendly creatures.

The ‘feet’ give them stability and stop them rolling away. I didn’t neglect the back either with tails applied where necessary!

It was the start of my fascination with making shapes that can be used for more than one animal.