23.11.13

Mr Crocodile rolls up to the Zoo

Our homemade Zoo is getting pretty busy. This is the fourteenth arrival since the loo roll lion kicked the whole thing off in May. Never imagined back then I'd end up spending so much time thinking about how to make a hoard of animals out of the recycling rubbish...


The crocodile is an egg box/cardboard roll combo - you'll need one of the pointy cone middle bits from an egg box.

Cut it in half, then cut a section of the loo roll middle for the body. Use the egg box piece to measure this if you like, but it doesn't need to be accurate - bigger is better at this stage.






Glue a pointy piece onto one end - don't try and glue it completely flat, concentrate on getting the sides to stick, but leave the top proud of the body. This will be the top part of the croc's head. And don't worry about the extra bits of card sticking out below - these can be snipped away once it's dry.


I think the tail looks better if you cut a curve into the other egg box bit before gluing it under the body - this time you want it to fit snuggly to the cardboard roll , though again don't worry about edges not meeting up at the bottom.
Paper clips help to hold everything in place while it dries.



When it's ready, cut away the hanging down bits so it sits flat, then paint your croc - remember to paint some spare card too.


For the teeth, cut a thin strip of white paper that wraps around most of the head section - use a black pen to draw a zigzag pattern. Snip each end into a gradual point and glue in place.


For the eyes we coloured some paper with a yellow highlighter pen and used a good old hole punch.
.

Put one of these on the spare green card and draw around it - so you have a small piece that's curved at the top and flat at the bottom.


Make two, glue on the circles, then you may need to cut more of the bottom edge off, so they don't stick out too much when you push them into slits (made with nail scissors) close to the top of the croc's head.


Cut out feet (do one and use as a template) - fold at an angle (see black lines below) and stick them on underneath so they point forward.



Then just draw on nostrils and some markings......and there you have it!


I've put the croc in the turtle's pool, but he could do with one made from a larger ice cream lid!


For a stealthy. swimming croc, forget the feet and cut more of the sides away...


...or just use a head....



Linking up with Kids Get Crafty

Many more projects like this in my craft books, 'Make Your Own Zoo' and 'Make Your Own Farm Animals'