I'm a fan of these whole egg box crafts - they're simple and effective and there's space inside to store things too!
You will need:
An egg carton
Cereal box card or similar for legs, claws and eyes
Scissors
Glue
Sticky tape (optional)
White bottle tops or google eyes
Nail scissors or similar (to be used by an adult)
Black marker pen
1. Paint the top half of the egg carton orange (the lid) and some cereal box card too, for the legs, claws and eyes. You could paint the whole egg carton if you wanted to.
2. When the paint is dry, cut strips from the cereal box card - you will need 8 (...spot the mistake in the picture!) about one cm wide and 12cm long. Cut four circles too. We drew around the bottom of the paint bottle - you could use the bottom of a glass or beaker. The size of the circle will be the size of the claw, to help gauge what to use.
3. Cut a segment out of all four circles, roughly the same size. Keep two for the claws, then cut the other two in half - these will be the claw limbs. (See below)
5. Glue the claws on and make sure they face in opposite directions. Leave to dry.
6. Fold the 8 leg strips in half, then unfold them, and attach inside the carton with glue or sticky tape. Leave them to dry sticking up in the air. When dry, bend them carefully over the edge of the box. PLEASE NOTE - the BACK of the box is going to be the front of the crab.
7. THEN, press along the fold you made halfway down the strips, so it looks like a leg joint.
Push the top part of the leg up. at a bit of a angle, and bend the lower part down - to make your crab look like it's scuttling!
8. The claws go at the back of the carton, where the lid and base join. Just cut this join a little on both sides so the claw limbs can slot in more easily. Brush glue behind these cuts and along the bottom edge, and slot into place.
9. For the eyes, cut two strips from some spare painted card, about 2cm wide and 6cm long. Mark with a pencil where you want the eyes to go on top.
10. Use the nail scissors to pierce a hole through the pencil line and cut a slot (to be done by an adult). Check the strips fit.
11. Either use googly eyes or draw black circles on white bottle tops with a marker pen (we used the lids from UHT milk cartons) Glue at the end of each strip.
23. Add a smile with the marker pen and Crabby is ready!
Why not make little crabs out of egg carton cups and pipe cleaners and pop them inside?
