Egg carton turtle and babies - #stayathomecrafts

 Another craft that uses the whole egg carton, and makes a perfect home for the little turtle babies!

You will need:
2 egg cartons
Cereal box card
Craft glue
Paint
Black pen
Nail scissors (optional, to be used by an adult)

1. With green paint and a big brush, paint the outside of an egg carton, the cereal box card and the bottom of the egg cups from the second carton.

2. Squirt some red and some yellow paint on a plate or palette, and mix them in the middle to make orange, then have fun splodging on yellow and orange on your turtle and baby turtle's shells, and dab on a little red with finger tips. Messy and fun!
We got a bit carried away, so added a few more blobs of green on top, to break up the bright colours.

3. For the big turtle's head, cut a strip from the green card, about 4cm wide. Cut it so it's about 6cm long and round off one end.

4. For the back legs, cut a strip about 3cm wide, cut two pieces from either end of the strip, about 5cm long. and round off one end of each.

5. For the front flippers, use a decent sized cup or glass and draw around the rim. Cut out the circle and and cut the circle in half.

6. Cut away the middle part of the semi circle - use a pencil to draw this first, if it helps.

7.  Then round off one end of each flipper, but make sure you round OPPOSITE ends, so the flippers can go either side of the turtle's head.

8.  Glue the legs inside the carton at one end, on or near the corners.

9.  Use a black pen to draw the face on the head part, and either glue this in the middle of the other end and glue the flippers on top of it, or flippers first and head on top. Whatever's easier.

If the flipper doesn't go far enough down the side that's attached to the lid, cut the connecting card a little and slot the flipper in.

10. The baby turtles or turtlettes, are made in a very similar way. Cut out as many egg carton cups as you want. For a quick finish, cut a strip for the head, snip into 2cm lengths and round one end. Draw on a face. Either glue the end of the head piece inside the 'shell'. When dry fold into place, OR, make a hole in the side of the carton cup, about half way up (to be done by a adult - keep nail scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side. It helps if you put a piece of modelling clay behind where you're making the hole, so there's something to press into)

Once you've pierced through, make a slot for the head and push it into place.

These babies will look sweet as they are, but if you would like to add legs, cut a thin strip for the back legs, cut off small pieces, about 2cm long and round ends.

For the flippers, draw around something small, like a  thread spool or small spice jar - cut out the circle, and cut the circle in half. Cut away the middle of each semi circle and round one end of each, making sure they're opposite ends, and glue the ends under the turtle's shell. When dry, fold out.

When the babies get tired of swimming, they can always have a little rest under Mum's shell..

Paper plate mermaid

Magical mermaids! Always thought the bumpy rim on a paper plate would make a good scaly tail, so that's how this project started..
We used small pieces of sponge to paint her too, which was super quick, great fun and added a bit more texture.

You will need:
Two paper plates (ours were 15cm)
Scissors
Pencil
Craft glue or a glue stick
Paint
Old sponge
Black felt tip or gel pen

1. Draw a pencil line in one of the grooves on the plate rim and roughly mark the middle point of the plate. Count about 10 bumps along and draw another line in the groove. Join the top of these two lines to the dot in the middle of the plate, but curve the lines out a bit, so they're not completely straight (this top part is going to be your mermaid's body)

2. Cut this piece out and then cut the rim away from the centre of the plate. 

Cut five pieces from the rim that are about the same size as the rim on the body piece (10 bumps). 

Glue FOUR of these pieces to the body (leave one for the end of the tail). Glue them underneath, with the bumps showing. Just concentrate on lining up the top edge, and making a nice curve here for the tail. 

Don't worry about the sticky out bits at the bottom! We'll sort those out when the glue dries.

3. While the glue dries, make the head by drawing around the bottom of something like a small spice jar on a spare piece of paper plate centre. Cut it out, and if you want, trim two sides to make a more oval shape (optional).

4. For the mermaid's hair, cut out the middle of the second paper plate - we trimmed it all round, cutting more away on two sides, to make it oval shaped (again, this is optional) Ours ended up about 12cm long and 10cm wide.

5. Cut about a third off the head and place it on the hair, so she looks like she's got a fringe (bangs). When you're happy with the position, draw a pencil line right along the top of the head.

Then, roughly halfway along this line, fold the hair piece longways. and either cut straight along the folded line for a straight fringe, OR, as we did, start cutting just above the line, aiming for the end of the line, to make a centre parting!
Make sure the head piece fits in the slot, but don't stick it down yet.

6. To make the arms, draw around the top part of the mermaid's body on some spare paper plate middle. Make sure it's just the top of the body, so only go as far as the first ridge (see picture below). Then join the two ends with a gently curved line.

7. Draw a pencil line inside, mirroring the shape, so it's about 1cm wide (it doesn't have to be perfect!)

Cut the piece out and then snip through the pointy end of the shape, and follow the inside line.

8. Time to finish off the tail! cut away the sticky out bits at the bottom (I've drawn a pencil line, so you can see more clearly what I mean). Then draw a pencil line from the bottom of the second piece of plate rim to the end of the tail, tapering and making it thinner as you do, to make a nice curve. Keep it about a 1cm wide at the end.

9. To make an even looking tail end, draw a pencil line roughly in the middle of the remaining piece of plate rim. Cut away the sides at an angle, so it's the right size to fit on the end of the tail. Then cut out the curvy tail end, using the middle line as a guide. Glue in place.

10.  Painting time and we cut small pieces from an old sponge, about 2 to 3cm square. Press them in the paint and get sponging! Use one piece for each different colour.

First we painted the body, head and arms. We mixed lots of white with a little red, dab of yellow and tiny spot of blue.

The hair is a mix of yellow and orange splodges, but do the body and hair whatever colour you prefer.

The tail is green and blue splodges. 

Leave your mermaid pieces to dry.

11. Once dry, assemble your mermaid. Slide the arm piece over the body and angle it to one side. Trim the nearest arm, so it doesn't look too long. Make sure the arm piece is 1cm or so below the pointy top and glue in place. Glue the head to the top of the body, and then the body to the hair, sliding the head into the fringe slot. 

12. Cut small triangles for the bikini from some leftover rim, and glue them on. Use a black pen to draw on her face.

Obviously add glitter if you want to!

And hang on to the leftover rim pieces. I have some other ideas for them...

Mr Croc - egg carton crocodile

This craft is very similar to the lizard we made last time, so it's all about cutting and stacking, the tricky part is finding enough egg cartons!!

You will need:

3 x Large (dozen) egg cartons or

6 Regular (half a dozen) egg cartons

Pencil

Scissors

Craft glue

Glue stick (optional)

Green paint

Sheet of plain paper

Black marker or gel pen

1. Mr Croc is made from twelve of the middle cones you find in egg cartons.

If you can get hold a few of the larger cartons, you'll get 5 cones per box, rather than the usual two. 

Of course you could always make a smaller crocodile with less, and spread the cones out more, or add in extra cones (if you have them) for a really long tail!

1. We painted our cones first, while they were still in the egg cartons, but you could assemble your croc and paint him at the end if you prefer. 

If you're painting at the start, remember to paint some of the egg box lid green too, for the feet.

2. Cut the cones out roughly, in a strip, then separate them by snipping a part. We cut out 12 altogether. 

LEAVE ONE OF THESE ROUGHLY CUT OUT CONES TO THE SIDE FOR LATER (FOR THE HEAD).

3. Then cut around the bottom of the 11 remaining cones, just above the cardboard joins - so the edges are nice and even. (I've used a pen to mark above the card join on this cone, to show where to cut).

4. Aim to make them look the same size (but don't worry if they're not exactly alike! And you can always tidy them up if you feel you need to, at the stacking stage)

Put one of these trimmed cones aside too (for the end of the tail) so you're now left with 10. 

Then chop about 1cm off the top of the 10 remaining cones, by squeezing the cone sides together and snipping across the top. The cut will look a bit wonky when you squeeze the cone back into shape, but that's fine as you won't see them when you stack your Croc together.

5. Now the fun part, the stacking! We stacked 5 cones together for the body.

Brush glue around the inside edges of the first cone, then push the next one in, but don't push it in too far, you want to have spaces between the ridges (and this stretches out the body too). Brush glue around the inside edge of the second cone and add the third, and so on. Keep the spacing looking even (keep trying different cones to get a good fit or trim a bit more if you need to).

6. The next cone is going to go in facing the opposite way (so you can attach the tail), but it's too big as it is, so you need to shorten it by cutting about 1cm off the bottom edge, (see photo above), then glue inside the body.

7. Cut about 1cm off the bottom of the remaining 4 cones too.

(You should still have 2 cones left aside, for the head and bottom of the tail)

8. Glue and stack these four pieces on top of the cone you've just attached to the body section, but make the gaps wider apart than those on the body - this will allow you to extend the tail and to curve it slightly, if you want to. Brush glue inside the pieces you're adding to the tail, concentrating on where the cones are most in contact with each other.

9. For the end of the tail, take the trimmed cone (from step 4) that you've been saving, and cut it in half lengthways, and glue one in place.

10. For the head, take the last remaining cone you cut out roughly at the very beginning, and hold it so you're looking at one of the flat sides. This will be the top of your croc's head. 

On the top of the head, close to the edge of the cone, use a pencil to draw two curved, sticky out eyes, starting from each corner. Join with a line in the middle. (See the photo) Roughly draw around the rest of the cone, from the bottom of one eye, around the back, to the bottom of the other. 

When cutting out, it might help to cut down each corner first, to the pencil line, fold all but the front flap out, and cut these three side and back flaps off.

On the front, cut between Mr Croc's eyes first, to the line, before snipping this little piece away (or tucking it inside the head). Then round off the eyes.

11. Paint them yellow.

12. While they're drying, draw a thin strip on some plain paper (for the teeth) - about 12cm long and roughly 0.5cm wide.

With a fine black pen, draw a zigzag line from the top to the bottom line, before cutting this strip out.

Use the pen to finish off the eyes and to add nostrils. We drew long, thin triangles for the pupils.

13. Snip one end into a tapered 'V', rub with glue stick, or brush on a thin layer of glue, and stick the start of the teeth in place. Wrap around his face, until it looks even on the other side and snip another 'V'.

Glue the head to the body.

14. For the feet, cut a 2-3cm strip and round it at one end. Use this as a template to draw around, and cut out four. Draw on claws and glue them on, angled forward, under the body.