Turtles and Tortoises

Now, I had promised monkeys, but then my youngest came up with these, all by herself, and I thought they'd be perfect for our homemade zoo.

All you need is an egg box scissors, paint, a black felt tip pen and some glue.

First, cut out a few egg box cups, then push up and round the bottoms (push in and round the corners if yours are a bit square like these ones) - so they end up looking more dome shaped.

Painting time next, and don't forget to splosh some on both sides of the egg box lid, or any other spare piece of cardboard (for legs and heads)

When dry, use a felt tip to draw a pattern on the shell, and after perusing pictures online, we added some yellow and brown spots too.

All the other bits can be cut out of the painted lid - just a thin strip snipped into four for the tortoise's legs and a rounded head with a long neck.

Use nail scissors to make a slot for the neck on one side (adult supervision). Keep the scissors closed, press down and twist gently from side to side. A ball of plasticine behind the card makes this easier.  Widen the slot so your tortoise can retreat into its shell if things get too much...

For the turtle, make the legs more flipper or paddle like (draw and cut out one front and one back leg, then use these to draw the others)
Remember to make them extra long for sticking under the egg cup.

Glue the legs underneath, in the corners, and leave to dry upside down before bending into place.

We thought the penguin's pool might be a little on the chilly side for the turtles, so made them a more tropical one!

Monkeys next. Honest.

Easter Surprise! Easy egg box craft

I'm becoming a serious rubbish hoarder. I've a drawer stuffed full of loo roll middles and swiped party napkins, and one of the work surface walls is made of empty cereal and egg boxes with yogurt pot turrets.. But this wall is coming down slowly, because with Easter on its way, egg boxes are the rubbish of choice at the moment! They're so handy for all kinds of craft, and there are some brilliant ideas around. If you haven't already, do take a look at these 10 egg carton crafts on Red Ted Art's blog. We had a go at some of them, then got on a bit of a roll, and came up with our own idea.
An Easter egg shaped box..

little egg shaped box

They're easy to make; a few fiddly bits that need grown up help, but plenty for the kids to do.

You'll need an egg carton, tin foil, craft glue, leftover braid or coloured paper strips, and felt/sequin decorations, or any small, colourful bits.

Cut out the 6 egg holders. I usually do this with small nail scissors, or I cut them out roughly and let my 5 year old do it - but this can mean we end up with teeny tiny cups!

Scrunch up a small piece of tin foil, but not too tight - these are going to form the rounded top of your egg. Glue to the bottom of a cup, and mould until you're happy with the shape.

Then just cut out or rip pieces of tin foil, big enough to cover each part of your egg separately, and wrap tightly, folding the extra foil underneath.

I glued lovely bits of braid around the edge of the top part of our little egg box, while my daughter did some decorating. The braid needs to hang just below the edge, so it fits over the bottom part and covers the join. Well, kind of covers the join!  The sticking takes a little patience - paper clips help so it dries in place, but you could speed things up by using coloured paper strips instead of the braid.

Coloured foil would be great for a bit of variety, but we didn't have any...apart from what was on my stockpile of Easter chocolate..

creme egg eaten in the interests of craft...

There weren't many small yellow pompoms either, so we ended up making exotic chicks! Might need their feathers trimmed so I can fit in a mini egg or two..

exotic Easter chicks

Linking up with Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty 

and For the Kids Friday over at Sun Scholars.