Tutorial:: Bunny & Egg Garland

From Peggy at ComfyCozyKeepsakes.
[This craft makes an excellent after school activity for older children .]

Your crafty decorator is baaaaaaack….. with another fun project to replace those adorable Shamrocks that hung from your windows for St. Patrick’s Day. Today we’re making bunnies and eggs! The concept is the same as the Shamrocks, so go gather up a few simple items and we’ll be hopping down the bunny trail.


Materials needed:

• Bunny and Egg clip art or draw your own to suit your taste.
• 2 sheets of paper or cardstock. Cardstock works better.
• Scissors. For this project I used pinking shears because it looks cuter.
• Hole punch or awl. I have a punch with a very small hole, which is better than your average hole punch.
• Glue
• Fabric marker or permanent marker
• Yarn – white
• Felt or Craft Foam. I like the “natural” look of felt over foam. I chose pastels and ecru. Darker colors don’t show up as well from the street as pastels.
• Craft pompoms, large and small sizes. Coordinating colors for your bunny nose and tail.
• Tape

Now, let’s get started:

1) Copy or trace the Bunny & Egg shape onto the paper/card stock. Cut them out. I have 2 sizes of bunnies on mine.

2) Trace bunnies & egg onto Felt or Foam. If your bunny shape is symmetrical, you can fold the shape in half, fold the felt and place the shape on the fold before cutting it out – see picture on right, below. Don’t cut the fold. 

           

3) Cut them out. Pinking shears give a more festive look to these shapes instead of straight-edge scissors.

4) Glue a pompom on one side for the bunny tail. I used small pompoms for my little bunnies and large ones for the big bunnies.

5) Glue small pompom on the OPPOSITE side for bunny nose.

6) Cut TWO very SMALL holes with hole punch or awl, evenly
spaced about an inch from the top and bottom of shape. I chose
to make them right at the tail and nose of bunny shapes.

7) Cut yarn to desired length for windows or doors. I wrap a piece of tape on the end of the yarn so it doesn't fray and is easier to slip through the holes.

8) Slip yarn thru holes in bunnies & eggs. Tie a knot at the bottom so the bunny doesn’t slip off.

9) Hang with tape on windows or doors. TA DA!

If you are REALLY creative, add glitter or other adornments to your “egg” shapes. You can cut circles or other shapes from the felt and glue onto the eggs. I think I’ll be embellishing mine for next year!

So now you have these for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. I’ll be back with another one soon. I’m considering creating a kit to sell and/or taking orders for completed decorations. Let me know what you think. Would you rather go the craft store to buy all the materials and make this yourself (with your kids), or open up a box with a set for your favorite holiday?

Now I’m going to break into the speckled eggs and celebrate a little early! Happy Easter!!

Keep up with ComfyCozyKeepsakes on facebook and at her Etsy Shop:

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Hippity Hoppity Paper Bag Frog Puppets

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

Here’s an easy activity perfect for spring days when you’ve got just a little time for an activity: paper bag frog puppets! Even better, chances are pretty good you’ve already got everything you need:

Lunch-size brown paper bag
Green construction paper
Red construction paper
Googly eyes (the bigger the better!)
Glue

My inspiration came from this blog post. We made our frog puppets on Feb. 29 (aka, Leap Day) and paired them with a few of the Froggy books by author Jonathan London and illustrator Frank Remkiewicz. But, I think you’ll find this is great for any spring day or even an “F”-themed day – especially if you’ve got a good place to go looking for frogs!

First, you’ll need some basic shapes:

Two strips of green paper that are rounded on one end for eyes
Two green arms
Two green legs
Several green circles
A long red tongue

Depending on the age of your kids, you can either precut these shapes or trace them onto construction paper and let them do the cutting.

Glue the googly eyes onto the eye strips and fold under the bottom (non-round) end. Glue to the base of your paper bag.

Glue the eyes and legs inside the side folds of your paper bag. Glue the tongue under the bottom of the bag.

Last, glue the green dots all over your frog. Put your hand inside and start hopping!

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Tutorial: Monster Page Corner Bookmark

From Sabrina at NeverlandNook.

Like many of you out there, I am a self confessed addict to Pinterest!!! I just can't help it, so I decided to "Pinterest Challenge" myself. I decided to start with an easy challenge and so I chose the Monster Page Corner Bookmark. This is something you can just do for fun or with your kids! They would love it!

Supplies:

• Paper (I used double sided paper - 1 side had a pattern)
• Glue Stick
• Pencil
• Scissor
• Ruler

First I drew the pattern on the non-decorative side of the paper. Each small square is 2.5" x 2.5".

Next I cut the pattern out along with a 2.5" x 2.5" square from the paper.

 

Glue the square piece so that you see the pattern because next you will fold the triangle pieces over and across the square and glue them together.

 

Next you will want to draw out a pattern by teeth. The triangle should be 2.5" x 2.5" x 3.5" to fit in the square. Draw teeth however you would like! It's fun to create different characters!

 

Once you've glued the teeth in, cut out some circles for eyeball(s).

 

Glue them on and Ta Da!!!!! You have the perfect Monster Page Corner Bookmark!!!

So gather up some different shades of green paper and a variety of circles and let the kids make-up a slew of green toothy monsters to mail their bookworm friends for St. Patty's.  Thanks Neverland Nook for sharing this fun tutorial.

You can find Neverland Nook online at these different locations:  Etsy Shop, Blog, Facebook & Twitter. 

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Snowman in a Baggie

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

Here in my part of Maryland, we've had more 60-degree days this winter than we’ve had inches of snow, and it’s making me homesick for the winters of my childhood in Northern New York State. My son is missing the snow, too, and he hasn't really had a chance to make a snowman.

So, I was excited to find this cute snowman craft on Pinterest (where all my good ideas come from lately!). Whether you’ve had enough snow or are still waiting for flakes to fall, these are an easy way to pass some time, and they last long enough to be played with for a couple of days.

You’ll need:
Can of shaving cream
Zip-top baggie
Black construction paper or craft foam
Orange craft foam Glitter (optional)

Cut enough “coal” pieces for each snowman’s eyes and mouth or ask the kids to cut them. I used a circle punch to make my coal pieces and then ran them through a Xyron sticker maker, but you can also use sticky-back foam or glue to hold your eyes on. Cut triangle “carrots” from the craft foam, one for each snowman.

Give each kid a baggie. Attach the eyes and mouth pieces onto the front. Inside, put the carrot nose and some glitter, if using. Squirt a generous dollop of shaving cream into the bag and seal, squeezing out some of the air. I taped the bags shut with packing tape.

Now, get to squishing! See if the kids can line up their snowman’s nose in the proper place on the snowman’s face. Little kids and adults will love the way the shaving cream feels as they squish the bag. The shaving cream will break down after several days, but you can expect to get a couple of days of play out of this guy.

Here’s my son’s finished snowman:

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