Monday, March 11, 2013

Papier Mache Robin Eggs







 Kindergarten is studying "living things that come from eggs" right now.


We needed a few good art projects to tie into this theme.



First up is this Robin in a papier mache egg.









Now I know robins do not come from blue and pink spotted eggs but we wanted a bit more colour fun for the kinders.

















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- balloons
- paper towel cut into strips
- recycled container
- white glue
- water
- acrylic or tempera paint
- Easter grass, optional
- scissors
- cereal box cardboard
- template
- brown fabric
- red felt or fleece
- tacky glue
- googly eyes
- yellow craft foam
- feathers
- flower sprig
- glue gun (adult operation only)
- fishing line
- pony bead or washer

PROCEDURE:



Blow up balloon to the size of egg you want.

We kept ours on the small side.



Mix up your glue solution in the recycled container.  I use 1 part glue to about 1 part water.

Dip your paper towel strips into the mixture and start layering them on the balloon.  You want to criss cross the layers.  Leave a bit of the balloon bare, this will make cutting easier later on.

Every once and a while put a dry strip on to soak up the excess.




Put aside in a warm place to dry.

Turn every day until they fully dry out.  It will take about 48 hrs.





When they are dry cut a hole in each egg starting where you can see the balloon.











Paint with acrylic or tempera paint.





Paint on spots or stripes.





With an awl or knitting needle punch a hole at the top of the egg.






Cut a length of fishing line.  Tie on a pony bead or washer.








Thread the other end of the line thru the hole.  The bead or washer holds the line in place.





Using the template cut out the bird shape out of cardboard.  I've included a large and small template depending on the size of your egg.







Using the same template cut the body shape out of brown fabric.

Cut a red breast shape from the red felt or fleece.






Glue the brown fabric to the cardboard.





Glue on the red breast, 2 googly eyes, and a small beak cut out of the yellow craft foam.






Add 2 feathers for the wings.






Stuff a little Easter grass into the egg.








Bend the little tab at the bottom of the robin.


Add some glue to it.






Attach to the inside of the egg.





Finally you can glue a little branch or sprig of flowers to the bottom of the egg, just to dress it up a bit.





That's it.  You could make this project with different animals themes like turtles, dinosaurs, fish, etc.

I like the Robin as it is Spring themed, you could do a chick for Easter.



See you soon.




11 comments:

  1. What a wonderful and gorgeous art project for smaller hands to make and appreciate. It's beautiful enough that they'll be entranced with the results and the process is FUN! I homeschool three daughters, and we'll definitely be doing this. Thanks!

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  2. So cute! I could do this with my Sunday school class.

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  3. Hello, I love your crafts! could put some on my blog? thank you very much, they are wonderful!

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  4. Hi Gail,
    This is jut very beautifully make. I just loved it. May be i wish to try this out. Actually the process takes a long time. Good work

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  5. this looks like such a fun project. I think we will try that at home. tfs!

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  6. I'm the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your egg! You can see it here:

    http://funfamilycrafts.com/paper-mache-robin-eggs/

    If you have other kid friendly crafts, we'd love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a lovely idea! Would this work with flour & water paste? What kind of tape did you use to label who's egg belong to who?
    Thank you

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  8. Hi Helena, it would work with flour and water. I used masking tape to identify, when wet you can't stick it on so I put the tape on the table and place the egg on top, when dry stick tape on egg.
    Hope that helps.

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  9. I'm curious if you painted the inside of the egg as well as the outside.

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    Replies
    1. You can, but let the outside dry first. If you paint both outside and inside in one session I find the egg starts to soften and it could lose it's shape on you.

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