Following a trip to West Midlands Safari Park my eldest wanted us to do a craft display all about wild animals and being a boy he naturally chose an animals that roared as the first thing he wanted to make.
Unlike previous displays we have made for our conservatory this one took almost four months to complete, not because anything is particularly difficult but because in all honesty finding the time has been tricky. This is an ‘excuse’ I thought I would never make butworking full time and with the twins now at whirlwind age spreading chaos wherever they roam and my eldest experiencing his mardy preschool months, where everything I suggest I rubbish and he wants “space”, it really has been difficult to find time to sit and craft together.
I persevered though because once he gets making he loves it and so once or twice a month when the twins were asleep and we weren’t out and about we added something to our display.
I let my son choose which animal he wanted to make next and it seems he’s partial to a toilet tube make as he usually ran and got some from the making box and started explaining to me how we should make it before I even had chance to grab the glue and glitter.
We made:
Paper plate lion craft
My husband made this with our son and I think the face is all down to him but the rest is pretty much all our sons. They used orange cupcake cases to stick around the rim of the plate and then they covered it in screwed up orange and brown tissue paper. They added some little mini nests I had brought for Easter crafts and Pom Poms (just because). My husband then cut out a face from yellow foam and a younger from pink foam and they finished him with pipe cleaner whiskers.
Hand print Monkey crafts
These are father and son handprint monkeys (apparently there wasn’t room for mummy and brothers on the tree). We used pipe cleaners for their tails and Pom Poms for their ears and we hung them on the display on a stick my son collected especially on a walk.
Toilet tube snake craft
This was super easy as all he had to do was paint the tubes green and stick on the eyes but he loved getting the paint everywhere and before too long his whole arms were green and he announced he was now a snake. I made a pigs ear of sticking the tubes together and awkwardly tried to sellotape card between each tube, I am certain there must be an easier way!
Toilet tube giraffe craft
again another easy but fun make using a kitchen roll and lots of yellow paint. He used his thumb print to make the giraffes brown spots and I cut out a face, ears and tail for him which he stuck on himself.
Toucan craft
I personally think his Toucan is amazing! All I did was cut out the shape using black card and cover the branch with brown tissue paper. I helped add a little of the red tissue paper around the eye but the rest was 100% him. (The pink feet came from a flamingo Pom Pom set we had lying around)
Toilet tube elephant craft
The good old toilet tube came out again for this elephant. I cut out the ear shapes and then my little boy had the very clever idea of using part of an egg box for the trunk, he then painted everything and used sellotape to stick it all together.
The background and tree
I’ll confess that I made the background and grass and my husband made the tree. I then drew out the letters and our son coloured them all in. This display was a real team effort.
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