I absolutely love it when you find crafty inspiration in the most unlikely of places! Thanks to my nephews, I'm now a fan of the Cartoon Network show The Amazing World of Gumball. The characters have a unique look as the show mixes animation with photography stills. While brainstorming simple craft projects to offer my nephews Thanksgiving Day (as we wait for dinner), I kept thinking about the show and those funny-looking characters. I had a packet of paper leaves from Paper Source that I wanted to use when it hit me – why not make cartoon-like leaf pals? Done!
In this week's Make It, we'll make super-simple Thanksgiving Day Leaf Pals. Your child can make just one or dozens to help pass the time on Thanksgiving Day.
Materials
- Paper Source's Small Die-Cut Fall Leaves
- Pipe cleaners (your choice of color)
- Scissors
- Tape or hot glue and glue gun
- Leaf Pal decorations (markers, stickers, glitter, googly eyes, etc.)
Instructions
| 1. Start out by cutting a pipe cleaner in half. (Reminder: don't use a good pair of scissors for cutting pipe cleaners!) |  |
| 2. Bend each pipe cleaner into a "V" shape. |  |
| 3. Hook the two pipe cleaners together to start the creation of the Leaf Pal body. |  |
| 4. Twist the top V several times and fold the sides down to create the arms. Fold up the bottom of each leg to create two little feet. |  |
| 5. Now's the time to decorate the leaf. Add a silly face, eyes, etc. |  |
| 6. Attach the body to the back of the leaf with clear tape or a few drops of hot glue. |  |
| 7. Your Leaf Pal is ready to hit the Thanksgiving dinner scene! |  |
