Polystyrene / Styrofoam ball Ducks

I think these little ducks are a "quack up"......so so cute!!!

Materials:

• Foam sheet (whatever colour)
• Marker texta
• Googly eyes x2
• Scissors
• PVA glue
• Hot glue gun
• Large (eg: 10cm) polystyrene ball
• Medium size polystyrene ball
• Small polystrene ball
• Feathers

Method:

1.  Cut the small ball in half
2.  Use hot glue gun to stick them to the bottom of the large polystyrene ball. Flat part of      ball should be used for stability (don't want no falling duck) so glue rounded edge to large ball.
3.  Using sheet of foam cut out 2 duck feet. I laid one piece on top of each other and cut the scalloped edge. Round out the back of foot as appropriate. Glue to bottom of each small 1/2 ball.

 

 

4.  Cut a large oval out of the foam sheet that can be folded in the middle to create a beak. 

5.  Add a line of hot glue, off centre, fold together and create a bit of a ridge.

6.  Add 2 dots with marker texta for nostrils.

7.  Use a pair of scissors to score a line in the middle size ball (this is optional as you could glue it directly without scoring).  My line was pretty rough but you get the idea.  Now use hot glue to stick your beak into the groove.

8.  Glue on the head to the larger ball.  Attach the googly eyes to the head using hot glue or PVA.

9.  Now go nuts with the feathers.  You can see that my kids have had fun with the those!

The only thing left to do now is give them a name...... in this case maybe Huey, Duey and Louie?

Contact headdress / Crown

Following on from the whole contact art theme I thought we could do something different and create some headdresses / crowns using the same principal.

You can use whatever you like but we used feathers and buttons, 2 coloured strips of paper and a strip of contact (and sticky tape to keep it in place)

1. Precut your strips of paper and contact. Make them roughly the same size although it doesn't matter if the contact is slightly wider. Probably a couple of inches wide should do it. You need to cut a couple of strips of coloured paper so that you can add a bit on to fit it around your child's head.
2. Remove the contact backing and secure either end to your work surface (sticky side up).
3. Decorate using buttons and feathers.
4. Use your coloured paper strip to stick over the top of the buttons and feathers. The contact not completely covered by items will help to secure it to the coloured paper but push on it firmly.
5. Run a bit of tape across the bottom and across the top of coloured paper if you think it needs it.
6. Measure around your child's head and add the extra paper to the edge if required. Tape when you are happy it fits correctly.

And now you are done. You can make all sorts of crowns or whatever using this method. Best of all glue free so relatively mess free! See another one below.... Good luck!

Collage on contact

These 2 collages were completed by my other twin son and were just amazing. At just turned 2 years of age Logan spent a good 2 hours creating these masterpieces. He did not leave a sticky spot uncovered. They were stuck directly to the face up contact and he was so attentive to the task that when he was finished he was most upset. I think he would have done another one to the same degree. They were a roaring success. I just put a pile of different odds and sods in a container and he helped himself to what he wanted. Where contact would be used with a 2 year old I would use paste on coloured card for older children. Very simple but very effective.

Parrots

Easy easy easy! 6 circles, feathers, a google eye and glue and you are done! We used fiskars extra large circles for eye and beak (just cut down the middle) and the smallest circle fiskars for the two feet. The head and body circles were bought precut in a large pack but obviously you could cut your own! Just use something like small round plates to draw around to get your circle shapes. Glue them together, adding a google eye and feathers.