Supplies:
white cardstock watercolors paint brush googly eyes green paint hot glue gun clothespin shower poof
Tutorial:
1. Print out template
To make our crocodile find a template and print it on card stock paper. The pattern that I found only came with one leg, so you will have to trace another leg onto the paper for the crocodile. You can also draw your own crocodile pattern.
2. Color your pattern
We started out by painting the pattern green with water colors. I was worried some white would show through when we painted the crocodile, that’s why we did this step. However, I’m not so sure it was really necessary. You will see why in the next step.
3. Rip strip out of shower poof
Find a shower poof and rip a large strip out of it. We will use it for design.
4. Finish painting crocodile design
Lay the netting over the crocodile pattern and dab paint over it to make a scale texture. As my kids got to dabbing I started realizing the netting worked better if you lightly dabbed it with paint. I was worried that by my kids using lots of paint, the texture wouldn’t show through, but as you can see in the picture below, it did. You can also see how unnecessary the water coloring was.
5. Cut out your crocodile
After the paint is completely dry, cut out all the crocodile pieces.
6. Attach tail to the body
We attached the tail to the crocodile body with a metal brad. This way the kids can move the tail around.
7. Make legs
Next I hot glued two clothespins to the back of the crocodile so he would be able to stand up.
8. Glue the legs pieces on clothespins
Glue the feet to the front of the clothespins and your crocodile is complete. My boys just love how these stand up so they are easier to play with. It’s fun to make crafts and art to display, but even more fun sometimes is to make crafts that the kids are free to play with as they may.
