Plastic Canvas Easter Cross
This is a simple craft for Easter using only plastic canvas and ribbon.
Materials and Tools:
- 1/8 inch ribbon
- plastic canvas
- scissors
- OK, hopefully you were able to cut a pattern from my instructions. Once you have pattern you can hold it up against more canvas to cut more out easily.
- Cut a piece of 1/8 inch ribbon that is 4 or 5 feet long. Knot one end, and seal the other end with a lighter (angle cut edge is best), this will make a built in needle. Put through very center of cross.
- Start to "sew" from bottom right of cross, through square and around back, up through the top left of cross. You will continue to go to opposite sides in a "loop" fashion (this is so back and front of cross are visually pleasing). Once you finish vertical part of cross, bring to center: loop around and start to do the same thing to horizontal cross arms. When you are finished, wrap to the center, and either knot or run through top center square and use as a bookmark.
Instructions:
First you should cut a pattern, start with a rectangle that is 21 squares by 17. Find the center on top edge, leave center square uncut. Cut diagonally until you reach side. You now have a start to the top of the cross. Cross points should go, 1 square/3 square/5 square and then switch to strips of squares, that meet in center.
Light bulb bumblebee craft
What you'll need:
light bulbs
yellow paint
paint brush
black permanent marker
white pipe cleaners
black construction paper
googly eyes
glue
scissors
What you'll do:
Paint the light bulb with the yellow paint. Let the paint dry completely, then apply a second coat of paint.
Draw stripes on the light bulb with the black permanent marker, then color the metal part of the light bulb with the black permanent marker.
Glue the googly eyes on the metal part of the light bulb.
Cut a white pipe cleaner in half. Bring the ends of the pipe cleaner together to form the wings. Use a dab of glue to secure the wings in place.
Cut two narrow strips of black construction paper that are approximately 2 inches long. Curl the ends of the strips to make the antennae, then glue the strips just above the eyes.
Cut a piece of white pipe cleaner that is 3 inches long. Coil the pipe cleaner around a pencil or your finger, then glue it to the back of the light bulb to form the stinger.
Easy wind chime craft
What you'll need: paper or plastic cup
hole punch
string
cord or twine
beads
washers
markers
jewels, sequins or stickers
What you'll do:
Use the hole punch to punch holes in the bottom of the cup.
Cut one 6-inch piece of string for every hole. Thread a string through each hole and tie the string to the cup.
Thread some beads on to the string, then tie a metal washer to the end of the string.
Decorate the sides of the cup with markers, jewels, sequins or stickers.
Turn the cup upside down. Use scissors to cut an "X" in the bottom of the cup.
Feed the cord through the "X" and tie a knot on the inside of the cup. Use the cord to hang the wind chime.
Fireflies or Lightning Bug Craft from Plastic Eggs
What You Need to Make Fireflies from Plastic Easter Eggs
- One plastic Easter egg
- Two pipe cleaners
- One LED tea light “candle”
- Hot glue and hot glue gun
- Two googly eyes (optional…you could just draw on the eyes)
- About 8″ of tulle
- Marker
Craft supplies to make Easter eggs into fireflies.
Use a pushpin to make three holes on either side of the longer section of the egg. This is where your firefly’s legs will be. Then add two more holes at the top of the shorter section for antennas.*
Tie a knot in the center of your tulle and then affix it to the top with hot glue to give your bug some wings.
Turn on your tealight and snap it closed inside your firefly’s body. It will flicker and glow!
Easter Finger Puppets
What you Need to Make Easter Finger Puppets
Pipe cleaners of various colors
Mini pom poms of various colors and sizes (you can substitute cotton balls sometimes)
Googly eyes
Hot glue gun
Wire cutters
(Our local Dollar Store had great cheap coordinating sets of pipe cleaners with matching pom poms)
How to Make Easter Finger Puppets
Once you see the components of each of these pipe cleaner finger puppets, assembly is pretty self-explanatory. But here’s the key “puppet base” that they are all made from:
Step 1 is to take the pipe cleaner and wrap it around your finger. I like to do it rather tightly, because once it is off of your finger, it is easier to stretch it out than it is to tighten it up.
Important: Notice that the top of the pipe cleaner coils down to a smaller circle. Do this so that it is easier to glue the pom pom head on top, and to lessen the possibility that you will get the hot glue on your fingers (which, if it hasn’t happened to you yet, pray that it doesn’t. OMG.)
Here are the pieces of each of the pipe cleaner finger puppets shown above. I was skeptical whether the hot glue would work on some of these pieces, but it worked perfectly. Just put a tiny dab of glue onto the wire end of the pipe cleaner and stick it straight down into the pom pom – it er just a second or two of holding it in place.will stick after just a second or two of holding it in place.
Easter Bunny Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet
After gluing the white head onto the pipe cleaner body, stick a dab of glue onto both wire ends on one of the bent pipe cleaner ears. Stick them firmly into the pom pom while squeezing the ends together.
Glue two tiny white pom poms on the face as a base to stick the googly eyes. This is really optional, and you can see on the kitten finger puppet below that you can also just glue the googly eyes directly onto the pom pom head.
Then glue on the pink nose and the medium sized pink pom pom for the tail.
Easter Chick Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet
After gluing the white head onto the pipe cleaner body, clip a tiny piece of orange pipe cleaner and bend it into a V shape, and glue it onto the middle of the face. Glue the two yellow mini pom poms right above the beak to make a base for the googly eyes, then glue them on top of them. Take about a 4 inch piece of extra yellow pipe cleaner and bend it into the wing shape as shown. You don’t even need to glue these in, just slip them onto the body in between the coils and they will stay put.
Spring Kitten Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet
After gluing the white head onto the pipe cleaner body, clip two small pieces of white pipe cleaner (about 3/4″ long) and bend them into a V. Glue them onto the top of the head. I skipped the extra tiny pom pom eye base on this one, wanting to go for a more “Hello Kitty” look. You only need one tiny pink pom pom for the nose, but here’s a little tip: if you don’t have a tiny pom pom to use, you can clip a tiny piece of pink pipe cleaner (less than 1/4″ long) and glue it onto the face instead. The tail is attached by bending it onto the bottom coil on the back of the kitten’s pipe cleaner body.
Bluebird Pipe Cleaner Finger Puppet
To make this variance on the Easter chick, I omitted the mini pom pom base for the eyes, and added a little tuft of feathers on the top of the head the same way I did the kitten’s ears (but only added one and put it on lengthwise instead of sideways). The wings are also a slightly simpler version of the yellow wings, and might be easier for smaller children to bend on their own.
Fireflies using old plastic Easter Eggs!
These little critters are by far the nicest – littlest – sweetest things we have made, and when their bums light up… well that just brings squeals of happiness!!
You just have to try make some of these!
One of the positives about 100% humidity and a tropical climate are the fireflies that come out at night and really are just amazing every time you get lucky enough to spot some!
We have a bunch of left over Easter eggs lying around, so deciding what to do with them, I saw a post about turning them into a firefly using a glow stick.
We don’t have glow sticks, but we do have lots of little tea lights, the battery kind, so we got making!
Firefly Materials:
- Plastic Eggs – you can collect these after Easter or buy them empty from the affiliate link!
- Tea lights – with a battery
- Cardboard and tissue paper to make wings
- Pipe cleaners for legs and feelers
- Googly eyes – you could make your own from paper if you like!
Method:
An egg usually has a smaller – more pointy side – this is the back side!
The yellow eggs work the best – we also used a purple one, and it glows, but not as well.
Assemble your firefly by sticking 6 legs underneath the egg – I used 3 long pipe cleaners and stuck them in the center, feelers – I used a longer piece as I did the legs and stuck it in the center.
Add wings, which you can make from card or tissue paper (I used both) and eyes.
And then, the fun part – which I’ll admit even had me excited… turn on your tealight, pop it into the egg, facing backwards, and close the egg!
A firefly with a glowing bum!
How much fun is that!
