mollymoo

Papier Mache Crafts – frogs to inspire play

Some months back I started plotting with Helen of Curly Birds to ‘swap blogs’ for a day – she would publish one of my new crafts on her blog and vice versa. Well this happened three weeks ago and now it’s time for the mischievous frog twins to come back home from their tour of the US and meet the MollyMoo readers.

why frogs I hear you ask? well why not eh!!

This pair inspired plenty of play and stories in our house before they left, and carried on jumping and ribbit-ing with Helen’s two gorgeous girls at the other side of the Atlantic too :)

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SO if you’d like some froggy mischief in your house too here’s the simple steps you need to follow.

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How To Make: Papier Mache Frogs

Materials Needed: paper craft cones,  newspaper, cellotape and paint

You can of course use make the cones by curling semi-circles of cardboard.

Construction

Begin by rolling generous sized balls of newspaper and securing with sticky tape to prevent them unraveling.

With pointy side on the cone facing up sit the ball on top and use plenty of sticky tape to secure the ball of newspaper to the cone.

Next roll three smaller balls of newspaper for the eyes and the nose and again tape securely to the head as shown.

And repeat this for the froggy feet by taping four small balls to the base

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Papier mache

Tear strips of newspaper along the grain (long even strips) and set aside.

Then make up your papier mache paste. My preferred paste is made from a few spoons of wallpaper paste with some added PVA, mixed into a really smooth flowing consistency.

click here for my tutorial on how to papier mache

Now it’s time to just roll up the sleeves and add the papier mache layers (two or three layers depending on the strength of the cardboard used)

Note: Getting the paper into the little spaces around the eyes, nose and feet is a little fiddly but if you really take your time sealing in the paper and massaging out any air bubbles with your finger tips your frogs will be super strong, even when launched across the room to see how high frogs can really jump!!

Leave your frog overnight to dry……. and as soon they’re ready give your kids the licence to create their special froggy characters… :)

– what colors are they going to use ?
– what about patterns? – polka dot frogs, stripy frogs, splatter paint frogs or just simple green frogs called Kermit……  let their imagination guide them  :D

ribbit!!!

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Papier Mache Crafts for Kids by MollyMoo