If your house loves animals as much as my house does, than you are going to love this craft. Using simple items from around your house you can transform your children into wild animals. Not that they don’t act like wild animals already, but at least they will look the part now.
You will need a paper plate, yarn, orange paint, paint brush, hole punch, marker, orange construction paper, scissors, cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, food colouring, and a spray bottle.
This first step takes about an hour to dry, so I would recommend doing this the night before or while the children are occupied. Pour about 125 mL (4 ounces) of rubbing alcohol into a small spray bottle. Add a lot of food colouring. I added 24 drops of yellow and 8 drops of red. Lay the cotton balls out onto newsprint and spray them with the coloured alcohol. You will have to turn them to coat the entire cotton ball.
This step requires a well ventilated area, but cotton balls are lightweight and can blow away. I did this part on my stovetop with the vent on my hood set at high. It worked very well.
The need for a lot of food colouring is apparent as the cotton balls dry. When you are spraying them the cotton balls will be very vibrant. As they dry the cotton balls’ colour will fade and become a more normal shade of orange.
Have your child paint the bottom of the paper plate orange. Be sure they cover it entirely and put the paint on thick.
While your children are painting you can quickly draw a rounded triangle for the nose. This should be about the size of the palm of your hand. Don’t forget two ears while you are at it. They should be about the length of your index finger. No artistic ability is required for these.
After your children have painted the plate, immediately have them put the cotton balls around the entire edge of the plate. Place the nose you drew in the middle and the ears on the top of the circle.
Doing this while the paint is wet eliminates the need for gluing later. The wet paint will allow the cotton balls and paper to adhere to the plate. Now you only need to allow for one short period of drying time, instead of two.
Now the paint has dried and you are ready for the final steps. Draw two circles for the eye cut outs on your plate. I cheated and used the paint bottle to trace. I told you no artistic ability was required. Now cut out the circles with scissors or a craft knife.
Using your hole punch make a hole on each side of the mask. You will want them to be about even with the bottom of the eye holes. This will place the tie right above the ears when the mask is worn.
Tie a piece of yarn to each side of the mask with a knot. Each piece of yarn should be about the length of your forearm.
Now you have an authentic lion mask. Watch out, though. Lions hang out in prides.
