Handmade animals crafts: step by step instructions from paper, clay, natural materials

Greetings needleworkers! Surely many of you have made various crafts on a zoological theme. This is very interesting and fun, which allows not only to explore the world around us, but also love our little brothers.

As an option for the idea and idea for a craft can be a single animal, or a whole zoo. So, let's figure out what ideas can be applied, what is needed for this and what original crafts can be organized for younger and older children.

Tools and materials for work

The first thing to do is to prepare the workplace. The table should be well lit, clean, must be prepared bags for waste, and newspaper, which will play the role of lining, which would be less dirty hands and the table.

The ideal option and solution would be a disposable bag, having cut it up, which can be thrown away in case of contamination without unnecessary troubles, saving a lot of time for cleaning.

What do you need?

• Colored paper,
• Cardboard,
• Polythene,
• A variety of beads, buttons, rhinestones, stones,
• Plasticine,
• Watercolor, acrylic, gouache paints,
• Varnish with glitter,
• Foil,
• Absorbent cotton and cotton sponges,
• Plastic bottles, cups,
• Wipes,
• Cloth,
• Scotch tape,
• Scissors,
• A box cutter,
• Crayons, markers, pencils,
• Fur remnants of products,
• Threads,
• And so on...

Easy animal handicrafts

For someone it may seem that it is difficult to make handicrafts in the form of an animal. But this is a common misconception. In fact, the technique is very simple.

Cats from salt dough

It's no secret that the cat is one of the most popular animals on the planet.

These cute and fluffy lumps are able to bring a lot of positive emotions and perfectly brighten the life of the owner with their charming company.

Well, many people love kittens, and it is on the basis of this theme that we offer you some ideas on the theme of salt dough crafts in the theme of a cat:

• First, let's make the dough itself. To do this, take the proportions of 1 cup of flour, 6-10 tablespoons of salt, add cold water, mix everything thoroughly.
• Note: You can add food colorings or paints to the salt dough, then the dough will be no worse than plasticine in appearance and properties.
• Look at the pictures and choose which pose your handicraft will be in. It can be a piggy bank on a bottle, a picture on an A4 sheet or a full 3D model.
• Moreover, you can make a work with a similar appearance of your pet, then the handicraft will be even more interesting and original! The technique is quite simple and no different from working with plasticine. Roll out the dough and make a shape out of it.
• If the work is large and the shape of the dough does not hold well, you can use matches, toothpicks or old pencils, cocktail straws to create a "support" and frame for the craft.
• Adding a few tablespoons of glue to the dough will strengthen its composition, making it stronger when dry and more durable.
  The finished work can be covered with varnish and glitter.
• You can use a toothpick outline or use natural wool from old products to create a wool effect.
• The cat's whiskers can be made from spaghetti or thin wire, and the eyes from pins or buttons.

Chicken made of pom-poms

Pom-poms are quite original and easy to perform. They can be made from plastic bags, thread, fabric. All that is needed is to pick up a color.

Of course, the yellow fluffy chick is best done in the original color, but what prevents you from showing your imagination and making a whole collection of rainbow chicks for the theme of Easter?

Moreover, such chicks will be a good decoration for any garden or flower pot in the kitchen, so this craft can be an original gift for mothers.

Tip: Beak, paws and scallop of the chick can be made from paper or cardboard. Eyes can be made from beads or buy ready-made eyes for toys. Use fishing line or thread to tie the pom-poms without glue.

Lion cub of cardboard and pompom

A lion is the king of beasts. Quite an interesting animal and will probably be remembered by many boys, girls and adults from the cartoon "The Lion King". How to make a lion quickly?

To do this, we will need cardboard, one pompon, which will play the role of mane, tape or fishing line. Additionally, you can decorate the handicraft with felt-tip pens or paints:

• From cardboard we make a tube, which will be the base of the body of our lion.
• The legs can be cut out in the form of a stand of triangles with the letter "L", and the head, as we wrote above, will be in the form of a pompon, on which you can attach a circle in the form of a muzzle and paint it. That's all.
• This is a fairly quick and original handicraft, which will not take a lot of resources and time.

Tip: For the body of the lion, you can use a ready-made cardboard sleeve from foil or toilet paper. To give volume to the mane, you can use scissors to adjust the length.

A koala from a cardboard sleeve

Koalas are quite cute and interesting animals, live in Australia and eat eucalyptus. Want to make your own koala, if you have a free cardboard sleeve? Then - let's get to work!

Draw a koala's face on the cardboard sleeve, for example some coloring books or pictures of animals. Then use a box cutter to cut out the face, straighten it out, and voila, the craft is ready in less than 5 minutes.

You can make, like a koala crimp the sleeve, then the handicraft becomes the original stand for pencils and pens on the desktop.
Add elements of natural fur, or paint the koala in gray and white.

You can use the method of applique and glue it to the double-sided adhesive tape foil, then the handicraft will get an unforgettable originality.

Crocheted piglet

If you know how to crochet, then it will not be difficult for you to sketch a few loops and make an original craft in the form of a piglet. You can knit an oven mitt or a lace doily, and if you do not know how to knit, you can use old unnecessary knitwear.

You just cut out the shape of the pig, fasten the edges of the threads with a glue gun, so the handicraft will not unravel and fantasize about the stuffing. You can cut out the eyes from paper or glue buttons, you can embroider the eyes, glue ready-made or draw them with a marker.

Bunny accordion of paper

"The gray bunny bunny coward, jumped under the Christmas tree ...", everyone remembers this children's song, so why not make your own bunny out of paper? To begin with, fold a piece of paper accordion:

• Unfold it and draw or make a muzzle of the bunny from the applique of cardboard parts.
• Such a handicraft will hold well as a simple PVA, and glue-pistol.
• To give volume to your bunny, you can cut out an accordion of a certain shape and glue the parts one on top of the other. Then, for example, paws and head, will be more volumetric than the body, which will give an interesting look blank.
• You can make a carrot out of colored paper.

Mouse out of paper strips

The mouse-foot is a fairly well-known fairy tale character, but also quite a popular pet:

• To make a quickly voluminous mouse, you can cut strips of paper and crumpled them into a ball, which in some places can be smeared with PVA glue to fix the volume, and the muzzle and ears make an applique of paper.
• To add originality to the handicraft, you can make the mouse in the technique of quilling. For entourage, you can make the mouse a piece of cheese from cardboard or salt dough/plasticine.

Elephant from a paper cone

We make a cone from a sheet of gray paper, cut out two round ears, a tail and a trunk, and fasten it all with collage.

Handicrafts animals from natural materials

Many variations of crafts on the theme of animals, which are made from natural materials. They look very effective.

A hedgehog from a cone

A cone is actually a finished hedgehog, who can only finish drawing eyes and glue his feet, and the handicraft is ready.

Paws can be made from matches.

For entourage, you can make fruit and mushrooms from plasticine, which can be placed on top of the hedgehog needles.

The deer from a cone and an acorn

The reindeer is considered a noble animal, and one of the most recognizable characters from the cartoon Bambi. For this work we need matches, an acorn, a cone:

• Simply staple the parts together, where the acorn will act as the head and the cone as the body.
• In addition, you can draw eyes and small horns on the acorn with a marker, or make horns from plasticine.

Piglet out of watermelon

Watermelon is not only a favorite berry, which is refreshing in the summer heat, but it can also be an excellent basis for creating a craft. You can use the "tail" of watermelon as a ready-made blank.

Next, we simply cut out the pig's feet and face in the form of thin strips. The work requires time and attention, but we assure you that if you bring such a piglet to the summer fair, everyone will be delighted.

Eggplant Penguin

Let's add some cold-hearted animal characters. Why don't we make a penguin out of an eggplant?

Just cut out a white smock suit on a black background, which cartoon penguins are so fond of wearing, cut out his wings, mouth, eyes, and here, in literally 10-15 minutes of work, the penguin is ready.

Tip: You can use toothpicks to make the penguin stand up.

Zucchini dog

Many people don't know that zucchini and zucchini are completely different vegetables, but not about a gardening lesson right now). Zucchini can be a great base for making a dog face. To do this, you need to cut out the eyes, tongue, and ears.

You can also make a bulkier craft by simply adding other fruits or vegetables to the zucchini, clinging them to toothpicks in the manner of paws. We are sure that fantasizing with fruits and vegetables as substitute parts will be fun for both you and young children!

As you can see, in a zoological animal theme, you can make anything, anyone out of anything. All it takes is a little imagination and a little time.

Have the opportunity, don't deny yourself the creativity. Take a look at what materials you have available, and be sure to experiment with the kids! We are sure it will be an interesting addition to your leisure time.

Photo ideas of homemade animal crafts