Frugal Crafts & Gifts
(featured column by various authors)
Bug Village
by
Here's a great craft for almost NO
money! All you need are a few sticks, some acorn tops, rocks, and imagination!
These darling little critters have a home of their own in this cute craft.
What you need
sticks in various sizes
acorn tops
smooth rocks in different sizes
hot glue gun (parents must do this!)
square or rectangular scrap of wood
matte acrylic spray sealer
small woodsie sign
black fine tip craft pen
For natural:
wiggle eyes
For colorful:
stylus or toothpick
paintbrush
household sponge
acrylic paint (in forest green, olive green, light brown, cream, light blue,
light green, red, blue, orange, yellow, pink, purple, black, and white)
What you do
Safety note: Parents should handle the glue gun as temperatures can get very hot
and cause uncomfortable burns. Allowing older children to use the glue gun is
entirely up to the parent, but child should always be supervised!
Natural
Begin by making sure the ends of the
sticks are fairly flat. You can do this by simply smooshing the ends against the
sidewalk. Use hot glue gun to adhere the sticks to the block of wood, then glue
the acorn tops to the top of each stick.
Wash all the rocks and be sure they are dry before gluing on wiggle eyes. Glue
the rocks to the wood in various places. Write the words "Bug Village"
on a small woodsie sign and glue to the front of the piece of wood as shown in
photo.
Colorful
Paint the block of wood with forest green paint. When dry, sponge on some
olive green paint to the forest green. Paint the sticks with light brown paint.
Paint some of the acorn tops with light blue and the rest with light green. Glue
the sticks to the wood, then glue the acorn tops to the sticks.
Wash all the rocks and be sure they are dry before you paint them. use various
colors to paint the rocks: blue, red, purple, pink, green, etc. Use the stylus
or toothpick to dot on spots and/or lines to your bugs. Dot on white spots for
eyes, and a smaller black dot onto the white spot. Glue rocks in place when they
are dry.
Create a sign by painting a small woodsie sign with cream paint, then shade the
edges with light brown. Use black fine tip craft pen to write "Welcome to
Bug Village" in the center.
The natural Bug Village is perfect for a boy's room while girls will adore the
colorful bugs!
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Copyright
© 2003 by Amanda Formaro
