Chinese New Year Lion Puppet

Every year we go into Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year with our good friend N. And every year Spiff comes back impressed and with an urgent need to be a lion. We make paper lions. Spiff gets out some plastic oranges from the play food bin and makes me drum away on our coffee table while he dances away. I must say, even with a four year old dictator, I mean, director, it's a pretty good show.


Here's how you make our New Year's Lion:


What You Need:

• crayons, markers etc.
• scissors
• glue or tape
• two popsicle sticks
• piece of construction paper, any color
  
• this printable printed up on cardstock:

The Printable:


What You Do:
The directions are on the printable but here goes anyway. Color the pieces on the cardstock. Cut them out.

Valley fold the inside of the mouth and glue the back of the head to the back of the fold so the pieces line up to complete the front.

Glue a popsicle stick on the back of each set of legs so there's a handle hanging down for each hand to grab.

Next cut out two 3" (ish) strips of construction paper and glue one end of one to one end of the either to make a long 17" strip. Accordion fold every inch or so the entire length.

Glue one end of that to the back of the front legs and the other end to the front of the back legs to complete your lion's body. (The first one I did I had the paper going vertical but Spiff didn't like it since it couldn't fit "over" his head. So on his we put the paper horizontally. I don't think it matters. They both looked great if you ask me, but kids are picky.)

Beat some pots and pans and make your lion dance.

Recipe: Fake Blood

When Spiff was 14 months old he was a Vampire. Because he was in a biting stage. But what kind of a vampire can you be without blood? So I set out to find a recipe for an edible blood suitable for a toddler. And this is what I found out- Corn Syrup! (Yeah, it's my crafting friend, what about it!?)

What You Need:
light corn syrup
red food coloring
blue food coloring
water

And this is where you'll hate me, but it's true, nothing is precise. You just feel it! Start with a quarter cup (or more depending on how much of this stuff you want to make) of corn syrup, and add red food coloring, lots of it, and a drop or two of blue until you get the color you want. Then you just dribble in some water until you get the consistency you want. I added just enough so it slowly dribbled down Spiff's chin and dried there. So, it's not a science! Happy Haunting!