Q-Tip Dino

Often I come across a craft that is so cute and easy and clever I just have to go home and do it with the kids even if it means buying white q-tips for a whole dollar at the store (pardon us, our q-tips had pink sticks.). We went to our local children's museum one day and all around the art room these guys were hanging:


Of course, having a couple dino-kids as I do, I was so excited to go home and try it. And then we did it again, and again. I think Spiff made about a dozen of these in one week alone. By the end of that week, I had moved onto Euplocephalus fossils just to do something different. Just cut out a dinosaur skull from white paper and make the appropriate black holes for eyes and nose. On a another piece of paper draw some lines for guides then go to town with glue and q-tips. Bend some for the feet, cut 3 into halves for ribs. Easy peasy and pretty darn cute. If we're calling dinosaur bones cute.

Coloring Pages: Dinosaur Christmas

Collapsible Theatre or Diorama Playboard

Dinosaur Diorama Playboard:

A while back, in the midst of our winter doldrums, we built a collapsible diorama of sorts to pretend play with our plethora of toy dinosaurs. Along the same idea, we soon built a theatre/tv . It's the same design except there's a hole in the middle and you turn it around to use and decorate the outside. When you use it for a dinosaur playboard, you don't cut out a hole and you decorate the inside with colorful Jurassic scenery.

Puppet Theatre:

Each were different dimensions suited to the cardboard I happened to find in my basement. The printable here is a plan with the dimensions we used for the theatre. You can really take a lot of liberties with the dimensions, based on what supply you have, but this is a good place to start. I thought given the cruddiness of this week, it was a good time to finally post the plan for some indoor fun. So here it is.


What You Need:

Big Honking Piece of Cardboard 30" x 28" ( but it can vary a lot based on what you've got.)
Yard Stick
Craft Knife
Markers, Paints, what-have-you
Fabric if you feel like putting up a curtain in your theatre. We were in a rush, we didn't.
Tape



What You Do:

Print up the printable and then draw out the design on your cardboard. With the knife (and no children near-by) cut out the solid lines (the tabs, the wings, the big honking hole if you're making a theatre, don't cut it if you're not.). Recycle the bits, you don't need them anymore. With the craft knife, score the dotted lines without going through the cardboard and the bend the pieces in (if you're doing the theatre do the scoring on the right side of your theatre to make mountain folds, with the diorama the wrong side to make valley folds.). Now you have two sides, a back and a bottom. Slip the tabs on the bottom of the wings into the slits on the bottom and now you have a standing theatre. While you use it you might want to tape the tabs on the bottom so they don't slip it out, untape it and take out the tabs to fold it up and store. (Ours in conveniently stored where the couch arm meets our living room wall and forms a nook. ) Now decorate it and hang a curtain if you like using glue along the top inside of the window. Make some paper bag puppets and I'll make some tickets and then on with the show!


The Printable:

Pteranodon Mobile

I designed this pteranodon mobile for my dino-kid a few months ago and after he got over the fact that I didn't make a bigger variety of pterosaurs ("It's a flock of pteranodons," I said, "They stick together." I didn't really know, but it seemed like a good answer out.) he wanted to know where the fish they were diving for were. So we made some of them too and stuck them on the ends. This is really more of a grown-up craft but my tyrant had a good time telling me what's what and how to do MY design. I'm sure yours will too and then in the end you'll have a great decoration for his room. Or her room. Not all tyrannical dino-kids are boys.


What You Need:

A few sheets of colored card stock
the template
a couple yards of string
a paper plate (it's what I had but you could stick two dowels in a cross formation for the top.)
a hole punch
glue or tape for reinforcement

The template:




What You Do:

Using the template, cut out pieces for 6 Big Pteranodons (A) and 3 Little Ones. (Or however many you want.) And 3 Fish. Piece the pteranodons together by sticking the cut slit of the wings into the cut slit of the body. The pieces will be perpendicular. Voila. I strengthened and made them more together by gluing a piece of cardstock on each side of the body, above and under each wing but you could do tape.

Decide your order of pteranodons. 2 big ones, 1 little one and a fish on the end of each. Through all the pteranodons, punch out two holes, one on the top of the body, one at the bottom. Cut strings, tie one to the top of the pteranodon, one to the bottom, tie the next guy onto that string. Put a string on his bottom. Tie on the last guy. Tie another string to him, tie on his fish. Do this with your other pteranodons, making three strings of pterosaurs and fish. Make your strings varying lengths so they're not all bumping into each other, but keep them relatively similar so you don't upset the balance. I'm sure you could figure out the math to make it perfect, but I sure didn't.

On your paper plate, punch two holes near the center of the plate and tie a piece of string through, looping it. That's your hanger. Now, put three sets of 2 holes equidistant around, so that the two holes are about .25-.5" apart. Your three strings of pteranodons are going to get tied through these holes. Do it, tie them, I dare you.

Done.

Show it to your dino-kid and listen patiently while he tells you what you did wrong and then teach him about the phrase "Artistic License."

Now if you're doing the dowels, you'll have to make a fourth string of pteranodons, so happy cutting!

Valentines: Dinosaurs

These are dinosaur (and pterosaurs!) valentines inspired by my dino-obsessed son. And because he asked and your dino-kid might too, (clock-wise from the top left) that's a brachiosaurus, a ceratosaurus, torosaurus (triceratops, whatever they decide on.) and quetzalcoatlus. (With artistic liberties of course!) Just print these up on some paper or cardstock, color and cut. They fit in standard invitation envelopes.




edited to note that Spiff says my brachiosaurus is actually seismosaurus, but he's not the one who drew it. :-p