Monday, November 28, 2011

Seahorse Suncatchers

Check out these beauties:
Wanna know how we made them? Ok! But first a little background. We are reading Eric Carle books this week and today's book was Mister Seahorse. After reading the story I taught the kids all about seahorses. Then we made suncatchers using the same method we used for the stained glass apples. I put out seahorses that I had traced onto white paper and bowls of tissue paper squares and triangles.
I also put out watered-down glue with paint brushes. The kids painted the seahorses with the glue.
Then they added tissue squares.
Then they painted another layer of glue on top of the tissue squares.
I decided I wanted these seahorses to have a little sparkle, so I got out my mini salt and pepper shakers filled with glitter.
I love these things. Only a little bit of glitter comes out with each shake. They are perfect for projects that only need a dash of sparkle. The kids shook the shakers over the tissue squares and, because of the top layer of glue, the glitter stuck.
Then they added a fluorescent wiggle eye.
I'll tell you right now, that watered-down glue was not enough to keep the eye on. After they dried and I was cutting them out, almost every single eye popped off. But a drop of Elmer's was all it took to make them stick. Didn't these turn out beautifully?
I hung them in the window just as the sun was beginning to go down (around 4:00, sadly) and it was hitting the window juuuust right, and I think I finally got a good picture of a suncatcher.

Ahhhhhhhhh.....

Fun Fact: Seahorses, the slowest moving fish, do not have stomachs. Because food passes through their digestive systems so quickly, they need to eat constantly in order to stay alive.

**Linking up to Crafty Moms Share and I Can Teach My Child!**

8 comments:

Carrie said...

They are beautiful!!

I passed on an award to you in hopes of helping you get more followers. You can check it out (and pass it on) http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/11/award.html.

Hope you have a great day! And thank you for the wonderful ideas and support!

The Monko said...

these are awesome. Mr Seahorse is my son's favourite book, he makes us read it every night. He'd love this.

Betsy said...

Thanks for your comments!

Unknown said...

These are darling! I LOVE how you added the glitter to them. What a great idea to use those shakers for the glitter. I'll have to get my hands on some of those.

Carrie said...

Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday, Betsy!

skubby1@aol.com said...

Betsy all these crafts are adorable. For the seahorse does using white paper have the same effect as using contact paper, does the sun shine through them? I like the idea of using white paper. I will have to give it try. thanks for sharing your creativity. God Bless. Mrs. Valerie

Betsy said...

Yes, Mrs. Valerie, the white paper works very well. Of course, it only works on one side. If you are outside looking in, it just looks white. But when the sun shines in the window, they are so pretty!

Unknown said...

Do you still have the templates for this craft? Could you please email it to me at sweetangel_631@hotmail.com
I'd love to do these with my class! :)