Kids Art: Caterpillar Compulsion

It is just over a week since we came back from a long and lovely break in India. Ana seems to comprehend that this unstructured loafing will stop soon to let the joys of schooling be discovered all over again.

Meanwhile, Caterpillar Compulsion has gripped Ana, it looks like. She has been doodling caterpillars, big and small, for the last few days.

While Thumbprint Caterpillar cards were fun, Ana seemed to want more. So, I decided to make up a fabric-card caterpillar project that would take good part of an afternoon to complete, keeping her busy and productive while the wee one is napping.

Items Used: scraps of cotton fabric, card stock paper, craft glue, scissors, googly eyes, dried garden debris, pink fuzz

• Step 1: Cut some scrap fabric to reasonable size/shape


• Step 2: Apply some glue generously on card stock paper and paste the pieces of fabric willy-nilly covering the entire surface


• Step 3: Allow it to dry a little


• Step 4: On the backside of the card stock paper with glued-on fabric, draw little circles with some bottle cap, without much wastage


• Step 5: Cut out the circles as best as possible


• Step 6: Fold a card stock paper to required greeting card size; Glue these cut out circles onto it to make the caterpillar form; cut little antennae from the remains of the fabric-card or use twigs from the garden


• Step 7: Add fuzz, twigs, and other yard debris for texture; glue eyes with googly eyes or beads; glue pink fuzz or a piece of yarn or any other handy thing for a smiley mouth


• Step 8: Stand back and beam

Ana needed some help cutting out the circles although she managed a few on her own... the card stock with glued on fabric was rather thick making it tough even for me to cut out. Besides, even though she uses blunt-ended kids craft scissors, it is fairly sharp to cut her person if her hand slips or if she is not being careful.

Disclaimer: we were not aiming for anatomically correct reproductions, just something conjured up with some imagination and produced with available items at hand.

A variation: To get extra dimension and effect, we took little strips of card stock paper about 0.5cm wide by 1.5cm long, tri-folded it, glued one per circle on the back, then, glued the other end (flat surface) of the tri-fold strip on to the greeting card, for the standard "raised" effect.

Also glued leaves from the backyard tree for legs/hair, and Ana's touch: glue some green leaves for the caterpillar to eat. Of course, when the leaves dry out they will naturally fall off, so, make this card fresh and hand it over to the lucky recipient right away :)

Ana is saving hers for her Appa - we'll see how they look in 3 weeks!
D, if you are reading this, act surprised when she hands it to you in person.



And, when caterpillars are here, can butterflies be far behind?

This butterfly is Ana's imagination: There was enough fabric-glued card leftover from making caterpillars and Ana started cutting them up just like that. And, seeing that there were purple and pink pieces that sort of looked like butterfly wings, she started gluing the various pieces to resemble the butterfly form. There were leftover antennae pieces that she didn't want to throw away so they came in handy as well. I gave her the buttons just for effect.

Now it does look like a mutant butterfly, I admit. Fairly scary. But, who cares?! It is the prettiest I can manage to hold in my hand at this time.