Monday, March 21, 2011

this little piggy

At least once a week (or two, or three times...) it will happen. We'll be in the store, or looking at a magazine, and my kids will say "mom can we buy that?" Whether it's food or anything that can be turned into a project, they usually get the same answer. "Noo.....let's make it instead." My almost-6-year old has perfected his eye roll. "Mom why do you have to make EV-ER-Y-THING?"

They  have both been wanting a big piggy bank for quite some time and we finally got down to business and made our own.....and they LOVED it (no eye rolling!)
This is a project I remember doing from 6th grade art.....which is really funny since I did it with my 3 and 5 year old....it's super simple, and they were able to do almost all of it (minus taping, cutting) by themselves.
piggy1 copy

What you will need:
-newspaper. We don't get the paper, so I saved all the ads for a few weeks--forget about the slippery magazine type pages, and just use the newspaper-ish ones.
-balloons
-an egg carton
-masking tape
-flour
-school glue
-tissue paper
-foam paint brush
-large corks
-adorable children to help
supplies copy
Day 1
Blow up balloon. 
Cut 5 sections out of egg carton. Tape onto balloon as "legs" and a "nose" over the balloon tie.
Mix flour and water to form a thin paste. 
Everyone has paper mache'd before right??
Cut newspaper into strips and put a thin coat of flour paste on each strip, and smooth it onto ballon. 
piggy7 copy
Over and over and over. It's messy and it's fun.
Smooth down the pieces the best you can (the kids do it a bit sloppy but you'll be able to go back and smooth it down)
mache
After pig is covered in paper, set to dry over night.
*don't do too many layers or it will take forever to dry. 
*we added a few extra strips on the bottom since we'll be cutting out a hole. 
piggy6 copy
Day 2:
Decide on your colors. The boy wanted his pig to look like it was on fire. 
The girl wanted hers to look like a princess. 
Of course, and of course.
Cut tissue paper into smaller pieces--we did squares and rectangles.
tissue copy
Mix school glue and water to make a runny glue that can be "painted" on. 
Glue tissue paper onto pig. (they'll need help around the feet and nose)
This kids loved this part. They learned quickly that they needed to start out with darker colors, or several layers of lighter colors to cover the newsprint. 
They also loved seeing how colors turned out when they combined tissue squares.
Allow to dry over night.
piggy5 copy
Day 3
Make sure pig is dry and hardened all the way around.
Cut a slit in the top, and a hole in the bottom. 
You should be able to pull the balloon out of the bottom hole.
I cut a cork in half so it didn't stick out too far.
piggy2 copy

load it up!
piggies

the end.

29 comments:

Kaitlyn Luce said...

So cute! I remember making something that resembled a hot air balloon when I was in elementary school. I kept it for as long was middle school-humanly cool. ;-)

summer said...

soooo fun!! you are the cool mom.

Lauren Pressey said...

Doing this!!

Anonymous said...

this is a darling project! i agree with summer, you ARE the cool mom.

Lindsey said...

Wow, I'm impressed! We made a 36" pumpkin pinata for Lucy's 1st b-day and we still have flour paste stuck to our walls. These piggies are really, really cute.

Kelly said...

cute! we'll have to try this!

Lauren said...

What a clever idea!

Rachael said...

What an awesome idea! I never thought of that before! Wow. I used to be a Nanny, and I always was struggling with coming up with ideas to do with the kids...they would've loved this!
But it'll be great to use in the future!
Heck, I can make one for myself!

gram said...

What a fun project! .. and they turned out so cute!

Gillian said...

Great idea, not to wish away his childhood, but I wish mine was big enough to do this! I'll have to remember it for a few years down the road...love it!

Tara said...

Super cute, I love them! If I had a dollar for every time my mom said, "do you know how easy it would be to MAKE that??" I would be rich. And now I say it, too. But your kids are lucky because when you make stuff with them, it actually turns out insanely cute!

mummydinosaur said...

So cute - I'll have to do this so our boy has an alternative place to store his pennies as they currently reside in an old mayonaise jar...these are way more fun!

Bethany said...

um ya, awesome.

Anonymous said...

We (me + my 3 year old) are totally going to make one of those. You are inspiring!

Nellie and Jason said...

oh my gosh, this is PERFECT!! My little girlie has been begging and begging for a piggy bank, but they are all so fragile/breakable. This is the perfect solution...don't know why I didn't think of it! Thanks!

Stacey said...

My daughter has a heavy ceramic piggy bank that she's been itching to get her hands on. I think we'll be making one of these that she can actually touch - and use - without risk of breaking her foot if she dropped it. Thanks!

Mandy said...

Is there anything you can't make? You are amazing Sheena.

Laurel {Make and Takes} said...

This is so, so cute! I'd love for you to submit it to the M&T Spotlight at http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight

abby jenkins said...

Boy does that bring me back! What great photos! I especially love that he wanted a pig on fire and she wanted a princess piggy. Of course.
Come check out my DIY on my blog today, another great project for kids, tomorrow I think we'll make nests to put them in! Cheers!

Morgan said...

I'm trying to figure out how in the world it is that I have lived my entire life and never heard about these homemade piggy banks. Such a brilliant idea. This makes me want to find some little people and make some piggy banks.

Amelia PS said...

aw...love... the ultimate piggy bank because you did not even spend a penny to make it!

Evie said...

caaauuute!!

Heather Rae said...

These are so cute! I am definitely going to have to try this out! Thanks for sharing :)

Becky @ UCreate with Kids said...

I love this! I featured this!
http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-little-piggy.html

Tai Bender said...

this is seriously adorable! Adding this to the "must make" file!

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I linked to this craft in my blog, I liked the piggy bank very much!
Check the post out if you want:
https://crearescout.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/ispirazioni-animali/
I hope you are glad of it :)
Keep crafting :)
Cecilia

elhadadepapel.com said...

Super!

Anonymous said...

This is an amazing project! I am going to try this with two very cute girls I babysit!!!!!

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