Color Retro Easter Characters

Description of Coloring Page: Easter lamb jumping a fence, a hip Easter chick dressed for a Easter Parade, and a retro Easter Bunny wearing a plaid Sunday blazer...

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Craft a Bird In a Nest Box

The Nesting Bird's Box by kathy grimm as seen from above.

       Although the assembly of this little box may be a bit challenging in at first, most of you will get the gist of it after a few seconds of trial and error. 

       Just imagine how different my box might look if I were to use paper or paint to decorate it? I loved the soft, tactile surface of this box. And the neutral brown shades gave it a bit of a modern twist in the finish, I think. It makes for an unusual Easter surprise!

Supply List:

• small empty, clean carton with a screw top spout
• paper or plastic bowl
• cardstock or cardboard
• masking tape
• white school glue
• plastic or styrofoam eggs
• yarn for nest, eggs and bird
• feathers
• scissors
• tissue paper 
• Sculpey clay (just a small amount)
• hot glue

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Clean with warm warm water and soap a screw top spouted cream carton. Then cut the top off including a generous piece of cardboard surrounding it. (see photo below)
2. Cover the bowl's surface with masking tape on all sides.
3. Take the paper or plastic bowl and turn it upside down on a piece of cardboard and draw around the edge to estimate the circumference of it's opening. Cut around this circle leaving about a half inch in excess from the drawn circle. 
4. Remove the plastic lid from the carton piece and trace around it on top of the cardstock where ever you plan to have the box open. If your making a nest similar to mine, put it roughly in the middle.
5. Punch a whole in the center of this smaller outline with the tip of your scissors and cut the small whole out. Make sure that the lid top fits neatly through the hole.
6. Cover the top with masking tape. Cut out the hole shape if you cover this with the tape.
7. Now push the lid opening and it's attached backing through one side of the container's lid. (see photograph below)
8. Tape this secure and flip it over to screw on the plastic lid top.
9. Notch around the half inch cut so that the edge may be turned under  or up slightly and then squeeze glue around this edge and nestle it on to the top of the bowl. Mask the top edge firmly to the bowl top. Let this form dry.
10. Use glue and making tape to position and secure the plastic egg shells around the inside of the nest.
11. Now unscrew the lid from the top of the box. Crush the tissue into the shape of a small baby bird and glue this to the lid's top. Be careful not to get tape, glue or paper on the inside of the lid so that it will continue to screw on and off of it's lip properly. 
12. Mask this tiny bird with the tape.
13. Sculpt a bit of clay into a open beak for the bird. Fit it onto the small bird's head to make sure that it looks the way you want before baking it into it's permanent shape.
14. After baking this according to directions, let cool and then hot glue it to your baby bird.
15. Now use the white school glue to cover your nest with yarns of your own choosing. This will need to be done in stages, the bottom first and so on...  Let the glued surfaces dry between stages over several days. (see detailed photos below)
16. Include a secret letter and perhaps a bit of money inside your bird's nest box to give as a special gift for Easter or a child's birthday.

Left, "Clean with warm warm water and soap a screw top spouted cream carton. Then cut the top off including
 a generous piece of cardboard surrounding it." Right, you can see that I have cut a whole measuring the
 same size of the lid into the top of the cardboard "nest."

Left and Center, "Now push the lid opening and it's attached backing through one side of the container's lid.
Right, the opening of my Nest Box is neat, clean, and ready for decorating.

Left, "Now unscrew the lid from the top of the box. Crush the tissue into the shape of a small baby bird and glue
 this to the lid's top. Be careful not to get tape, glue or paper on the inside of the lid so that it will continue to screw
 on and off of it's lip properly." Right, "Use glue and making tape to position and secure the plastic egg shells around
the inside of the nest."

       Above is the top of the screw top lid covered with furry brown yarn, a Sculpey beak and real feathers, made to look like a baby bird. I went for a simpler look and opted to leave the beak unpainted this time. In the photographs below you can see the yarn covered box from different points of view as well as a close up shot of the box with the led unscrewed.

More Bird Crafts:

• Crayon Resist Parrots by Children
• How to draw a peacock, an ostrich and a blue jay, step-by-step
• Audubon's Legacy Lesson
• Free Jigsaw Transfer of A Parrot

Graphics of Easter Chicks With Hats

3 chicks, violets and a green hat graphic

Description of Illustration: old straw hats, violets, lavender scarfs, small yellow chicks, forget-me-nots and roses, green ribbons, rose colored scarf

two chicks, pink roses, blue ribbon and a hat graphic

three chicks, forget-me-nots, green ribbon, straw hat graphic

three chicks, pink roses, pink ribbon, white lawn hat graphic

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.

A Mother Goose To Cut Out

Cut around the outline of goose and wings. Fold the goose together and cut out triangle. Bring the parts A and B together and fold dotted lines. Roll up one wing and place through triangle so that C. D. and E. in wings will fit in through dot F. Slip a string under it and slide Mother Goose along the String.

• Watch Mother Goose Fly!
• How to Host A Mother Goose Party
• She's dreaming of Mother Goose
• A Christmas Reunion "Mother Goose" Character Play
• Color Old Mother Goose and Jack

Craft a Paper Robin Toy for Spring

"Little Robin Redbreast Sat upon a rail:
 Niddle, naddle went his head:
 Wiggle waggle went his tail"

      Cut out the circle, Figure 1, and the robin, Figure 2. Cut slits along the heavy lines A and B, and D. D. Figure 1, Slide the robin's head from the back of Figure 1 through the slit A. his tail through slit B. Push the strip E, Figure 2, through slit D. D. Figure 1. Bring the short slit in the robin's breast, C. Figure 2, down over the Space C. below the slit A. Figure 1. Move the strip E. from side to side, and see the little bird try to get the grasshopper for his dinner, as he picks at it, moving his head and tail up and down, just like a real live robin. Figure 3 shows how Figure 1 and Figure 2 look when properly put together. You can recite the rhyme from Mother Goose just below the image above, as you play with the toy.

Harnessed Easter Chicks

This vintage Easter postcard would look lovely in any craft project!

Description of Illustration: postcard, chicks pull a giant egg on wheels, little girl in pink, pussy willow, landscape

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.

Easter Chick Serenade

Above, chicks serenade each other in a small boat. Below,
 a male chick is looking forward to serenading his tweetheart.

Description of Illustration: Easter dye cuts and scraps, singing chick with mandolin, egg view, blue trims and ribbons, roses, forget-me-nots, lily of the valley, field, text "Best Easter Wishes

 

 

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.

A Decorative Bird Box

      I love these little bird boxes by Martha Stewart. I plan to stuff mine with a few Easter treats this year, but these little tweets would be just as sweet to decorate for any festive occasion. The bird boxes come three to a package so I will show you three different ways to decorate them. This first example is perhaps the easiest. 

      First, I painted a thin layer of acrylic varnish all over the surface of my bird box and let it dry over night. Then I used a fine line, permanent, black ink marker to draw swirls and curls emphasizing the raised portions of the bird's wings etc... Afterwards, I coated the box again with a second layer of acrylic varnish.

More Little Bird Boxes:

• A tiny bird box in hand from the Cheeky Magpie
• Little Hut Let's Go Boxes Templates
• Make A Little Bird House Favor Box
• Singing Bird Box by Charles Bruguier
• Bohemian Glitter Bird Ornament

Dunking Ducks

      These little ducks are soaking wet but they love the rain! You will need to design, draw, and cut a few ducks from sturdy white poster board. Students may then trace a selection of wet ducks with a permanent (ink) orange markers; this type of pen will insure that the inks do not smear or run while the students are gluing things onto the image later. Teachers may choose to do this part of the process in advance for very young students. But do not do this for children age 6 and up. It is good for little people to manipulate art materials as much as possible if they do not need assistance. This promotes self-confidence and small motor coordination. 

      Next you will need to mix water with white glue in order to cover the surface of the poster board with a thin coat of watery, tacky, messy mixture. 

      Students may now lay down a variety of torn yellow and orange tissue papers on top of the duck shapes along with yellow and orange feathers, construction paper etc... Brush glue mixture on top of the tissues and feathers as these are layered into the glue mixture. It's perfectly alright for the tissues to get lumpy, and messy, just keep adding the tissues to build up the interesting surfaces.

      After the project dries over night, the teacher may add some additional duck beaks, wispy lines of rain and duck eyes to the picture for added effect. I used a black permanent ink marker for this. You can also cut the wet ducks out and add these to a large pond scene on a bulletin board. Let each student take a their wet duck home after the bulletin board is dismantled.

The wet duck before and after.

More Little Duck Crafts:

• Color Days Duck from Mrs. Ricca
• Five Little Ducks Finger Puppets
• Little Duck Socks
• Adorable felted and fabric ducks

Color Alphabet Chicks

      Use a heavy tipped, permanent, black ink marker to write all of the letters found in the word "chick" onto a large piece of white construction paper. Spread the letters out and repeat them if you'd like. Then, color lots of little chicks using the letters found in the word as a guide.

Teacher's sample.

The Big Hatch

A mother hen coaxes her chicks to slide down the Easter egg ramp!

Description of Illustration: giant egg is a chicken coop, slide, ramp, mother hen, baby chickens, opening, grassy lawn

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Easter Chicks and Lucky Clover

These lucky Easter chicks have found some green Irish clover to feast on.

Description of Illustration: Vintage scrap restored, chicks and giant pink egg, trimmed with clover

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.

Chicks Ahoy!

Description of Illustrations: Easter chicks sail away in an egg to find adventure!, full color, gold monochromatic version

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.