DLTK's Crafts for Kids
ALLIGATOR CRAFT

There are only two countries in the world that have alligators.  The alligators in China are an endangered species.  American alligators are not -- they live from the Carolinas to Florida and along the Gulf Coast.
 

To give you a feel for the size, the alligator in the picture is about 2 feet long (and it's mouth opens and shuts!!)  To see a full size photo, click here (close photo window when done viewing, to return to this screen)

There are a couple bits of constructive criticism that I receive every so often.  One is that I need crafts geared toward older kids, another is that I need something that does more to stimulate a child's creativity and the third is that I need "something different".

This alligator is the first in a series of new crafts designed to address those comments.  If it goes over well, I'll design more along these lines.  My 6 year old helped a little bit and both of my girls really liked the end product, but I'd say the craft should be made by Age 8+.

This page may take a minute to load (I included lots of photos in the hopes that it would make the instructions easier to understand).  

MATERIALS:

• The only "store bought" material is green paint (tempra, poster or finger paint all work well... acrylic paints work great, but don't wash out of clothes!!!)  If you don't have green paint, green tissue paper or napkins will work too.  My alligator took about 2 oz (100 ml) of green paint.

• paint brush

• OPTIONAL:  white paint and red paint (the craft works fine without these)!

• newspaper

• ONE OF:  egg carton (styrofoam) OR cardboard (empty cereal boxes work well!)

• ONE OF:  white tissue paper, white kleenex, white paper towel OR white toilet paper

• scissors

• tape (masking or scotch tape)

• ONE OF:  white glue, mod podge OR paper mache paste (1 part flour to 5 parts water... boil about 3 minutes and let cool)

STEP 1:  BUILD THE FRAME:

Like I said, this is the first of a more complicated crafting series so if you have any suggestions to improve the instructions, please feel free to let me know!  I recommend you quickly review all the instructions before starting the project.

Take one piece of newspaper.  Cut it in half along the crease.

Take one 1/2 and roll it into a long, loose sausage

Take the other 1/2 and roll it into a long cone.

Fold the sausage in half (this will be the alligator's jaws ), but make the top half a bit longer (about 4 to 6 inches longer) than the bottom half.

Roll the longer piece to make the snout.   Tape snout well!

Now it should look like this 

or here is the view from above

Alrighty!  We're doing well...

Now press the alligator's back so it is flat (just below the jaws)

Let go so you get a zig zag tail  if it didn't zig zag enough, pinch/crease it harder!

I should have put them a bit farther apart than I did, I think.

You're now done your frame (that's the toughest part, but it's amazing what you can do with newspaper, isn't it!?!)

STEP 2:  MAKE HIM SOLID:

Take your white tissue paper (toilet paper, kleenex or paper towel will also work... we used toilet paper *grin*).  The white paper (whichever kind you chose) will make him more solid and will make it easier to paint him (less paint required than if you were painting over newspaper).

Suggestion from a viewer:
"You could paper mache it with green crepe paper and just fill in the details with paint, and maybe it would make it harder."  Thanks Robert!

Coat your alligator with mod podge, paper mache paste or white glue dilluted 1/2 and 1/2 with water (we choose the white glue/water solution and painted it on with paint brushes).

The tissue will soak onto the alligator in a minute or two.  Use your paint brush and some more glue/water solution to get the toilet paper wetter when necessary and into all the crevices.  Don't forget to do the inside of the mouth!.  Use scissors to clip off exess as necessary.

STEP 3:  PAINT HIM

Take your green paint and paint your alligator (except his eyeballs).  If you have red paint, leave the inside of his mouth unpainted.  If you don't have red paint, paint the inside of his mouth green.

If you don't have paint at all, you could use green tissue paper or napkins and the same paste/process as in STEP 2.

Let dry.

Turn him over and paint the bottom (his belly) if you want to.  You can paint it a lighter green or a creamy colour if you want... BE CREATIVE (you said you wanted to be! *grin*)

Let dry.

If you have white paint and/or red paint, paint the inside of the mouth red and the eyeballs white (the eyeballs are pretty white without the paint, so it isn't the end of the world to skip painting them)Tasha liked painting the mouth!

Let dry.

Guess what?  You're done!

(You can cover with a few coats of clear varnish if you want a shiny alligator you can leave outside in the garden!)