DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Really Big, Stuffed Newspaper Owl

Sometimes, bigger is better.  The girls had SO much fun making these larger than life crafts.  There's something wonderful about creating a project that requires daddy's help to hold...

Tasha (6) and Kaitlyn (2) both enjoyed this project (especially trying to hold it up for the camera... )!

Materials:

You have to have the newspaper and some brown, white or grey paint.  The rest is easily substituted (I've put OPTIONS in red text throughout the instructions). 

BODY

• newspaper
• brown, white or grey paint (we used washable tempra paints -- about $1.00 Canadian worth of paint was used on the owl)
• something to sew up the sides... either:
  • stapler
    OR  
  • hole punch and string/wool

BEAK: 

• orange construction paper
  OR
• or use our template piece (bottom of page)
    

WINGS/FEATHERS:

• black paint or black marker

See FANART from Papua, New Guinea!

EYES:

• Either use our template pieces (bottom of page) or make your own eyes with:
  • small paper plates or white paper cut in a circle
    AND
  • yellow construction paper or white paper cut in a circle and painted or colored yellow
    AND
  • styrofoam ball cut in half OR 2 egg carton cups OR small circle of black construction paper

Instructions:

• Take eight full sheets of newspaper and lay them on top of each other (it's best if the top and bottom sheets are just black and white as it's harder to paint over the colored newspaper).
• Staple all the way around 3 sides
  • OPTION:  instead of stapling, punch holes with the hole punch all the way around.  Use string or wool and sew up three of the sides.
• Open up your pouch, so there are four sheets of newspaper on either side.  Stuff with crumpled up newspaper.
• Staple or sew the fourth side shut.

This is actually Tasha stuffing Frankenstein...
I forgot to snap a photo of Kaitlyn stuffing her Owl *blush*

• Paint the owl brown, grey or white (depending on what kind of owl you are making...  White may take more than one coat...  But it's ok if a little of the newsprint shows through... it just ends up looking like feathers).
• You can see in the photo that I just poured paint all over the owl and Kaitlyn spread it around with the biggest paintbrush we had.  You could also use a sponge or a rag to spread it around.
• Let dry (you can work on the eyes, while the body is drying).
• If you're hanging your owl from the wall, you only have to do the front.  If you're hanging it from the ceiling, you may wish to paint the back at this point

Here's how we made ours:

• Cut a styrofoam ball in half (OPTION:  you could use two egg carton cups instead or two circles of black construction paper).
• Paint them black (or color with black marker)

• Cut two circles out of white paper and paint or color them yellow (or cut them out of yellow construction paper).
• Assemble the eyes:
    
  • Glue the black eyeballs to the yellow circles and the yellow circles to two small paper plates (or pieces of white paper, cut in circles)
  • Glue these eyes to the brown body (it will likely be dry enough at this point)

• Cut a triangle beak out of orange construction paper
  or out of white paper and color it orange
  or use the template piece provided.
• Glue the beak under the eyes (see photo)
     
• Use a black marker or black paint to draw wing shapes on the side of the bag...  Adults may need to help with this.
• Use a black marker or black paint to draw lines (feathers) on the wing shapes and on the tummy (easy for the kids to do!)