This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We’ve been reading books about ocean animals these days. I thought it would be fun to make recycled egg carton crafts on each of the ocean animals we’re learning about. The aim was to make fun, simple animals that you can easily make with little kids.
So far we’ve done turtles, crabs and octopus. Today we made some glittery ocean whales. My 6 year old loves shiny crafts so we made sure to put lots of glitter glue all over our whales.
Supplies to make 1 recycled egg carton whale:
1. 1 egg carton piece
2. Scissors
3. Craft glue
4. Blue paint
5. 2 googly eyes
7. 2 blue pipe cleaners
8. Blue construction paper
9. Black marker
Start off by cutting 1 piece of egg carton. Then make a hole with a scissor right at the top (that’s where the whale’s spout will be). Paint the whale any blue shade you like. My daughter painted hers light blue and I used dark blue.
The thing with painting on egg cartons is that it absorbs a lot of the color and you end up with faded looking colors. I was on the lookout for paints that had a vibrant color, could be used on many different materials and was also washable so my kids could paint away without me fretting about clean up time. I was deciding between these acrylic paints and these Crayola paints – I ended up choosing the latter. The acrylic paints are perfect if you’re looking for a professional look but for ease of cleaning, the Crayola ones win hands down.
Anyway, back to our whales.
While the paint dries off you can take a blue pipe cleaner and cut it into half. You’ll end up with two pieces (we have 4 pieces because we were making 2 whales).. Fold both pieces into half and then twist one piece around the other.
Stick this into the hole you made in the egg carton and then fold it outwards slightly so it looks like water coming out of the whale’s spout.
Now add some googly eyes. I used small sized ones while my daughter used big googly eyes.
Googly eyes (all sizes packet)
Take some glitter glue and put it all over your whale. This was the part my kids enjoyed the most!
Then make some fins for your whale. You can either cut out some fins using blue craft paper or using pipe cleaners, both options look super cute. We used pipe cleaners to make our fins.
Cut a pipe cleaner in half and you’ll end up with two pieces. Shape it like a leaf and stick them with craft glue to the sides of the whale. Make a smile using a black marker.
Your egg carton craft is done! Adding a body to the back of the whale is totally optional. We decided to add it last minute. Cut out a tail like shape from blue craft paper and stick it to the back of the egg carton.
Your shiny, sparkly, shimmery friends are done. I hope you have a whale of a good time making these with your kids 🙂
Liked This Post? Check Out Popular Egg Carton Crafts on the Blog
Leave a Reply