Let's Use what we have

I have lagged a bit with the craft making. My daughter Emelia found a box of seashells in our garage over the weekend and quickly decided she wanted to make a craft with them. After she asked me morning, noon and night for two days to make a craft with these seashells I asked her what she wanted to make with them and she quickly replied "A kissing fish"

So I thought for a bit and came up with this cute little fish that you can do on the fly. All with things you will have around the home.


WANDA the KISSING FISH

What you will need

• Two Paper Plates (poster board will also work or any heavy weight paper)
• Paint, Crayons or Markers
• Magazine, or newspaper pages
• Pencil
• Googly Eye
• Seashells and hot glue (optional) or other decorations 
• Paste or Glue
• Scissors (kid scissors for those old enough to help cut)

Let's Get Started!

• First cut the shape of your fish out of the paper plates. You want a mirror image so cut them together. You want it to be in the shape of an oval with lips. 

• Then have your child paint or color the body of the fish. 

• While they are painting you can prep the fins. Or for those of you whom are gearing up for kindergarten and need to work in some scissor cutting skills you can have your child help with this. (apparently this is a super important skill for K) Cut three different shapes. I used about 5 sheets of magazine pages and cut them at the same time so I can fray them in different directions. Then from the top of your fins inward cut slits into the papers.

•  Next use the pencil and roll the ends around the paper to get a curl. you can then fray the them in different directions to get some texture. 

• The fish should be dry at this point if not blow dry it. Flip your fish over and glue your top fins and tail fins on so they are sticking out beyond the fish body. Glue the other fish body onto the back so the fins are sandwiched together. Flip it back over and glue on your front fin as well as your googly eye. 

• Next step would be to decorate your fish! Emelia wanted to use seashells so she placed your shells where she wanted them and I came back through and glued them down with a hot glue gun. 

DISPLAYING YOUR FISH.... We hot glued a heavy duty magnet to the back to display on our fridge but you can also add a string to the fish before you sandwich your fish bodies together. Just loop a string on the top so you can hang it up. Another cool idea would to paint a underwater scene onto a canvas and then glue your kissing fish onto it for a 3D painting. 

Emelia had so much fun creating this craft. She even had more fun playing with the left over seashells and listening for the ocean. :P