Bored with traditional Easter baskets? Here's how to revamp the old classic with a decorative, super soft foam version! This Easter "bucket" features an adorable image of a chick hatching from a colorful Easter egg, but this activity's just begging for personalization. Your child will draw, cut, and glue together his own imaginative bucket … creating stronger hand muscles and tuning into his creativity while he's at it.
What You Need:
- Large rectangles of craft foam in several different colors (to make the chick, you'll need at least yellow and orange foam)
- Bowl (to trace circle)
- Black marker
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Ribbon for handle
- Stapler
What You Do:
- Have your child start by tracing a circle onto the foam, around the rim of a fairly large bowl. (It should have a circumference of at least 6 inches).
- For a slightly thicker base, layer two of the foam pieces and cut out two circles (using the traced circle as a guide). If the foam is too thick to cut two at once, cut the first circle of foam and then use it as a pattern to cut the second circle.
- Ask her to glue the two circles of foam together, to create a slightly thicker foam base.
- Next, have her cut a piece of foam that is at least the length of the circumference of the circle. She may need to glue together two different pieces of foam, if one piece isn't long enough. If she has trouble measuring the circumference, try using some soft measuring tape (found at fabric and craft stores). She can also cut down the height of the foam if she wants to make a slightly shorter bucket. This will form the structure of the bucket.
- Now, it's time to craft the bucket's Easter image! Using the black marker, she can simply draw the image onto the different colors of foam. To make a chick popping out of a hatched egg (like the activity image), have her simply draw the top part of a chick. If she needs some inspiration, have her look online for images of real and cartoon chicks. She should also draw two eyes, and mark a location for the chick's beak, with the black marker.
- Instruct her to cut the chick shape out of foam. If she wants the image to be cartoon-like, she can cut around the outer edge of the black marker, so that the outline shows. If she doesn't want the black marker to show, encourage her to do her best to cut around the inside edge of the chick's outline.
- Ask her to cut a beak out of orange foam, in either a triangle or diamond shape. Have her glue the beak onto the chick's face.
- Have her draw the bottom of an egg onto any color of foam, with a broken, "hatched" edge on the top. She should make sure the egg is approximately the width of the chick. It can be larger than the chick's body, but not any smaller.
- Using a hot glue gun, help her attach the chick to the center of the large rectangle of foam that will be used for the bucket's structure. Then, glue the colored egg to the bottom half of the chick, so that it appears that the chick is being hatched from the egg.
- Once the structure of the bucket has thoroughly dried, use a hot glue gun to glue the bucket's base (foam circle) to the structure of the bucket. It's helpful to use two pairs of hands for this portion of the project. On top of a newspaper work surface, put a layer of hot glue around the edge of the foam circles. Quickly, before the glue dries, attach the base of the bucket's structure to the edge of the circle.
- Finally, it's time to add a handle. Simply cut a couple of lengths of ribbon, and use a stapler to staple the edges of the ribbon to either side of the bucket.
Remember: There's no need to stick with the hatching chick image for this festive bucket. Encourage your child to get creative, come up with her own fun Easter image, and then cut it out of craft foam. With these tools at her fingertips, there's no telling where her imagination will take her!
Use it to hold collected eggs, or simply display it as an Easter centerpiece; either way, its bright colors and a cheery image are sure to put your family in a merry Easter mood!
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