Joshua was given 2 assignments from his school which needs to be submitted when school reopens. One of them is to make either a 2D or 3D of his favorite animal. When I asked what animal does he loves most, he told me it a giraffe! I began to think why does he love giraffe so much? And yes, he indeed loves this animal so much that there is a period of time, he kept bugging his grandpa and I to draw this same animal for weeks. And he was not sick of painting it over and over again.
It all started off with this book called, “Giraffee Can’t Dance”. I remember when I started reading this story to him, he was around 1yr old and I did not know it has created such a great impact on him. As for this story, it was so well written too that tells us that we need to accept what we are and be confident in ourselves.
Well, let’s see how our giraffe turns out.
Materials:
• recycled roll from kitchen towel/toilet roll or any cylinder shaped
• yellow, light brown and dark brown felt
• a pair of spare eyes
• 2 yellow pipe cleaners
• 4 orange beads
• 2 cotton bud sticks
• white, yellow and brown acrylic paint
• yellow and brown thread
• gun glue
• brush
• a pair of sharp scissors
How to make one:-
1. Cut your recycled roll into 3 parts in various length with the shortest as the head, the longest as the neck and the middle length as the body.
2. Paint the roll with a layer of white acrylic paint first and leave dry before painting over a layer of yellow acrylic paint. This is to ensure that the yellow will be totally absorbed into the roll. After painting a layer of yellow, leave dry and using your index finger, dip into brown acrylic paint and dot all over the roll as the pattern of a giraffe’s body.
3. Using yellow and light brown felt to cut in the shape of triangle with the yellow one as the larger pieces, two pieces for each color. Place the brown triangle which is smaller in size on top of the yellow and glue it. Tap the ends together and glue it tightly. You have a pair of ears for the giraffe.
4. Using brown acrylic paint, paint over a cotton bud stick and leave dry.
5. Taking 2 pipe cleaners, cut into half so you have 4 pipe cleaners now. Insert one orange bead for each pipe cleaner and bend the end so that it will secure the bead. And you have the hoofs and legs.
6. Using yellow and brown thread as the tail. Cut at any lengths which you feel comfortable. Preferably the yellow one is longer than the brown one. Cut them into several strands and tie them together.
7. Using dark brown felt, cut into a small rectangle. Each piece needs to be glue at the ends to make the brown mane.
8. After all the painted rolls are dried, stick the brown mane which you had made (from step 7) onto the longest roll.
9. Assemble all the rolls together in the form of giraffe body and started sticking them together with hot gun glue.
10. Stick the 4 pipe cleaners with beads underneath the ‘body’ and leave dry for few minutes. You have legs for the giraffe.
11. Now stick the ears which you have made previously onto the head.
12. Taking the brown cotton bud stick which you had painted earlier, cut into half or even shorter and stick them near to the ears. These are the short horns.
13. Since there is an opening on the head, using yellow felt, cut into a circle. Using a clean cotton bud stick, dip into brown acrylic paint and dot two dots at the centre of the yellow circle. Stick it at the opening.
14. Taking the spare eyes, stick one on each side of the head. The head is done.
15. Stick your ‘tail’ at the end of the body.
You are done completely!
Difficulty level: 5 out of 5 stars
crafty beanie 