Posable Spoon Elvis (Jailhouse Rock Era)

As promised in my Cardboard Tube Elvis tutorial, I made a Young Elvis craft for you. Specifically, it is a Posable Spoon Elvis from Jailhouse Rock. 

I watched the Jailhouse Rock video about a thousand times for inspiration. It's one of my all-time favorite dance routines. Did you know that Elvis choreographed this himself? 

Are you inspired to make your own Posable Spoon Elvis? Affiliate links below. 

---------

Posable Spoon Elvis

Materials:

• plastic spoon
• gesso
• Folk Art paint (Light Flesh)
• black Sharpie
• microtip scissors
• felt (black and white)
• black pipe cleaner
• craft glue
• flesh tone construction paper

Steps:

Paint a thin coat of gesso on the spoon. (This will allow the paint to stick without peeling off.) When it is dry, paint the face and neck with Light Flesh. Set it aside to dry completely. 

Cut out the clothes from felt. You'll need a white rectangle for the shirt, two black sleeves, two black jacket panels, and a pair of pants. 

Use the Sharpie to draw horizontal stripes on the white shirt. 

Cut two lengths of black pipe cleaner that are just shorter than the sleeves. Bend the remaining pipe cleaner in half. It will be for the pants. 

Use the Sharpie to draw hair and facial features. Remember that the real Elvis' face is not shaped like a spoon, so cut yourself some slack if your version doesn't quite look like the King. 

Use a strong craft glue to attach the pipe cleaners to the sleeves and the pant legs. Glue the sleeves and other jacket pieces to the shirt. Set the clothes aside to dry. 

Use the scissors to cut construction paper hands, shoes, and uniform number for the jacket. Glue them in place. Fun fact: In the movie, Elvis' character wears #6239 on his uniform while in prison, but it changes to #6240 once he's out.

Glue the jacket and the pants to the handle of the spoon. When everything is completely dry, you can pose Elvis' arms and legs to mimic your favorite of his dance moves.

Not an Elvis fan? You can follow the same steps to create anyone you want! By changing the skin tone, hair color, and clothes, you can make your own action figure of a celebrity, historical figure, or family member. Give it a try!

Cardboard Tube Elvis

I joke that I've built a career around making things out of cardboard tubes. While that's not totally true, it's not entirely false either. Today, I present to you: Cardboard Tube Elvis. 

Cardboard Tube Elvis is my latest craft inspired by the 50 states. Both Mississippi and Tennessee lay claim to Elvis, the first being where he lived until age 13 and the latter where he lived his remaining 29 year, minus his time in the Army. Today's craft is set toward the end of the Tennessee years. Affiliate links below. 

---------

Cardboard Tube Elvis

Materials: 

• cardboard tube (Wow - they actually sell these? I'd never checked before.)
• Folk Art paint
• felt (white and black)
• googly eyes
• gold Stickles
• craft glue
• Sharpies (gold and black)

Steps:

Paint the cardboard tube white. When it is dry, add Elvis' skin color to where the face and chest will be. (I mixed a light sand color with a light pink.) Paint some black hair on top. 

Before the skin area is dry, add a tiny bit of black to the skin-colored paint. Lightly paint a nose and the line to define his chin and jawline. 

The next few steps are a "do as I say, not as I do." I painted Elvis' jumpsuit and belt. Do not do this. Painting tiny straight lines on a curved surface is not easy or fun. You should just use a Sharpie. 

Use a gold Sharpie to draw the V of Elvis' jumpsuit, then paint any skintone areas beyond the lines white. Draw a large gold belt buckle, then outline it in black. Draw the rest of the belt in black. 

Paint Elvis' hair, eyebrows, mouth, and mutton chops black. (Or use the Sharpie.) Glue the eyes in place. 

Cut out a cape from white felt and dot around the edges with Stickles. Then dot the jumpsuit and belt with Stickles. Cut two very large triangles for the collar and dot them with Stickles. Let them dry completely, then glue the cape around Elvis' neck. 

Elvis' hair was a two-part project. First, I cut a circle of black felt that fit perfectly on the tube and glue it in place. Then I cut a slightly larger circle, made cuts on both sides of the circle, and overlapped and glued the felt to make a domed shape. When I was happy with the shape, I trimmed the excess and glued it in place. 

Finally, I glued the collar in place. Behold, Cardboard Tube Elvis!

For those who are clamoring for a Young Elvis craft, be patient. I have ideas. (Maybe THAT should be on my tombstone.)

Exploring Tennessee Through Little Passports

Time to explore another state through Little Passports! This time it's Tennessee, the Volunteer State. Trevor started by building the model of a country music stage. 

Not surprisingly, many of the activities in the Tennessee State Journal were inspired by music. We solved a puzzle to learn the names of Tennessee's official state songs. Yes, plural. They have ten! Even stranger, two of them have the same name ("Tennessee"). The craft was an Elvis-style white cape. The science activity had us making a guitar from a cereal box to explore how vibrations create sound. Trevor was not interested in an Elvis cape and has done the cereal box guitar many times, so we worked together to come up with a craft that combined the two activities into something else... a record player! (This craft would be great for a study of Mississippi, too, as that's where Elvis was born.)

Record Player Craft

Materials:

• 2 cereal boxes
• compass
• black paint
• scissors
• construction paper
• glue
• pens

Steps:

Set one cereal box aside. Cut the other open and use the compass to draw a circle that reaches the edges of the chipboard. Paint it black, making the brush strokes go around the circle to mimic the grooves in a record. Let the paint dry completely, then cut out the circle.

While the black paint is drying, use the compass to draw a 3" circle on yellow construction paper. Cut it out, then use the black pen to copy the record label of your choice. Since we were inspired by Elvis, we with went his first single with Sun, 'That's All Right." Glue it to the dried record. 

Cover the intact cereal box with brown construction paper.

Cut a sheet of white construction paper 2" shorter than the length and the width of the front of the cereal box. Glue it in place, leaving 1" margins on all sides. Cut grey construction paper to make the record player arm and glue it to the right side of the white paper. Add two small circles of grey to the bottom left. Label one VOLUME and one POWER. Add a red dot in the center of the POWER button. 

Now place your record on top.

It'd be fun to set this on a table during a party with a bluetooth speaker (affiliate link) hidden underneath so that it sounds like the music is actually coming from the record player. In fact, we did something on a bigger scale for the awesome National Craft Month party I hosted in 2011. That was quite an event!

After making our record player, Trevor and I learned about the animals that live in the caves of Tennessee. I had no idea, but Tennessee has more caves than any other state- over 9000! Next we did a hidden picture puzzle based on Raccoon Mountain Caverns. 

We worked on an anagram activity inspired by the Knoxville Biscuit Festival. (Note to self: Attend Knoxville Biscuit Festival someday.) Then we read about famous events in Tennessee history and matched famous Tennesseans to their accomplishments and the years they were born. We learned about 'The Athens of the South" and the birds that make their home in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Did you know it is the most visited national park? I had no idea.

The cooking project for Tennessee was Moon Pies. Yum! Here is Trevor making the cookies for our moon pies. 

He sandwiched the cooled cookies around a delicious marshmallow filling...

... then dipped the cookies into chocolate. 

Our homemade Moon Pies were outstanding! The recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks, Little Passports! Trevor and I had a great time learning all about Tennessee and can't wait to visit someday.