Torn Newspaper Giraffe

The fourth animal in my series made with painted and torn newspaper is a giraffe. Click to see the tiger, monkey, and lion. 

Painted Newspaper Giraffe

Materials: 

• newspaper
• acrylic paint (yellow, brown, black)
• glue

Steps: 

Find three newspaper pages that have small text, like sports scores, stock information, or classifieds. Use a single coat of paint to color one sheet of newspaper yellow. Do not rinse your brush. Color a second sheet with brown. The yellow left on your brush will make a light brown. As the yellow runs out, you'll get a true brown. Paint half of a sheet black and leave the other half unpainted. 

When the paint is dry, tear out the giraffe's face from yellow. The basic shape is like a footprint. Tear slowly and carefully because newspaper tends to want to rip in just one direction. 

Tear the giraffe's muzzle from light brown, then glue it to the face. Tear two nostrils and a smile from black and glue them in place. 

Tear two outer ears, two ossicones, and some spots from the light brown. Then tear two inner ears and a mane from dark brown. To make the mane, I tore a rectangle, then carefully tore one short end into strips, leaving the other end intact to make it easier to glue.  

Finally, tear two eyes from the unpainted newspaper and two black pupils. Glue everything together. 

M&M Candy Giraffe

I currently have two giveaways going on. You still have a chance to win. Follow these links to enter:

• Brightech Lamp Giveaway (ends March 17)
• Creativation VIP Swag Bag Hop (ends March 8)

---------

When Trevor turned five, he had a zoo-themed party. While I was making my cut-and-color giraffe craft, I thought of a treat that would have been great fun for the party and the perfect compliment to his giraffe cake. I'm eight years too late for him, but hopefully it will help one of you out there who will be throwing a zoo party in your future. There are affiliate links in this post. 

---------

M&M Candy Giraffe

Materials:

• construction paper (yellow, light blue, and green)
• pencil
• scissors
• black Sharpie
• googly eyes
• craft glue
• pretzel bags with twist ties
• M&Ms (yellow, brown, and green)
• glue dots

Steps: 

Lightly sketch a giraffe head on yellow construction paper. Start with a peanut shape, about 2", which will be the head. Add ossicones directly on top of the head and pointy ears out to the side. Don't worry too much about accuracy; we're going for a whimsical giraffe. When you are happy with the head, carefully cut it out. 

Draw a giraffe body on construction paper. Start with a oval body, about the same size as the head. Add four long legs and a tail. Cut out the body. 

Use the Sharpie to color in two nostrils, the inner ears, the tips of the ossicones, the hooves, and the tip of the tail. Glue googly eyes in place. 

Fill a pretzel bag with yellow and brown M&Ms. You want about 80% yellow to 20% brown. The easiest way to do this is to put in a small handful of yellows, then drop in a brown. Repeat until the bag is mostly full. Use the twist tie to close the pretzel bag.

Use glue dots to attach the head and body to the pretzel bag neck (head attaches to the top front and  body to the bottom back). Cut a piece of green construction paper to make grass, then glue it to a blue background. Sprinkle some green M&M's along the edge of the grass.  

I'm just noticing now that my giraffe has no spots on his body. If you want, you can add some additional brown M&M's to his body to give him spots. Or leave it as is. We're going for whimsical, after all!

Cut and Color Giraffe Craft

Today I have a giraffe craft for you. (Try saying "giraffe craft" quickly ten times. I sound like a yapping dog after the third "giraffe craft.") My goal was to design a realistic, simple, and kid-friendly giraffe project that could accompany a report or classroom study of giraffes (as opposed to a whimsical giraffe just for fun). I accomplished this by looking at a lot of images of giraffes before I started and as I worked. I learned a lot in the process, including a new vocabulary word: ossicone.

---------

Cut and Color Giraffe Craft

Materials: 

• construction paper (yellow, light blue, green)
• scissors
• three shades of brown colored pencils (mine are sage, terra cotta, and chestnut)
• craft glue
• photos of giraffes

Steps: 

Start by cutting out the shapes you will need for the head: an elongated footprint-shaped face, two ossicones, and two ears.

Studying the photo of the giraffe, use the lightest color to barely sketch the facial features. Ignore any markings for now. Use the other pencils to darken the eyes, nostrils, ossicone tops, and inner ears. Shade the giraffe lightly using all three pencils, again using the photo as a reference.

Glue the giraffe's head together. Fix any shading, then use the lightest pencil to add the giraffe's spots. Set the head aside. 

Cut a long neck from the same construction paper. It should taper slightly. Using the lightest pencil, draw the giraffe's spots. Observe that the spots get larger lower on the giraffe's neck. Use all three pencils one at a time to draw short hairs along the length of the back of the neck. 

Glue the neck to the light blue background paper, trimming it so it's flush with the bottom of the paper. Add glue only to the middle of the back of the head and attach it to the neck. By leaving the ears and mouth area without glue, you can bend them forward slightly to achieve depth. 

Cut green leaves and glue them to the edge of the paper. 

Giraffes are really amazing animals. 

Party Planning

We're in party planning mode around here. Each year, we celebrate Trevor's birthday with two different parties: a backyard BBQ for family and godparents, then a smaller party with Trevor's playgroup friends. Trevor has decided he wants a zoo theme for his BBQ. On his actual birthday, we're having his friends-party at the zoo. The invitations went out today:

I made the giraffe from yellow and brown patterned paper scraps, using the pattern below. The original link to the pattern no longer works and I tried to find a replacement link to the original source, but could not.

After piecing together the giraffe, I attached it to the yellow and brown papers, scanned it, and then added the information digitally. I was able to quickly and easily change the information to create the invitation for the other party. 

Trevor has very specific ideas about his party. He wants a life-sized 'Pin the Spots on the Jaguar', a homemade monkey piñata that hangs by one arm, and this cake that he sketched for me:

I'm glad that Trevor has total faith in my crafting and cake decorating abilities! I am a bit concerned about my ability to create a life-sized jaguar, but I can probably pull that off. Maybe. A monkey pinata that hangs by one arm? I've made many piñatas in my life, but the vast majority have been shaped like an oval. As for a zebra cake that is supported by only its 4 legs.... no way! I have about six weeks to talk him into a more manageable, yet still fantastic, cake design.

Wish me luck!