Koala Easter Egg

If you're looking for a really easy Easter egg to decorate, go for this koala. This is about as easy as it gets. And it's so cute! Affiliate links below. 

Koala Easter Egg

Materials:

• white egg (raw, hardboiled, or empty)
• acrylic paint (grey)
• Sharpie (black)
• grey felt
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Paint the egg grey. When the paint is dry, draw the koala's eyes, nose, and mouth with the Sharpie. Cut a pair of ears from grey felt. Glue them in place. 

Koala Pancakes

I am in awe of the amazingly talented people who create works of art in pancake form. I'm not sure who was first to popularize the technique of using pancake batter on a hot griddle to draw portraits and other intricate designs, but the first I came across was Nathan Shields. His designs are absolutely amazing. I'm blown away by how he achieves such detailed designs by carefully adding lines of batter at just the right time for them to create the dark and light parts of the portrait.   

My brain does not work like that. This koala is my ability level when it comes to creativity with pancakes.

 

To make your own, make a large round pancake for the face, two smaller round pancakes for the ears, and an oval pancake for the nose. Spread Nutella on the nose, the use dots of Nutella to attach candy eyeballs in place. Add a dollop of whipped cream to the inside of each ear right before serving. 

I wanted to give my koala a mouth, but the only food I had on hand that was shaped like a small smile was a black olive. I don't particularly like olives in places where they belong, so I'm certainly not adding them to pancakes with Nutella and whipped cream. I tried using a toothpick to draw a Nutella mouth, but it needed to be darker to stand out against the pancake. I suppose I could have cut a mouth from an extra pancake, or made a tiny mouth-shaped pancake from the beginning. I'm open to other suggestions!

Styrofoam Koalas

My nephew Timothy recently returned from his Make-a-Wish trip to Australia. They had a fantastic time. I loved reading the updates, seeing the photos, and hearing all about it. Here's Timothy, holding a koala. 

The real-life koala inspired these styrofoam koalas. Make your own! Affiliate links below. 

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Styrofoam Ball Koalas

Materials: 

• styrofoam balls
• grey paint
• felt (grey, black)
• googly eyes
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Paint the styrofoam balls grey. The easiest way is by pouncing the paint onto the surface of the styrofoam rather than trying to brush it on. I chose to poke a dowel into each ball so that I could paint them in one sitting instead of doing one side and then the other. 

While the paint is drying, cut out grey ears and black noses and mouths. I laid the pieces out to check that I liked the proportions.

Once I was happy with the size of the ears, noses, and mouths, I rounded the inside edge of the ear pieces to match the curve of the styrofoam ball. Here you can see the difference between the rough shape (left) and the one I rounded (right).

Use strong craft glue to attach each of the facial features to the styrofoam ball, saving the ears for last. They will slump under their own weight if you don't hold them in place for a few minutes. After holding them for 2 or 3 minutes, the ears should stick without slumping. Allow them to dry completely without touching them.

When the koalas are dry, you can use them to decorate a favorite framed photo, like I did.

They also make really fun pencil toppers. If you used a dowel while painting them, there is already a perfectly-size hole in the perfect place!