Buggy Mobile

What you'll need:

• 18 place cardboard egg carton
• Scraps of colorful patterned papers (wallpaper samples, old greeting cards) or construction paper
• Acrylic paints: red, orange, brown, light blue, green, purple, yellow, white and pink
• Scissors
• 2 black skinny chenille stems
• 9 flat-backed heavy pebbles, marbles, or other object
• White yarn
• 2 heavy twigs or craft dowels
• 9 medium black pom poms
• 18 small wiggle eyes
• White craft glue
• Acrylic sealer spray
• Paintbrush
• Hot glue gun
  

How to make it:

1. Remove the lid of the cardboard egg carton and save for another project. Place bottom of egg carton upside down and paint two sections with each color noted above (i.e. 2 red, 2 orange, 2 brown, etc). Repeat for a second coat and let dry. Spray all painted cups with acrylic sealer spray. See image.
2. Cut the egg carton sections apart. Trim around the sections so that all you have left are colored cups. See image.
3. If using patterned paper, most likely the backside of the paper is blank. If this is the case, fold the patterned paper in half, pattern on the outside. Put a layer of glue in between and stick together. This will create a piece of patterned paper that is patterned on both sides. If using construction paper this step is not necessary.
4. Cut leaf-shaped wings from the paper.
5. Separate the colored egg cups so that you have two groups of nine cups, one of each color.
6. Turn one group of colored cups over, set the other group aside.
7. Squeeze some white glue into each of the cups that are turned upward. Place a flat-backed marble into each cup and allow time for the glue to dry. This will give each bug enough weight that they will hang nicely on your mobile and will cut down on the lines tangling together. It will also help the bugs to “look” downward so that they are seen from the ground.
8. Cut 9 pieces of yarn about 18” long each.
9. Onto each of the egg cup halves with the marble in them, glue a black pom pom to the closed (bottom) end. Now pair up your colored egg cups.
10. To assemble each bug body you will need a pair of the same colored egg cups, a set of paper wings, an 18” piece of yarn and your hot glue gun. Pipe a layer of hot glue onto the outer open edge of the egg cup with the marble in it, place the wings onto the glue, the yarn in the middle of the open cup at the top, and then the other egg cup goes on last. Repeat these steps for each bug.
11. Now that the bodies are assembled you can glue the wiggle eyes onto the black pom poms.
12. Cut the black chenille stems into 2” pieces. Bend the ends or twist them around a thin handled paintbrush. Put a dot of hot glue on the straight end and push into the top of the pom pom. Repeat for the other antenna. See image.
13. Cut another piece of yarn about 12” in length. Crisscross the two dowels and wrap with yarn to secure, add a dot of glue to reinforce. Be sure there is enough yarn left over to tie a loop at the top to hang your mobile from.
14. Tie each bug onto the dowels, two on each ‘arm” and one in the middle. Stagger the lengths and tie in place. When you have them where you want them, trim the excess. See image.
    

Tips:

• You can decorate your bugs even more by painting on stripes or adding dots.
• If you use construction paper, kids can decorate the paper wings with stickers, markers, glitter, etc.
• Try recycling old speaker wires for the antennas instead of chenille stems.