No-Sew Caterpillar and Butterfly

As you may know I am a great fan of Memetales, an online e-book resource. 

Ditto The Butterfly

See more at memetales

Ditto The Butterfly is the sweetest story about a little butterfly who learns that it is important to drink from different flowers to become a beautiful multicoloured butterfly. The story aims to encourage children to have a well-balanced diet and to try out different foods.

I have been  inspired to do caterpillar crafts lately and did a post on The Very Hungry Caterpillar a little while ago. So when Big One and I read  this story about Ditto, I thought it would lend itself beautifully to this craft that we had been working on. I don't sew (except for buttons), so I needed to make this without a needle or cotton in sight. I was very pleased with the result and have put together a little tutorial for you.

You need socks (little ones), batting, elastic bands, plastic eyes and pipe cleaners. Simply take a piece of batting about the size of a golf ball and push it into the toe part of the sock. Shape it into a nice ball and when you are happy with the size, seal it off with an elastic band. I used elastic bands in colours that matched the colour of the socks. Continue until you get to the end of the sock. There will probably be a little bit of sock left at the end. Then attach the pipe cleaner, by inserting it through the top elastic band at the caterpillar's head and bend it to make two antennae. Attach some eyes and there you go...a no-sew caterpillar!

To turn your caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, cut out some wings from felt and glue onto the body of the caterpillar. You can then decorate your wings with some more coloured felt.

We, however, wanted to make a craft that we could pair with this sweet story of Ditto, so we made a garden and attached some felt flowers with velcro. We then also added velcro to our butterfly's wings, so that when she goes to drink from a flower, you can remove the flower from the garden and add it to her wings. So as she drinks from the different coloured flowers, her wings become multicoloured, just as in the story!

You could add the velcro to either side of the butterfly's wings. I think it would look nice either way.  You could also add a mouth. We thought that the sock's seam looked like a gentle smile, so we didn't add anything extra.

PS. I linked this to:

Making the World Cuter Monday 

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

A Story and Art @ A Mommy's Adventures

Memetales and Bubble Wrap Ocean Art

As you know, I love wonderful websites and Memetales is just such a space. At Memetales, you and your child have the opportunity to read a wonderful variety of children's e-books up to eight times before you have to purchase it (should you want to keep it forever). You are also encouraged to share any ideas, arts or crafts based on the book you have read with the Memetales' audience. For me this is certainly one of the highlights of this space. Children will have the opportunity to see their very own creations online. Children are also encouraged to write book reviews.

Memetales decided to dedicate this past week to raising awareness of Autism as April is Autism Awareness Month. They have just published a new book by Tara McClintick, called  "Water".  Tara's one son is on the Autism spectrum and through her experiences with him, she has created a number of books that engage children easily and encourage participation. This book is a little different from the others that I have read on the site, in that it is a wordless picture book, with a poem to start.

So my oldest and I decided that we were up for a challenge and after reading Tara's book tackled an art project. With water as the theme, we decided on painting bubble wrap so that we could print a watery, bubbly effect and then create two underwater sea scenes. The bubble wrap print was so much fun to do and very easy. The fish, squid and submarine were all cut out from the inside wrapper of some corn thins that we eat a lot of in our home! I love the silvery shiny effect!  My son also added some white round stickers to create some extra bubbles and the squid's cave. We have submitted this as an activity to add to the "Water" book collection and we are waiting (with bated breath) to see if it is accepted.

I can highly recommend this site. My son loves it. I hope you will go and visit and let me know what your favourite books are.

PS. I have also linked this up to: Show and Tell @ ABC and 123