Rainbow Fish Craft for Kids

Thanks to our friends at Elmer’s for sponsoring today’s post and providing us with lots of fun supplies for our project!  All opinions are honestly my {and LC’s} own!

Hey, friends!  As summer winds down and we get ready for Little Crafter to head back to school, we’ve been trying to make the most of our time together by spending lots of it crafting!  It’s always been one of our favorite mutual activities and I love seeing his creativity develop more and more as he grows.

 

A few weeks ago, we received some happy mail from our friends at Elmer’s; a retro lunchbox filled with an Early Learners glue pen and glue stick, scissors, magnets, a paper bag, and some construction paper.  They challenged us to use what was in the box along with anything else we might have on hand to create an animal.  We happily accepted their challenge, and  Little Crafter created his own Rainbow Fish, based on the popular book series.

 

 

Here’s what you need to make one too.

Materials:
– brown paper bag
– Elmer’s Painters {we had the Neon Brights and Brights sets}
– Elmer’s Early Learners Glue Pen/Glue Stick
– Elmer’s Glitter Glue
– Elmer’s Glitter
– Scissors
– assorted rhinestones with flat backs
– black permanent marker

Step 1: Draw the outline of your fish on the paper bag. I just freehanded this one using a black permanent marker.  All I did was make a football shape for the body, a sideways heart shape for the mouth, then added fins and a tail.  Draw in scales however you like.  This was the only step I was responsible for besides helping to cut it out at the end.  Once it was drawn, LC took over.

 

 

Step 2: Color in each section using Elmer’s Painters paint markers. We had our first experience with these last week when Little Crafter made his Geometric Photo Frame.  We absolutely loved lots of things about them, like the vibrant colors, the lack of mess and waste, and the way they help kids be much more accurate with paint than a traditional brush does.  Regular markers would have totally soaked into the brown bag and not looked bright and colorful at all, but these did the trick!

They also dry very quickly, which is a huge help for a project like this one where you want to work on side-by-side sections without having to wait forever in between.

Step 3: Outline everything with a black Painters paint marker.  LC did this all by himself, going over my original lines to separate the scales and give everything a finished look.

Step 4: Add glitter! You know our motto: Glitter makes everything better!  For some of the spots, LC squeezed glitter glue onto the scales, then spread it with his finger.  For other sections, like the lips, he used the Early Learners Glue Pen on the area and sprinkled it with loose glitter.

Step 5: Add rhinestones.  LC spread glue on one particular scale and added a bunch of rhinestones.  He also decided to use one on the eye, which I thought was a nice touch!

Step 6: Cut out the fish!

That’s all there is to it!  Voilá…your very own colorful and shiny Rainbow Fish!  I had a blast just sitting with LC and talking to him as he worked on his “masterpiece.” I had him explain to me why he chose certain colors, what he was doing, and more.  We also talked about the Rainbow Fish story and how it’s good to share with your friends instead of being selfish with the things you have.  A very good and very important lesson for an almost-first-grader!

 

I love crafting with LC because I get to see his imagination run wild and get to watch him really in his element.  This kiddo loves to create, and it’s so interesting to watch his mind at work.  Honestly, I don’t even mind the messes we make…I mean, when I craft by myself I make a mess too, so why not make one together, right?  So what if there’s glitter everywhere?  These are the moments and the memories I’ll treasure forever, even when he’s all grown up and his kids are making Rainbow Fish of their own.  What about you?  What do you love most about crafting with the littles in your life?