Cupcake Liner Owl Craft

This cute craft is brought to you by our lovely library lady. During story time, Logan (my kid who is actually not all that into crafting) happily produced this cheery bird. I think that he loves Mrs. D., so she motivates him to be creative, which is great. The cupcake liner eyes are perfectly adorable, and I only wish that I had thought of it myself!

{Cupcake Owl by Logan, Age 4}

Mia liked this feathery fellow, too, so we made a few more to hang in the window. For most of them, I just traced the original to get the body's shape. However, she wanted one baby owl, so I drew a smaller body.

Materials:

{Red Owl by Logan}

• construction paper
• pencil
• scissors
• glue (tacky glue works best)
• 2 googly eyes (or paper circles)
• feathers (or paper strips)
• 2 cupcake liners (we used both regular size and mini)

Directions:

1. Draw and cut out the owl body. If you are making several, you may want to keep the first cut-out and use it for a template. The basic shape is an oval. On one end, instead of rounding it, create a pointed triangle shape. Fold this down for the owl's head. (My kids ended up wanting these to hang out like a flap instead of being secured, so I am not sure that is what Mrs. D. intended, but it wasn't worth arguing.)
   
2. For feathers, Mrs. D. had cut several strips of construction paper in brown, black, tan, gray, and white. If planning to use paper feathers, cut these in advance and curl them around your finger or a pencil.
3. Cut diamond shapes for the beaks. To make several, I first cut a strip of paper, then cut smaller rectangles. I folded each rectangle in half (hamburger fold) and then cut a triangle, leaving the fold in tact. Once unfolded, these formed the beaks. We used yellow and orange construction paper. Mrs. D. had also cut out brown construction paper feet, which we skipped. If you don't want to use googly eyes, cut black paper circles.
4. Have your child assemble his owl. Glue two cupcake liners to the head to make the eyes. Then add the googly eyes or paper circles to the centers. Next, glue down the beak. If you are including feet, now is a good time to glue them to the bottom of the owls' body, either on the front or the back. Then, add feathers. We used actual feathers, which is why tacky glue worked the best, but the paper strips can be adhered easily using school glue or a glue stick. (Glue stick is the least messy.) 

   

   {One of Mia's owls, which I call "Showgirl."}

5. Allow glue to dry before displaying your owl craft. 

   

   {Mama & Baby Owls by Mia, Age 6}

Other Ideas: I decided that it would be fun to perch the owls on actual twigs, and I envisioned using pipe cleaner legs to secure them. However, Mia was happy to make owls without feet so I never mentioned this. I also came up with the idea to use paper (or fabric) flowers for the eyes, and Mia made one very showy owl that had pink feathers and paper flower eyes with jeweled centers (from my scrapbooking supplies), which ended up being her absolute favorite.