Cat Stationery Containers

April 22nd is Earth Day and what better way to celebrate it than to make all kids of recycle crafts like this Cat Stationery Containers!

We made these paper maché cat stationery containers as a colourful addition to our schoolroom to store stationary. You can easily adapt the cat face to a bunny and do a last minute Easter Craft.

You will need:

• Plastic containers example, cool drink bottles, vegetable trays, lids
• Newspaper
• Modge Podge
• Craft Paint

What to do:

C at 1 – Constructing:

Cut a 1 litre cool drink bottle ¾ ways down, using a craft knife. To get a straight line you can stick masking tape around the bottle. Trim the edges off a lid and staple the lid to the bottle. Draw two cat ears on a clear piece of plastic, cut out and staple to the circle to form the head. Cut a longer strip of plastic from part of the remaining bottle for the tail and attach to the bottom of the container with masking tape.

Cat 2 – Constructing:

Make the face using the same method as cat 1 and attach to a plastic vegetable tray. Cut another strip of plastic from a bottle for the tail and staple one end of the tail to tray, the other end to the head. This will also be a handy handle.

How to make the Paper Maché:

You can use newspaper, but I have found old telephone directories work amazing as it is just as absorbent but does not stain your hands as newspaper does.

Tear the paper into small squares. Paint a reasonably thick layer of podge on your cat and glue the paper pieces. Take care not to let the pieces overlap. Paint another layer of podge over the paper and leave to dry a bit before adding more layers. The more layers you podge, the stronger your construction will become. Make sure to do the inside of the container as well and that all the plastic is covered.

If you do not have podge, you can use cold wood glue. Dilute the glue with water at a 1:3 ratio and mix well.

Working with paper maché can get a bit messy, so I suggest old clothes or aprons for the kids and you can keep a bowl of water handy on your work table to wash little hands every now and then.

Once your containers are reasonably strong and thoroughly dry, you can paint them. You can paint or decorate your containers in any way you like, but do paint a layer of white first to save time once you start with colours. Colours like red and orange will need endless layers over the paper before you will get an even coverage.

We wanted bright, funky colours, so painted one green and one pink cat. Paint a base coat in the main colour first; add patterns in different shades that will compliment your main colours. Colours that work well together – Blues and greens, pinks and purples, oranges and reds.

Once your cats are painted, you can finish the faces. Draw cat shape eyes with a marker pen and draw a mouth. You can also outline the shape of the ears. You can use googly eyes over the drawn eyes or just draw pupils. Cut a triangle out of pink foam or cardboard for the nose, use a piece of string or pipe cleaners for the whiskers.

To adapt the cats to bunnies- Cut the ears longer for bunny ears, paint in shades of yellow or pink, add longer whiskers and teeth.

Such a fun recycle craft, and useful too! Make cat stationery containers with the kids this month and do you part in recycling and reusing!