Paint chip turkeys

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I had grabbed a few paint samples the last time I was at Walmart.  (Side note: I probably should have asked if they had any discontinued paint chips I could have, rather than just taking a few of each color.  My kids ask for paint samples every. single. time. we got to Walmart, and they never seem to care, so I didn't think of it.  But it's probably good to ask, and don't ever clean them out.)

So, I've been looking for some colorful uses for them.  We've already done Christmas trees, which are DARLING.  Then I saw a pin for these turkeys, and knew what our next craft would be.

(Okay, so they're peacocks, not turkeys.  Close enough.  You could add a red waggle to make them more turkey-like.)

I painted a paper towel tube a couple of days ago and let it dry.  You could have your kids do that part, but it will take a while to dry.  You could also glue scrapbook paper to the tube; how cute would that be?  Anyway, we started with two painted tubes (I cut the paper towel tube in half.)

Fan out the paint samples; glue the layers of samples together at the bottom.  

Run a line of glue on the back of the paper tube.  Glue it to your "feathers."

Add a beak and some google eyes, and you're done!

Lily insisted that hers needed a pink tutu, so there you go. :)

Paint Sample Christmas Trees

Last night we had "Girls' Time Out" at our church--we shared appetizers and recipes, chatted, made some Christmas ornaments. Well, I LOVED the ornaments we made. We made paper Finnish Stars, which were pretty hard. We made fabulous chipboard birds which we decorated with scrapbook paper and glittery accents. But the one I brought home for my kids to try was this: paint sample Christmas trees.

 

 

One note: Please don't go clean out the paint store of their paint samples.  You might ask whether they have any that have been discontinued, or if you can have a few.  Seems to me they really don't care, but you don't want to wipe them out of green!

All you need:
A few paint sample strips demonstrating shades of green (one per ornament)
Brown and yellow paint chips (for the trunk and star on top--you probably only need one of each)
Star punch (or cut star free hand)
Strip of ribbon for hanger
Decorations to glue on. We used buttons at church; for my kids, foam ornament shapes that came out of a Christmas foam craft I'd tucked away.
Glue (we used a glue gun with the buttons at church, but white glue worked just as well for the lighter decorations)

To make the craft:

1) Cut a triangle from the green paint sample. I used one of the white lines that separated the green swatches as my bottom line of the triangle, and then cut a nice tall triangle.  (Lily cut her own; I just drew a line to cut along on the back of the paint swatch.)

2) Cut a brown tree stump from your brown swatch

3) Punch a star from a yellow (or light green) swatch--you could also cut freehand or use a foam star or other decoration instead

4) Have your kids glue the star at the top of the tree (Lily then embellished hers with foam stars)

5) Then glue the stump at the bottom

6) Decorate

7) When you are finished, loop a ribbon and glue to the back of the ornament, right behind the star.

Cute, easy, fun!