Sponsored Post: Financial compensation was received from FloraCraft® for this post. Project idea and any opinions expressed here are our own.
Are you a fan of The Very Hungry Caterpillar like my family is?
Well for today’s craft, I’m sharing how to make a The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Centerpiece. I’m so excited to share this with all those Hungry Caterpillar fans out there!! Especially people looking for kids birthday ideas.
Remember, I teamed up with the FloraCraft® team and every month they send us a box of goodies with a theme? For this month, our theme was celebration. So kids birthdays came to mind. I have 3 boys 6 and under, so of course I wanted to do a kid theme craft. I’m all about how to parties and keeping it on a budget.
This Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Centerpiece is just that!
Getting Started
So, I went through my box of goodies and found the right size FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam Balls that I needed. I used the 4 inch balls for the body and 1 inch balls for the feet.
I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple paint colors for .50 cents each and gathered up the rest of my supplies I had on hand.
Time to get crafting!!
Step 1 – Paint Body of Caterpillar
All I needed to paint was one coat on each foam ball (they absorb the paint really well). I waited two hours for them to dry.
I decided to use two different paint colors on the balls…Spring Green and Crisp Green.
Quick Tip: Keeping them on the cups made it a lot easier when painting, otherwise they would have been rolling all over the place.
Step 2 – Paint Caterpillar Head
Now it’s time to paint the head!! This step was the same as the caterpillars body. I just needed to paint one coat and let dry 2 hours. The paint takes a little longer to dry on the foam, but once it’s dry it’s PERFECT!
Step 3 – Paint Caterpillar Legs
Now let’s paint those cute little legs! In the book, the little caterpillars legs looked brown, so I found some extra brown paint for the legs. My kids thought they looked like giant pieces of Coco Puffs cereal, haha!
I quickly moved them out of reach. I knew once they said that, I’d probably walk in the room and the 2 year old would have been trying to eat it. ;-P
Step 4 – Add Caterpillar Face
Okay, so now we need to add our eyes and nose. When I threw my son’s 1st birthday, I made little caterpillars out of pom poms balls. I used this puffy paint for the eyes and nose and it worked perfect. So why mess with perfection right?
I used the yellow puffy paint first (and while the paint was still wet), then I added my green center on the eyes and then my nose.
Puffy paint takes a while to dry, so I suggest doing this craft a the day before the party or even a couple days.
Step 5 – Put Caterpillar Together
Alright folks, lets put our caterpillar together!! YAY!
I pulled out my handy dandy FloraCraft® Make It: Fun® Foam Connecters for this part. All you have to do is push one of the connecters in one side of the foam ball then push another foam ball on the other side…SUPER simple!
I ended up deciding the give my caterpillar a little arch on his back to match the cover to the book. So it was really easy to pull the connecters out until I had the perfect arch I wanted.
Finishing Touches
Now this not so little caterpillar will be a perfect centerpiece for any Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday party! Plus, it really was so simple to make, the longest part is just waiting for the paint to dry. Which is no big deal at all!
This caterpillar is really the cutest! I think all the kids will get a kick out of him at the party. My boys are fighting over whose room he’s going in. I might have to make more!
Since the big caterpillar turned out so well, and I still had a TON of foam balls left. I thought why not give the kids a craft project to do.
So we made mini-caterpillars using the same steps as the large one. This would be a perfect craft to do at the party with the kids and then it can be a party favor to take home, two-in-one combo!!
I would just suggest starting the party off with this craft so the paint will have time to dry. I always have a craft for the kids at my parties and they love it.
My Hungry caterpillar party was one of my favorites to work on, I really wish I had something like this for the display table.
As always, a big thanks to FloraCraft® for sending me this great box of goodies. I have so many more projects in mind, both home and kids crafts. I can’t wait to see what all the other ladies have some up with.
If you wanna’ make your own caterpillar, then checkout…
Love, Courtney
