Happy Snail #MMSCraft

We have totally been on a outdoor kick with animals and insects for our craft. I don’t know what it is about animals and insects during the Summer. I guess we become more aware because life slows down a bit. Do you find that in your home? Or are you go-go-go? June was crazy busy for us because we were in Florida for almost 3 weeks. It was glorious! Back to this week’s craft! It’s really hot in Georgia right now so a snail is not an insect we have seen much here, but we did see a few in Florida! In honor of our reminiscing from our trip we wanted to share a homemade Happy Snail with you. So you can have a snail at your house too! No matter where you are located!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Depending on how big or small you want your snail to be you have several options.

• Fabric – Your choice. I used about a yard. You will also need some extra to cover.
• Scissors
• Clean & Empty Toilet roll
• Hot Glue/Gun
• Google eyes
• Wire or pipe cleaner for anntenae
• Small rubber bands. We used the clear no tangle bands because they were handy.

Let’s Get Crafting! 

The first step is to cut and prepare the fabric to make the shell. As I mentioned above you can make the snail as large or as small as you see fit. You can also use different fabrics to make it stand out more. Have the kids pick out the colors of the fabric you use. As you can see in the image I cut the fabric into three pieces and tied them off at the end using the rubber bands. I cut off the excess and made them all even. This way it’s easier to braid. I hung on a chair so I could braid easier. A yard of fabric will get tangled up. After you braid it, carefully roll into a circle to resemble a snail shell! I chose not to glue the shell. You can if you want to make it more secure.

Pretty cool right?! 

Now comes the hard part.. Grab your toilet roll and cut it in half (long ways) so you can open it up and put the “tail” of the shell inside. It’ll fit unless you are making a smaller snail you’ll need to cut the roll down. Well I say it’s hard because it gave us a run for our money LOL. We didn’t have brown felt so we went with white. I knew using the toilet roll as the head would work well to cover the roll and give the snail some dimension.

You can totally bend the toilet roll and mold it so it’s more rounded off too. The fabric to cover the roll and be the trail you can either tuck it in under the snail or cut it. I chose to cut it. As you can see in the image below I tucked what i could then trimmed the rest to not make it look so bulky. If you have any extra questions for this craft please leave me a comment. I’ll get back to you. This one was definitely tricky. Make sure to glue in the areas you tuck in so that it stays together. You can use hot glue or you can use fabric glue. You’ll just have to let it dry before tugging at it. *Parents please help your kids glue. We don’t want anyone getting hurt doing our crafts please!*

Grab your googly eyes and wire or pipe cleaner. I actually cut the wire off of this fall leaf! *Always see other items you can reuse in your crafts! This is the best way to make the most of anything and everything you have in your home. I added eyes and use a small strip of squiggly ribbon for the mouth. He’s a cartoonish looking snail.

*You know what.. the snail eyes are supposed to be attached to the antennae. If you want yours to be correct make sure to add your eyes at the end of your wire or pipe cleaner. Our crafts aren’t always a win. But we have fun doing them right? I know the boys enjoy it and I think they like to try to stump me too. My oldest has been wanting to make a hot air balloon craft so we will be tackling it on next week! Come back and check to see if it’s a win or a fail. In all seriousness, it’s always a win because we do it together! These are awesome moments to cherish with your family.

We hope you like this week’s craft! Share it with us on social media if you make a snail of your own! Tag us and use the #MMSCraft hash tag!

Happy Crafting!

Candy