Creativity 521 #90 - DIY Rainbow Fish

It has been getting a tad challenging finding time to craft with the kids. Yet, I'm not willing to give up on that. Just last week, a craft session turned into a disaster when things got into a mess, when the baby decided to start crying and pooped when my hands were filled with paint and when the girls got into a bicker and started yelling. It didn't help that the hubby wasn't home and I had absolutely no one to just help me out a little when I needed it badly. Part of me wanted to just throw in the towel and let everything come to a halt.

Thankfully, we solved things one at a time, got back our breathing and our smiles, decided to let the paint dry overnight and off we went to read our bedtime stories before all four of us fell asleep together in the kids' bedroom. It's amazing how a new day brings about new hope and makes you so much more rejuvenated and positive, don't you think so?

The next day, we were able to complete our crafts and this one totally delighted the girls. In today's Creativity 521, I'm sharing with you on our DIY RAINBOW fish craft! Yeap, since we are going to watch the show end of this month, I wanted to let the girls be acquainted with this fish and his friends. So apart from going to the library to borrow the books, we also made our own rainbow fish using paper plates, paint and foil!

Materials:

1) Acrylic paint
2) Painting supplies
3) White paper
4) Aluminium foil
5) Googly eyes
6) Glue and sticky tape
7) Sticks or thick straws
8) Scissors

Firstly, using the picture of the rainbow fish on the book cover as a guide, we cut out shapes of the head, tail and fins from a paper plate. We used a second whole paper plate for the body.

Next, it was something the girls love to do - PAINT! We have not been doing this for a while so I really wanted them to be able to enjoy it and have fun in the process. Angel wanted to follow the colours of the rainbow fish as best as she could while Ariel decided to do it her own way. Both were fine with me as long as they loved their own artwork!

After that, I cut some A4 paper into half and let them paint on these. We used the colours purple, light blue, dark blue, green, pink and red. It's okay to make the paint a little watery as this makes it easier for the little ones to paint. Oh, and don't forget to spread some old newspapers on the table first!

We let the paint dry overnight and the next day, it was time to piece the fish together! Can you guess by now how we were gonna do it?

To start off, we drew ovals on the painted paper and cut them out one by one. This was a little time-consuming but the girls enjoyed it so much that they did so patiently for half an hour and refused to let me cut too many. Haha! Ariel can't really cut out a nice oval yet but she tried. Again and again. I have to give her credit for all the effort! Well done, my dear! On the other hand, Angel drew and cut out the shapes on her own and even tried to be a perfectionist by tracing and cutting out same-sized ovals, which I gently told her she didn't need to.

I helped them to cut out ovals from the aluminium foil as it was a little flimsy and look, we had a nice little pile of ovals all ready - these are the fish scales, of course!

Starting from the tail, we stuck the scales one by one onto the paper plate. All I did was to help them to apply the glue and they would choose the colours and position the scales on their own. The little one needed a bit of assistance to align the scales as it could get a little tricky trying to cover all the white areas.

This was once again a little time consuming but very fun! I loved how the colours turned out and it's awesome knowing that we painted all these scales by ourselves. The foil was also perfect for Rainbow Fish's signature silver, glittery scale! Anyway, it's okay to have the scales protrude out of the plate, once you are done sticking, turn it over and just cut off the excess.

To finish off the rainbow fish, we used sticky tape to stick on the fins and tail to the back of the plate. Then we used glue for the head and the googly eye. I coloured a small piece of paper yellow and cut out a mouth for each of them, and also added a stick at the back so that the girls can hold onto their fish. My big girl eventually insisted that I cut the mouth open so it's as if the fish is talking. Oh well!

TA-DAH! And we are all done! How do you like our version of the Rainbow Fish?

You know, the girls were so thrilled with them and couldn't stop holding them and running around in the house so their fish could 'swim'. So we came up with the idea of using these as 'puppets' and letting them act out the story as we read the book during bedtime. Sometimes their fish would dive, or rest, or play tag or hide in caves together and you bet this brought about plenty of giggles.

Indeed, it was a craft session that took more work and time than I expected but it also brought more rewards than I imagined. So yes, crafting is here to stay. Till more Rainbow Fish updates!