Critter Bookmarks & Puppet Pals!

I've been absent for a bit... a long bit actually. With my last pregnancy, I got pregnancy induced carpel tunnel... and it has returned this pregnancy with a vengeance that far surpasses what I dealt with last time! So, that means very little to no crocheting for me (yes, I am going through withdrawals).

Well, when my four year old daughter came to me today and asked what we were going to do that was fun today I decided it was time to do a craft with no idea I was going to be able to incorporate just a small amount of crochet! It worked out super awesome. :D

We ended up with an entire little family of bookmarks/puppet pals and they were a blast to make. My husband helped our two year old make his and even made my daughter super happy by using our little poof balls to make a flower clip for her spider and caterpillar. :p Check out our adorable creations below and make some yourself!

Cute right? We have a little spider (which is where the crochet comes into play), a caterpillar (which was 100% my daughter's idea) and then two little caterpillar bookmarks! The googly eyes make them all look so different and they were a blast to make. :D

Supplies:

• Craft poof balls of various sizes (I bought a variety pack and it was perfect)
• Craft Popsicle sticks
• Googly eyes (we only had one size but various sizes and colors would be fun too!) 
• Hot glue/glue gun 
• Yarn
• Scissors 
• K crochet hook 

Now, first off, the crochet part. It's super simple :D

Working with two strands simultaneously, Ch 10, turn and sl st in the back loop down the chain, tie off. Repeat until you have 6 legs. 

This makes them nice and thick, gives them a little curly and you can actually even bend them just a tad bit! Tie your ends at the top and trim. This is the end that will be glued to your spider so they don't peak out  

The rest of the project is pretty simple. I had my kiddos pick out three poof-balls of the same size (the bag we had contained 3-4 different sizes). They could pick any colors they wanted.

My husband and I helped put the glue in place and showed the kiddos how to hold them until the glue dried and then we put their eyes in place.

The last part for the bookworms was to glue them to the colorful stick and let that dry!

Then it got fun because we accidentally glued my daughter's on sideways. Thus, the spider was born and I quick made up some legs. While I was making the legs, she made a mismatched caterpillar and my husband worked on some poof flowers. Check out the pictures below!

Spider with her caterpillar buddy. Caterpillar didn't get a stick, she's just a floppy little toy haha 

And here is one of the bookmarks we made. Super cute and fun right? :p