Apple Pin, Necklace or Magnet

What You’ll Need:

• Paper and printer
• Scissors
• Styrofoam meat trays or cardboard
• Acrylic paint, poster paint or markers: red, green, brown, black and cream
• Pin backings, magnet backings or hole punch and string

Tips/Notes:

• If you are using Styrofoam and poster paint or markers than you are going to need to glue some paper onto the Styrofoam to cover it up or you are going to need to pre-paint the Styrofoam with white acrylic paint. The reason for this is that the poster paint or marker will actually flake off or rub off the Styrofoam.
• If you are using markers instead of paint you need to keep in mind that you can not cover the red with other colors so instead of coloring the red part first you should actually cover the red part last.
• Keep in mind if you are doing this craft with a group of children it might be faster to have the apples cut out ahead of time, this depends on the age of the children.
• With this craft you can actually turn it into three different crafts or you can give your children a choice on which project they are going to make.
• If using Styrofoam meat trays it is actually recommended that you use clean meat trays, meaning they have never been used before to hold meat.

Instructions for the Project:

• The first thing that you are going to need to do is to either go online and find an apple pattern that you can print out or you can create your own apple pattern. In fact they are not very hard to draw so drawing your own pattern might be easier.
• Next you are going to want to trace your apple pattern onto the cardboard or Styrofoam.
• Now cut out the apple using a pair of scissors, keep in mind if you are having kids cut out the apple pattern you might want to use thinner cardboard rather than Styrofoam so they can use child scissors to make the cuts.
• Now you need to paint the entire apple red and allow it to dry.
• Next using a cotton ball or a stubby paintbrush you are going to want to dab the cream colored paint over the red paint. Basically you are dabbing the cream colored paint on top of the red paint. The cream does not need to have to color the red paint perfectly.
• Now you want to paint the top part of the apple brown, this would be the stem area not the entire top of the apple, and add a green leaf.
• Then you are going to want to allow the paint to dry before moving on to the next step.
• Now using a cotton swab or a small paint brush you are going to want to paint on the two eyes and nose of the apple, make these shapes similar to apple seeds. So basically a dab of paint will work.
• After allowing the apple to dry you need to draw on a mouth and eyebrows with a black marker.
• Finally you need to add the magnet or pin backing to the back of the apple or you are going to need to punch a hole in the top of the apple and tie a string through the hole to wear it as a necklace.