Egg Carton Glitter Apple Crafts for Kids

Are you afraid of glitter? Are you worried that if you craft with glitter, your house will look like a glitter bomb exploded and you will be wearing it even a week later? Well, have no fear. I have a simple trick for glitter containment that I used with Sweet Pea to make these super cute egg carton glitter apple crafts for kids.

Egg Carton Glitter Apple Crafts for Kids

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Materials Needed:

• White, styrofoam egg carton
• Red acrylic paint
• Craft glue
• Red glitter (yes, you can do this. You can use glitter!)
• A shallow takeout container OR a shallow cardboard container used for soda (yes, our family drinks a lot of soda. Yes, our teeth are probably rotten. No, Sweet Pea doesn’t get to drink it… ever. Yes, I am justifying my soda habit with crafting.)
• Two paint brushes
• Scissors
• Green and brown pipe cleaners
• Green-patterned scrapbook paper
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

How to Make the Glitter Apples

• Cut the egg carton sections for as many apples you want to create. Trim the individual sections so that it will look like an apple.

• I really wanted these apples to pop and sparkle, so we started by painting the each egg carton piece. Sweet Pea did most of the painting. I helped by holding each egg carton section. Note: the added benefit of using the white styrofoam is that the base color is white. This helps the color pop.

 

• Once the painted apples dry, it is time for the glitter! So, do you want to know that glitter secret? Use the takeout container or cardboard container for all the glitter work. Stick the apples, the glitter, all of it in there. The cardboard container is shallow enough to allow your kid to work, but deep enough that glitter doesn’t get everywhere. Then, when you are done with this craft, the entire container, glitter and all, can go right into the recycling bin. No mess!

• ‘Paint’ the eggs with craft glue and then dredge them in a bowl full of the red glitter until they are fully covered with glitter.
• Let the eggs dry.

The next few steps should be done by an adult because it involves a hot glue gun and it is likely you will get hot-glue-gun burned at least once.

• Take a green pipe cleaner and bend it to create a set of ‘wings’ and leave the rest of the pipe cleaner hanging.

• Cut the brown pipe cleaner into thirds or quarters. Take one of the brown pipe cleaner pieces, bend it over the middle of the green pipe cleaner wing and twist to form the stem.
• Apply a thin layer of hot glue to the back of the stem and leaf wing.
• Lightly press the stem and leaf wing onto the green scrapbook paper. Use any implement other than your fingers (ouch!) to press the pipe cleaner stem into the paper.

• Cut the outline of the green leaves out of the paper. I know this probably sounds backwards, but trust me… if you value your fingertips, you will want to do it this way. I tried other methods and burned myself every. single. time.
• Apply a generous amount of hot glue to the back (you determine which side is the back side) of the egg carton apple. Holding the stem and leave wing by the excess green pipe cleaner (which is why you didn’t cut it earlier), press the apple and stem/leaf wing together until the glue sets.
• Trim the excess green pipe cleaner.

• You may want to bend the leaves down so they look more like leaves and less like ears (I still think my leaves look like ears. Oh well).

That is about it. Aren’t these apples pretty? Also, doesn’t the red glitter egg carton look like the perfect red shiny nose? I think I may have inspired myself for a future Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer craft!

So, I hope you have fun creating these pretty apples with your kids as well. Oh.. and good luck with the glitter mess. Be brave! You can do this Mom! You can conquer glitter without fear!

Thanks so much for reading!
Sara