Minnie Paws … the Smart Cat

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minnie paws finished4

This summer, the elementary school where my daughter is the librarian, did a huge remodel, even moving the library.  My daughter asked me to help her with decorating the library for the kids’ enjoyment, and I’ve been having a ball.  I’ll show pictures of the library in another post, but in this one I’d like to share with you Minnie Paws and some ideas on how she can recommend books.  Because making Minnie was a lot of fun, I’m including pictures and directions on how to make her so this can possibly become a classroom art project.

Supplies:

  • Tin foil
  • Wooden skewers
  • Glue gun and glue sticks
  • Freezer tape
  • White glue or paper mache glue
  • Newspaper strips
  • Craft paints
  • Artist brushes
  • Gloss sealer

Directions:

 

         minnie paws-tinfoil shapes  For the body, tear and wad a piece of tin foil to make a 2 ½” x 4” oval shape.

 

            For the head, tear and wad a piece of tin foil to make a 3” ball.  Shape the face side of the ball by squeezing in the eye area.  That will also help form the nose area.

 

            For the feet (or shoes), make 2 x 2 ½” ovals that are flat on the top and bottom.

 

           For the tail, take a length of tinfoil and roll it into a long tail (about ¾” in diameter).  Shape the tail, giving the end of the tail a little bit of a knob.

 

           minnie paws-glue in skewersCut 5 of the skewers to 5 ½” lengths for the legs and neck.  Cut 1 piece of skewer to 4” length for the tail.

 

           With the pointed end of the skewers, make holes to the underside of the body where you want the legs.  Make holes in the feet shapes where you want the feet to attach to the legs.  Apply glue into the holes and place the skewers in place.

 

         As with the legs, make a hole in the front top of the body for the neck and also in the center bottom of the head.  Glue and attach the head to the body.  Make sure the front of the face is in the direction you want.

 

8.     Make a hole in the top back of the body for the tail and glue in place.   Add glue and slide the foil tail shape over the skewer, making sure that the crook in the tail is in the direction that you want it to be.

 

  minnie paws-covered with tape  

     Tape the entire cat frame.   The newspaper sticks to the tape better than it does to the tinfoil.

 

                      minnie paws-newspaper strips Tear or cut pieces of newspaper to cover the cat.  Use paper mache paste or dilute white glue to glue the newspaper strips to the frame.  Place a couple strips at a time in the glue, let it relax a little before adding to the cat.  Cover the entire cat, smoothing down the edges as you go along.  This part is sort of messy, but enjoy it!  Let the cat dry.

             Make ears for the cat by folding strips of newspaper together and shaping.  Let dry.

 

                   minnie paws- glue on ears

  

     When dry, which can take a couple of days, glue the ears to the cat with hot glue.

                   minnie paws-paint white

   Paint the entire cat with a coat of white paint.

 

                 

minnie paws finished2     minnie paws finished6Paint your cat anyway that you wish.  As a class project, this would be a terrific chance for the kids to make their cat unique.  I’d love to see what they would come up with.

 

If you make this for the library, some ideas for doing a book display with Minnie Paws would be:

 

  • Minnie Paws Recommends
  • Smart Cats Read Books
  • Purr-sonally I Love Reading
  • Anytime is a Purr-fect Time to Read
  • Paws For Reading

Miscellaneous Projects Gallery:

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2 Responses to Minnie Paws … the Smart Cat

  1. GlitterQueen says:

    Sounds like you have a great idea, Theresa. I’m sure you’ll have fun making your lion. I’d sure like to see the finished project!

  2. Theresa Crow says:

    Love this. Think I will have to make one for our parish, St. Mark the Evangelist. We just got a wonderful lion costume & introduced ‘Markus – the Evangelion’ to the community. So our ‘cat’ will be a lion and us him for the Lion Store (prize store w/ religious articles for the children).

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