Crab Craft

This super sweet crab is simple and fun to make. A great craft for summer time.

As summer approaches, we start to get pretty excited about the prospect of some day trips to the beach.

And, of all the creatures you might find at the beach, I have a particular soft spot for crabs. I love how they scuttle sideways across the sand. To me, they always seem like such cheery individuals.

And so, today’s craft is a crab!

This kids’ crab craft (wow, that’s hard to say quickly) is a fun one for all ages. Most kids won’t need too much help, although preschoolers will need help with the cutting out and the pipe cleaner legs.

If you were starting to get worried about your crab-drawing abilities, don’t panic! You’ll be pleased to hear there is a free template available for this craft, which you can find at the end of this post.

Ready to get crafting a crab? Then read on!

What you will need:

• printable template

• popsicle sticks x 2

• pipe cleaners x 2

• paint

• white glue

• tape

• black marker

How to make a crab, step by step

Step 1

First print out the template onto white cardstock. The template has the crab’s body, eyes and pincers on it.

Step 2

Next, your child can choose a colour for their crab. We went for a super bright red. On the printable template, paint the crab’s body and pincers (leave the two circles for the eyes white).

You can use a brush for this or, if you have little ones, using a sponge is fun too (which we did – I like the fuzzy effect you get with a sponge).

You’ll also want to paint the two popsicle sticks with the same colour.

Step 3

Once the paint has dried, cut out the body, the pincers and the eyes (depending on the age of your child you may need to help with the cutting)

Step 4

Next, move onto the pipecleaner legs. Use one pipe cleaner for each set of three legs.

Fold a pipe cleaner in half. With one half, fold in thirds into an ‘M’ shape. Then repeat with the other half of the pipe cleaner until you have 3 legs of roughly equal length.

Give each of the three ‘legs’ a twist so that they stay together and don’t open out.

Repeat this with the other pipe cleaner so that you have 3 legs for each side of the crab:

Step 5

Now, it’s time to put all the pieces of your crab craft together. (Depending on the age of your child, they may need some help attaching all the different parts).

First off, attach the pipe cleaner legs to the back of the crab’s body. I generally find that glue and pipecleaners don’t work well together, so we used tape to fix our in place.

Next, glue the popsicle sticks to the back of the crab’s body.

And finally with glue, attach the pincers onto the back of the body.

Step 6

Time for the finishing touches! On the white circles for the eyes, draw black pupils. Attach the eyes to the tops of the popsicle sticks with glue.

And lastly, draw a mouth on your crab. As you can see, our crab is super smiley.

And once you’ve added those last finishing touches, your crab should look something like this:

And there’s your finished crab!

Want to make this crab craft at home with your kids?

You can find the template below:

Thanks for stopping by The Craft Balloon today to read about this fun crab craft! Until next time.

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