Egg Carton Turtle

For my first project, I thought I'd start off with something simple. I posted a picture of this little guy on Instagram a while ago, and I've been getting a lot of requests for instructions, so here they are.

First, gather your materials. Here's what you'll need to make the turtle:

Take your egg carton and use a pencil to draw an outline of the areas you're going to cut out (I used a red pen to make the outlines easier to see). This part of the egg carton will make the turtle's shell.

Once you've cut the cup-shaped piece from the carton, trim around the edges of the turtle's shell so that it sits flat. Make sure to also round off a little space for the turtle's head to poke out.

For a more shell-shaped look, pop out the top of the shell so that it forms a dome.

Next, take the lid of the carton and cut out the piece that will become the turtle's head.

Cut a small fringe around the edges- you'll need this later when we're gluing the head to the shell.

The last part that needs to be cut out is the feet. Using the side of the lid, cut out a shape like this:

Then cut this piece into four equally-sized pieces like this:

Round the edges off to they have a more foot-shaped look

You'll also need a long, skinny triangle for the tail- you can use any piece of scrap carton for that (I forgot to take a photo of the tail piece, but you can see a picture of what it looks like in the photos of the pieces being painted)

Now that all the pieces have been cut out, you're ready to paint them. You can make your turtle any colours you want. I chose green and brown colours for a more realistic look, but you could use your imagination to make all sorts of colours and patterns. A purple turtle with a polka-dot shell? Why not! A blue turtle with yellow zig-zags? The possibilities are endless.

While you're waiting for the paint to dry, why not watch this funny little guy eating a tomato:

Now you're ready to put all the parts together. Spread some glue on to the fringe on the edge of the head piece and stick it inside the shell so that it pokes out of the little round nook. Press the piece firmly so that the glue will hold.

(The head piece I made was a little too big, so I trimmed off the extra with my scissors.)

Now for the feet and tail. Fold the pieces in half and add some glue to the part that will go inside the shell.

Place the pieces around the shell with two feet near the front, two near the back, and the tail between the back feet and press them into place like this:

But wait! I forgot one very important step! This turtle needs a face! A few spots of paint will fix that problem:

And that's it! Now your turtle friends are ready for fun! If you'd like to find out more about turtles, check out these weird and wonderful facts about these shelly reptiles: http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/call-of-the-wildman/lists/10-weird-turtle-facts/