We were super-excited to find walnuts in their shells at our local grocery store. When the walnuts appear… the holidays are near, Folks!
These mice were our first walnut project. I love to show my kids that they are clever enough to make their own sweet little toys.
This is what we needed to make our Walnut Mice…
walnuts
a knife with a dull blade
glue dots
wiggly eyes
paint (pink and brown)
paintbrushes
scissors
pink string, yarn or ribbon
We separated the two halves of the walnut shell by inserting the knife into the center split and gently exerting pressure until it splits cleanly. I must warn you that many shells do not split cleanly. The fresher the walnuts, the harder they are to separate cleanly. I have found that if you bake the walnuts at a low temperature for an hour, they have a tendency to split more easily.
Use the blunt bladed knife to scrape out the nut. K loves using a knife… she feels very ‘grown up’ indeed and T loved eating the yummy nut.
Place the walnut half with the shell side up and put two glue dots where the eyes are to go.
It’s amazing what eyes do to anything… they made our mice come alive.
For the pink nose, turn the paintbrush around so that you are using the rounded end. Dip the tip into the pink paint and make a lovely round dot at the front of the shell.
Use the brush side of the paintbrush to paint little brown mouse-feet.
Cut your pink ribbon, string or yarn to the right length for a tail and use the glue dots to secure them in place. Your mouse is now ready to play all sorts of mice games… ours have stolen cheese, nibbled bread and squeaked around… but when I suggest that the Farmers Wife might be coming, Kate gets very angry with me! It’s NOT a joke.
Blessings and magic.
11 Responses
Can I come live with you? Your house must be the most creative, magical place around.
Those are so cute! I have quite a few walnuts left over from our nut wreath so we’ll have to give these a go. :)
What a fun, clever idea. I agree with Ivy – your home must be magical.
Seriously adorable!
Very clever and fun way to be creative with the kids!
Sweet little mice. We know where a lovely walnut tree grows happily and free and each year around September we love to go gathering walnuts that go bump onto the ground below. Such fun munching the nuts from our stash and keeping the shells for all manner of fun things.
If you place a marble under each, they can race one another down a ramp. Lots of fun, those mouse races!
Those are cute…as always! I featured you today, stop on by for a visit if you get a chance!
Jamie :)
Those are adorable! I think we’ll be making some too. Great idea!
These are great! We made a fir cone mouse recently and I’m sure sunnyboy would love making walnut mice too. Thanks for sharing your fantastic ideas. :)
Very cute!!! Thanks for sharing.