Foamies Craft for Baby

I had great success and popularity with the Established Family craft I posted back in October, both in the blogosphere and with those whom I gifted this craft to. Such success, that I decided to recreate this as a craft for baby.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you the Foamies Craft for Baby! Oh how fun!

This particular craft was created for baby boy Trevor, expected February 2012. His loving parents have created a jungle oasis for his nursery, complete with banana tree wall decal, and plenty of greens and browns to make the tiniest monkey feel right at home.

This project follows the instructions given in The Established Family craft post (found here), with the addition of a few steps and a fun material that I had never worked with before: Foamies Sticky Back Foam Sheets.

Available at most craft stores, I picked up a multicolor pack of Foamies like the one pictured from JoAnn Fabric and Crafts. Also from JoAnn, I grabbed a pack of pre-cut flowers and vines. I may not have worked with foam sheets before, but I knew it would save me time and sanity to pick up these detailed pieces pre-cut.

After attaching the tile to the frame, I laid out the wood characters the way I envisioned the project to appear. I then began tracing shapes on the Foamies. I drew the tree freehand, twice. The first time I drew it, I set it behind the T to compare the size and decided it was not large enough.

This brings me to the most important thing I ever learned working backstage in the scene shop at the Performing Arts Center in college: measure twice, cut once.

Once I had the tree shape sized properly and cut, I placed it behind the T to make a tree. The beauty of the Foamies is the sticky back. No glue, hot or otherwise, needed. Just peel off the back and place!

Now, if you are artistically able, you can draw the monkey (or any animal shape for that matter) on the Foamies by hand. Or, you can do what I did, and create a vector image of the monkey in Photoshop and print out the pieces to be cut out, traced, and cut again from the Foamies. Not familiar with Photoshop? Google "monkey graphic," and print the image, then trace it.

When tracing the animal parts, be sure to separate the parts by area, starting with the largest area first. In this case, I traced the head and body of the monkey on the darker brown foam; the face, belly and ears on the lighter foam; followed by the details such as the belly button and nose last.

I drew the mouth on with a fine, felt tip marker.

After I cut out the monkey body parts, I fit a diaper and banana around the already cut pieces. Then, I peeled the backs of the foam cut outs and glued them together, before placing the monkey on the tile.

Finally, I placed the vines and flowers to add a pop of color and a touch of fun. Speaking of fun, I used googly eyes for the monkey's eyes. Oh how cute!

I cannot wait to try this craft with other animals. I think a giraffe would be particularly adorable.