India Craft | Tiger Print Manicure & Tiger Handprints

Have you heard of Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat And The Hat? Well, today is somewhat similar because I am going to show you how to make Craft 1 and Craft 2. One of the crafts is geared towards girls who are old enough to paint their nails. Perfect for me because I have 2 daughters. But I have a little guy too. I didn’t want to leave him out! And I don’t want to leave out any of my little explorers who aren’t ready for a trip to the nail salon (a.k.a. your kitchen table lined with newspaper) out either.  Soooo, this is week I present you with India Craft 1: A Tiger Print Manicure and Craft 2: Tiger Handprints.

Why the tiger theme you may ask? Well, it’s because India’s national animal is a Royal Bengal Tiger which is an endangered species. It is the perfect opportunity for me to teach you 10 tiger facts along with the tiger crafts. And since these crafts involve our hands, we can learn one fact for each finger.

The instructions for this are pretty simple as long as you have your materials handy. I bought a very inexpensive bottle of NYC Times Square Tangerine nail polish at Target for 94¢. For the black tiger stripes I bought a bottle of Sally Hansen’s black i heart nail art striper from Ulta. It cost $3.99 and it worked really well. It is basically a bottle of nail polish with a very thin brush. I searched online a bit and noticed Walgreen’s carries it as well. I’ll give you an Amazon link too, but with shipping you will pay more. (Just click on the nail polish icon if you do plan on purchasing it from Amazon because it does help support my blog at no additional cost to you, plus the 13¢ or so commission will make me smile.) I did add a clear top coat to my nails, but that is optional. And remember to read 1 tiger fact for each nail you paint!

Materials

1. Orange Nail Polish similar to the one mentioned above
2. Black Nail Striper
3. Clear Top Coat (optional)

Instructions

1. Paint your fingernails with orange nail polish and let them dry completely.
2. Use the black nail striper to paint tiger stripes (as shown in the photo above) on top of the orange polish and let dry completely.
3. Apply a clear top coat of polish on if you want and let that dry completely.
4. Enjoy learning about Bengal Tigers which live primarily in India!

   

I am a sucker for any craft that uses a child’s handprint. I just love reminders of soft, squishy, baby chub hands. I also like simple crafts. So for me, this craft ranks right up there with, say, Dove Ice Cream Bars – a simple but, rich decadent treat…And f.y.i. my great grandma actually worked at Cupid Candies in the Chicago area where Dove bars were invented. She hand dipped them herself back in the day. Anyways, you don’t need many supplies for this craft. Just some sturdy paper or cardstock and paint. I used Crayola washable paint for the orange handprint. When I lifted up the box and spilled the bottles of paint all over the table (don’t worry, the lids were securely attached) I realized there was no black paint in the set. Thankfully my daughter scored some black acrylic poster paint from the Easter Bunny last spring, so she could dress her tiger with the black stripes he deserved.

This is the Amazon link for the Crayola paints we used. We bought ours at Target awhile back so I don’t remember the exact price. I think it was in the $5-$6 range. And the black paint we scored for free like I mentioned.

Materials

1. Sturdy paper or cardstock
2. Orange and black paint of your choice
3. Paintbrushes
4. Foil pie tin or shallow container of your choice to hold paint
5. The willing hand of a darling child

Instructions

1. Line a table with newspaper or plastic tablecloth.
2. Pour orange paint in a foil pie pan or other container.
3. Dip hand into paint.
4. Stamp painted hand onto paper.
5. Using a paintbrush, paint an orange circle with two little triangles on top on the opposite side of the thumbprint (see photo). This will be the tiger’s head and ears.
6. Let the orange paint dry completely.
7. Pour black paint into a container.
8. Using a paintbrush, paint stripes, a face, and whiskers on the tiger.
9. Let the black paint dry completely and don’t forget to wash the paintbrush!

 And finally 10 Tiger Facts To Go Along with your Tiger Crafts

1. Tigers are the largest animals in the cat family.
2. Tigers are mammals which mean they are warm-blooded, have a hair covering on their skin, and females have special glands so they can feed milk to their young.
3. Tigers are carnivores, or meat eaters, that hunt at night to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs and other large mammals.
4. The head and body of a tiger measure 5-6 feet and its tail measures 2-3 feet.
5. Tigers weigh between 240-500 pounds.
6. No 2 tigers have the exact same stripes.
7. Most tigers avoid humans, those that don’t are often sick and can’t hunt normally.
8. Females usually have litters with 2-6 cubs.
9. Cubs can’t hunt until they are 18 months old. They stay with their mothers for 2-3 years before finding their own territory.
10. There are 5 remaining tiger species that are all endangered. There may be less than 2,500 remaining so there are many protection programs in place.

    bloom designs