Silly Slug & Snail Craft

During our recent vacation to Olympic National Park, we encountered numerous banana slugs, as we explored the Quinault Rain Forest. Each and every slug was a different color, some with added designs on their bodies, and some without. We had a lot of fun searching for them in all of the foliage. With our daughter’s newfound interest in slugs, I decided to snag this amazingly fun children’s book from our local library: Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell, by Sue Hendra. And after reading it a zillion times, we decided to create our very own Silly Slug & Snail Craft!

Norman the Slug loves the snails in his neighborhood. They have the most beautiful shells and they play all sorts of fun games together. Norman desperately wants to be included, but he doesn’t have a shell. He feels left out and sadly slithers off…wishing he had a shell of his very own. And then, inspiration strikes Norman, and after strapping a variety of round objects to his back, he finally finds the shell he’s been searching for…a pink-frosted sprinkle donut!

The snails love Norman’s silly shell! And Norman is overjoyed, as he finally gets to join in on the snail’s stacking game. But the fun doesn’t last for long…a bird comes swooping down and snatches the delectable treat, with Norman in tow. Will Norman make it back to his beloved snails? What will become of his silly shell? You’ll have to pick up a copy of this cute story to find out. 🙂

During our craft brainstorming session, our little nugget decided that we should each craft our very own slugs with silly donut shells. And since we loved all of the beautiful snails in Norman’s story, we decided to make a few of them too!

Supplies:

White Paper or Card Stock (for the shells)
Colored Paper or Card Stock (for the slug and snail bodies, and antennae)
Googly Eye Stickers
Crayola Washable Watercolor Paints
Tulip Puffy Paints
Black Marker
Glue Stick

Instructions:

Start by cutting a circle out of the white paper or card stock – one for each slug/snail you would like to create. To make the silly donut shells, you will need to cut an additional hole out of the center of the circles.
Paint the shells with the watercolor paints…with the colors and designs of your choosing.
Set the painted shells aside to dry completely.
While the shells dry, grab your colored paper (or card stock) and cut out a slug/snail body to go with each shell that you painted. Cut out one antennae per slug/snail.
Stick a googly eye on the head of each slug/snail. Glue on the antennae. And add a smiley mouth, using the black marker.
Once the watercolor shells have dried completely, it’s time to add some puffy paint designs! Decorate each of your shells with puffy paint…with the colors and designs of your choosing. We went with sprinkles for our silly donut shells, and spirals for our snail shells.
Set them aside, for the puffy paint to dry completely. We left ours to dry overnight.
Once dry, glue your beautiful shells to the slug/snail bodies. Ta Da!

We are in love with our cute and colorful silly slugs and snails! And the added textural element of the puffy paint is super satisfying. Our little nugget loves running her hands across each of the shells to distinguish the differences in each of their designs.