Egg Carton Spiders

This post brought to you by The Orkin Ecologist. All opinions are 100% mine.

My daughter is finally at the age where she is really getting into doing arts and crafts with me and wanting to make fun projects for each holiday and that makes this momma very happy :) With Halloween just a few weeks away I decided to bring back one of my favorite childhood crafts and make Egg Carton Spiders! Did you make these when you were little?

These are so easy to make and are a great kids activity during this time of year. And inexpensive too!

And if you want to take them a step further, give them a goofy look by adding a bow tie or a bow! Here is our little family of spiders :)

Supplies:

-1 Egg Carton

– 1 Pack of Googly Eyes ( I found mine at the Dollar Tree)

– Black Pipe Cleaners (2 per spider)

– Black Acrylic Paint

– Hot Glue, Scissors, Paint Brushes, Mini Hole Punch

We started by cutting the egg carton into individual pieces. Make sure to trim pretty well so they lay flat.

Next, we set up our painting station and turned this into a learning activity! Since we were making spiders and they happen to be everywhere during this time of year, I decided to turn this into a little learning activity for Miss E. We visited the The Orkin Ecologist to learn more about these creepy little creatures. The site has a ton of fun educational information for both kids and adults. This month their featured bug happens to be the The Goliath Bird-Eating Spider (the name alone makes me cringe) and here is what we learned about them:

• They are part of the theriphosidae family, the Tarantulas 
• They eat Carnivorous, feeding on insects, reptiles, amphibians and mammals
• Females can live 20-25 years while males typically live five years (not if I squash them first!)
• Their leg span can be up to 11 in. and weight up to six oz.
• They are located in upland South America (good thing, I don’t want to run into these)

While spiders might not be her favorite bug to run into, she sure loved learning about them and making these fun egg carton spiders!

We let the paint dry over night and then used the mini hold punch to cut three holes on each side of each egg carton piece. To make the legs, cut a pip cleaner into 2 1/2 ” pieces (You’ll get about 3 per pipe cleaner) and then bend them like the picture above. Bend the leg pieces into the holes and secure them to the egg carton. Lastly, use hot glue to place the eyes onto the front. Easy!

For more bug projects visit Orkin Ecologist’s Pinterest Page!