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Sponge Ball Animals DIY as a Water Fun Craft by Brenda Ponnay for Alphamom.com

Sponge Ball Animals DIY as a Water Fun Craft

By Brenda Ponnay

As the temperatures soar this summer, we thought we’d make a water-friendly craft. What better way to beat those summertime blues than a good old fashioned water fight! But this time we added a twist: we spent hours and hours (and by that I mean fun kid hours) creating really cute sponge ball animals (we call them “spongemals”) to throw at each other!

Sponge animals water play fun

Supplies for Sponge Ball Animal Craft

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own spongemals:

Supplies for Sponge Animals craft (sponges, scissors, needle, thread)

1. Sponges of course! You can find these at your local grocery store. Stock up! Buy a bunch in different colors.
2. rubber bands or yarn
3. embroidery floss and a yarn needle (not too sharp)
4. scissors
5. not pictured and totally optional: a hot glue gun* (I know, a glue gun is my vice. But it works!)

Instructions for Sponge Ball Animal Craft

Now lets get down to business.

cutting shapes out of sponges
This is very similar to all the sponge ball crafts that have been floating around the internet but we’re adding a head. What you’ll need to do is cut three long strips (about a half inch wide). Then with the remainder cut your animal’s head shape. It can be anything, cat, dog, alien…let the scissors doing the talking. Keep the scraps because you’ll need them to make eyes and noses.

Spongemals (animal shaped sponges)

Band together your long strips. Two of them will become your spongemals legs and the third strip will be it’s neck and tail. If your animal has a short tail, (like a dog) trim it or make the neck longer. These strips will move around some with use so don’t stress too hard about getting the proportions perfect.

Cut out your little bits for eyes and noses. (You could probably skip this step and draw them in with a permanent marker but they may fade with washing.) Place and get ready to sew! Or use hot glue if you are so inclined. I actually found that the hot glue stuck better than the sewing in cases of extreme water warfare. If your child will just be using this for light bath play, sewing will hold perfectly fine.

Sewing sponge animals craft

I’m not the most expert of seamstresses so I won’t get too technical with seam instructions. I basically just tried to hide my stitches within the sponge when possible but other than that my threads were an unorganized mess. Sew at your skill level. The kids won’t care.

water fun with sponge animals

Then soak and get ready to rumble!

p.s. These also make great bath toys!

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Difficulty Level: Easy to Moderate

Appropriate Age levels: Kids of any age will enjoy planning out their sponge ball animals but small children will need help cutting the sponges, banding the rubber bands and of course sewing or using a hot glue gun.

*Glue guns are hot and can burn. Always use with caution and keep away from small children.

More Summer Fun Ideas Here:

 

About the Author

Brenda Ponnay

Brenda Ponnay is an author and illustrator who loves to craft and make big messes when she’s not working on her books. Whether it’s painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card...

Brenda Ponnay is an author and illustrator who loves to craft and make big messes when she’s not working on her books. Whether it’s painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of cardboard boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has learned that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.

You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.

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