Awesome Newspaper Lion Craft

If you’re a regular to I Heart Crafty Things then I’m sure you’ll be familiar with Rachel’s fabulous collection of newspaper animals. I adore mixed media projects and I jumped at the chance of contributing a mixed media newspaper lion craft to the series.

Newspaper is an amazingly dynamic base for mixed media art, adding depth and texture to projects. From a kids perspective, they will love all the cutting, sticking, folding and painting that’s involved in creating their lions, which makes it the perfect craft for introducing mixed media art concepts to young children.

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Supplies Needed to Make this Newspaper Lion Craft

yellow cardstock
watercolor paints (we LOVE these liquid watercolors!)
glue stick
newspaper
large googly eyes
white string
a circular item (CD/DVD/Bowl)
black sharpie pen
scissors
pencil

Tutorial:

1. Paint your newspaper

To Begin, gather sheets of an old newspaper and paint the text with a light wash of yellow, orange and red watercolor paint. Set the newspaper aside and allow it dry.

2. Cut out lion’s face

Next, draw and cut out a circle for the lion’s face. If you’re using an A4 sheet of card, I would recommend drawing around a CD, as this is a good size for the card.

3. Glue it to the card

Glue the circle directly onto the card.

4. Cut out other shapes

To add some contrast and depth to the lions face, cut out two oval shapes out of the painted newspaper and add the googly eyes to the center of the ovals.

5. Draw nose & smile

Add a lovely big nose and some smiley detail.

6. Glue on eyes

Position the eyes just above the nose and secure them with glue.

7. Make short strips

Cut the remainder of the painted newspaper into short strips, leaving a few slightly longer pieces to create some accordion folds.

8. Glue stripes to your card

Attach the newspaper working around the circumference of the circle. Alternate the straight newspaper with folded pieces to add texture to the lion’s mane. As the mane begins to come together, you will notice that the newspaper contrast against the yellow card adds body to create the appearance of a beautiful full lion mane.