In honor of Dr. Seuss Birthday today we made some “Thing” pencils. When I was little I think they were called ‘Worry Pencils.’
Do you remember them and what they were called? You smooth out the hair and then you quickly roll the pencil between your hands and the hair flairs out.
I thought they would be perfect to go along with the ‘Thing’ in the Dr. Seuss book
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I looked everywhere for blue fur and the best I could do was this scarf from the $$ store. I easily found the white fur at JoAnn’s.
I cut a piece of fur about 2″ X 4″. When cutting make sure you only cut the back of the fabric, this will allow the fur to remain long. Using a low temp glue gun (so kids can help with supervision) hot glue the fur to the pencil.
Roll the fur around the pencil and fasten off at the bottom with a dot of hot glue. Next add some wiggly eyes and the ‘Thing’ is finished!
Roll quickly between your hands to give the ‘Thing’ a wild do!
If you would like a sweet treat to celebrate. Becky H. sent me these pictures of the Cat in the Hat cupcakes. She said, “I used a mini cupcake for the head, but you could also use a doughnut hole. The had is a marshmallow glued on with frosting. The eyes and nose are M&M’s. The whiskers and hat stripes are just frosting that I tinted and piped on. The original called for twizler type candy, but I had a hard time getting it to curl around the hat and stay there even with gobs of frosting, so the piping was much easier for me.”
Don’t forget to whip up some Oobleck and make a cool Cat in the Hat hat!
Lisa O'Connor says
The are call frustration pencils. My Mom was a Librarian at my elementary school. She would make a ton of these cute pencils each one of the students and give them as prizes when kids would read their books. I’m teaching my son to make them, for his 3rd grade market. =0.)
Heather says
THANKS for the super creative and easy last minute idea!!! I posted about my version of your crafts on my blog here:
http://scraphappyheather.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-dr-seuss-day.html
sharon says
Am writing an entry for http://www.therainbowandsunshineplace.blogspot.com
and have given you a special mention and link to this wonderful page.
Heather - Dollar Store Crafts says
This is so very cute! I’m linking at Dollar Store Crafts.com
Suzanne says
Such a cute idea. We need new pencils anyway, so might as well make them into things!! (we have thing 1&2 at our house. We didn’t find out what the twins were, so they were thing 1 and thing 2.)
Tricia says
Oh Thank You! My son’s birthday is the same day as Dr. Seuss so I needed an idea for treats to send to school. And since they are celebrating Dr. Seuss all week this also ties into the theme! He is in kindergarten so this is my first time doing this kind of thing! The craft and snack looks easy and he is excited to help! Wish us luck!
korisa says
I love the pencils! My kids are slightly obsessed with Dr. Suess so these will be perfect to make. I think I actually have some fuzzy blue fur and googly eyes in my (much too neglected now) craft closet. Thanks for the great idea!
Leigh says
I wish I had read this sooner! Too cute! My kids and I made Dr. Seuss hat treats, bookmarkers and oobleck for their classes at school. I will be making these next year. Love your ideas. Check out my treats at my blog.
Misty says
I love the cupcake idea. My kindergarter is celebrating Read Across America this week and we have snack on Thursday. I was wanting to make a Dr. Suess themed cupcake and here it is. Can’t wait to send them in to school. I think I’ll also make some with piped on fish for Red Fish, Blue Fish.