Cardboard Shoes & Dino or Monster Footprints

Many thanks to Alyssa for her suggestion of making monster footprints.  As soon as my son came home from pre-school I told him about this pending project.  He was in love with the idea and couldn't wait to get started.  Right now my son is really into dinosaurs, so we decided to make T-Rex footprints.  After we completed the project, we took the cardboard cutouts into the snow and stamped some footprints.  My son hopes to scare our neighbors into thinking a herd of T-Rexs came stomping through our neighborhood :)  Too funny.  I love my 4-year old.

So, here you go...
Age: 4+ (however, as you can see - made made a tiny pair of dino-prints for my youngest)
Mess/Cleanup: Just some cardboard scraps
Time: 20+ minutes
What You Need:

• Cardboard (We used a pizza box)
• Yarn (or string or laces)
• Scissors
• Markers
• Packing tape (It was getting close to bedtime, so we didn't use the packing tape.  But I was thinking to adhere it to the underside of the print so the cardboard wouldn't get wet in the snow.)

Why I Like This Craft:  It's so easy with only a few supplies!  Plus, my son thinks this is super cool.  It allowed us to do a little pretend play (which I'm sure there will be more time tomorrow to stomp around like dinosaurs) and give us another activity for the snow.  Also, as soon as my 20 month old got interested, I started thinking of all kinds of things to make -- little ice skates (this one's for you Erin), princess shoes, or monster feet. If you cover these with construction paper, glue, and glitter you can make some pretty cute little pretend play shoes.  Time was limited tonight, so it mostly was a mommy-craft with playtime by the kiddos.

Step 1:
Flatten out card and draw your footprint.  I drew what I think a T-Rex footprint would look like.

Step 2:
Cut out footprint and decorate.  It was pretty close to bedtime when we started, so I only had my son use some markers for decoration.  He was too excited to wear the footprints, so the coloring was short-lived.

Step 3:
Have your little one place his/her foot on each of the prints.  Trace the foot.  Poke 4 holes in the cardboard - 2 on each side of the foot.

Step 4:
Cut about 2 feet of yarn.  Thread the yarn through the cardboard.  I threaded it so my son's toes would go under the yarn.  I criss-crossed the yarn behind his heel, then tied them.

Step 5:
Stomp like a dinosaur!  We also tried this outside to make prints in the snow and it worked pretty well.  We made our prints pretty large, so it was a little difficult for my son to walk.  I had him take off his dino-feet and we just used the prints as very large stamps.

Too cute not to mention....
My daughter was throwing a fit that she didn't have a pair of dino-feet, so I made her little baby T-Rex feet.  These cut-outs that went over the top of her little barefoot feet.  How cute?  She was in love.  I have a feeling in the very near future we will be making some sparkly shoes or ballerina slippers using a similar technique.

-Rose  @-}---