PAWliday Crafts

2021 Pawliday Crafts For Kids: Day 1

SALT DOUGH PAW ORNAMENT INGREDIENTS:

1 cup salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup water

Parchment paper or aluminum foil

Baking sheet

Straw/pen for punching a hole

Yarn, string, ribbon or twine for hanging ornament

Optional for personalizing:

Acrylic paint

Mod Podge and glitter

Directions:

Step 1: Mix the salt, flour, and water in a bowl until it becomes firm. Knead the dough for 30 seconds. Use a rolling pin if you want a flatter ornament and then cut individual circles with a cup or cookie cutters.

Step 2: Press your dog’s or cat’s paw into the salt dough and use a straw/pen cap to make a small hole at the top.

Step 3: Bake at 200 degrees in the oven for 2-3 hours or until completely dry.

Step 4: Once it is cooled, you can grab some acrylic paint or mod podge and some glitter to decorate! Finish it off with a pretty ribbon to hang on the tree!

SAFETY: Make sure to hang ornaments out of reach of pets as these are toxic due to the large amount of salt in salt dough ornaments.

2021 PAWLIDAY CRAFT FOR KIDS: DAY 2

Being indoors doesn’t mean your cat shouldn’t stay active and have fun. Here’s a crafty way to enhance your cat’s day by playing on her hunting instincts and see the world through your cat’s eyes within the comfort of your own home. Don’t have a cat? Donate your wand to the animal shelter!

You can get the whole family to join the fun, and these toys will help keep everyone busy, including your furry friend. You can make each wand as unique as you!

Benefits of a DIY Wand Cat Toy:

How can these toys enrich your cat’s day? You can wave, twitch, flutter and circle the wand around randomly so that the ribbon moves enticingly like an insect or bird or other prey. A key added benefit of the wand toy is that it lets you keep some distance between your cat's claws and your skin.

Before you get started, here are a couple things to consider:

When enjoying your creation, be mindful that these cat toys are made of small parts. Please supervise your furry friend while playing and collect the pieces when done to help ensure safety. Put wand and toys away when not in use.

Supplies you will need:
One sturdy stick or dowel, around 12 inches long
Ribbon, shoe laces, thin craft rope, yarn or other kind of string. Approx. 18-24 inches long. (will need at least one length of 'string', but can have additional strings for a fuller wand.)

Bells, small cat toys, feathers or fabric scraps

Optional supplies:
1/2 inch sturdy wood dowel instead of stick

Multiple strings and toys

Steps:

Take your stick and string and tie a knot in the string around the end of you stick. Take your toy/bell/fabric/feather that you chose and tie a knot around that with the other end of the string. You can do this as many times as you want to make a fuller wand, alternating empty strings with strings with fun things on the end! Now you can wave, twitch, flutter and circle the wand around randomly so that the ribbon moves enticingly like an insect or bird or other prey.

2021 Pawliday Crafts for Kids: Day 3

Recycled Inventions

Supplies needed: Whatever you have in your recycle bin! Such as:

Cardboard boxes of different sizes but at least one large box to act as the base

Toilet rolls/paper towel rolls, empty wrapping paper rolls.

Packing paper, newspaper, wrapping paper

Plastic bottles and jugs (caps and labels removed)

Cardboard egg cartons

Plus:

Kibble or treats

Tape

Ribbon or string

Instructions:

Deconstruct one large cardboard box and lay it flat on the floor. This will be the base of our project.

Time to get creative! We will be creating food puzzles for our cat or dog using all of the items we have gathered. See photo below for inspiration.

photo credit: Kari Breed, a member of the Canine Enrichment group on Facebook

2021 Pawliday Crafts for Kids: Day 4

Cardboard Cat House

Supplies:

Cardboard Box – approx 20-24″ cube (or large enough to comfortably fit your cat!)

Scissors (to cut openings in box)

Embellishments – Craft Paint, Markers, Colored Pencils, Colored Paper, Ribbon, Stickers Etc.

Blanket, pillow, towel or cat bed

Instructions:

Flip Box upside down, flaps out to stabilize box (or you can tape flaps closed)

Cut round hole in the side for a door, large enough for your cat to fit through.

Cut smaller windows on sides of box

Now for the fun part – painting and decorating! There are SO many different ways that you can be creative with it!

Put blanket/pillow inside the box

Now your cat can enjoy their new hideaway house! Place some of your cat’s favorite treats inside to help encourage them to go in.

You can also donate your cat house to the shelter for our cats waiting for forever homes!

2021 Pawliday Crafts for Kids: Day 5

Pupsicles

Supplies needed:

Plastic cups or muffin tin (mini muffin tins or ice cube trays for cats or small dogs)

Can of 100% pumpkin puree

Dry kibble

Canned dog or cat food

Peanut Butter or Plain Greek Yogurt

Milk bones, bully sticks or other long treat for the “handle”

Low sodium chicken or beef broth

Water

*feel free to get creative and use other ingredients your pet likes! Canned tuna or salmon, dehydrated pet food-reconstituted, etc also make good options.

Instructions:

Layer the ingredients in the cup, muffin tin or ice cube tray

Add the handle treat

Add a splash of broth and fill the rest of the cup with water

Place in freezer and freeze

To thaw and pull popsicle out of cup, run some warm water on the outside of the cup and then tip cup over and pull on handle. Or set muffin tin in a shallow try of warm water if they don’t pop out easily on their own.