Cheery Easter Chick

This delightful Easter chick is happy to welcome spring. From her curly wire head feathers to the sparkling eggs at her feet, she's just as sweet as can be.

Materials:

• STYROFOAM Brand Products:
  • 6" x 1" disc, one
  • 4" snowball, one
  • 2" ball, one
  • 9" x 1-1/4" x 3/4" wreath, one
  • 2-1/2" x 1-7/8" eggs, three
• Acrylic paints: berry red, black, orange, pastel pink, regency blue, spring green, too blue, white, yellow
• Sparkle waterbase varnish
• Paintbrushes: 5/8" glaze; Nos. 2 and 10 shader; No. 3 round
• Cotton fabric, spring print, 13" x 2" strip
• Wooden ball knobs, 5/8", two
• 22-gauge yellow plastic-coated wire
• Serrated knife
• Candle stub or paraffin
• Glues: low-temp glue gun and glue sticks; white craft
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Wire cutters
• Fine-line black permanent marking pen
• Paper towels
• Disposable palette

Steps:

1. Paint foam disc (head) and wreath (body) yellow. Let dry.
    
2. Wax serrated knife with a candle stub or paraffin. Use knife to cut 4" ball in half. (Note: Reserve one half for a future project.) Cut remaining half ball in half again. Using photo as guide, make two indentations in rounded side of each piece to form the webbed feet.
    
3. Cut 2" ball in equal quarters. Using photo as a guide, press one piece on a rigid surface to round the edges and shape into a triangular beak. (Note: Reserve remaining three quarters for a future project.)
    
4. Paint webbed feet and beak orange. Paint wooden knobs black for eyes. Let dry.
    
5. Glue eyes close together to head with beak centered just below. Paint a white dot highlight on each eye. Paint cheeks orange, let dry, and then brush over them with sparkle varnish.
    
6. Draw eyebrows and mouth on chick with black marking pen.
    
7. Cut 13 assorted lengths of yellow wire. Wrap each wire one at a time around a paintbrush handle to curl and then remove. Glue and insert wire curls into center top of head to resemble a tuft of feathers.
    
8. Basecoat eggs spring green, too blue, and berry red. Let dry. To paint dots on eggs, press paintbrush handle into foam to form a shallow indentation and then dot with paint. On the green egg, paint regency blue dots in clusters of three. Fill in with single berry red dots. On the blue egg, paint single white dots and yellow pinstripes. On the red egg, paint pastel pink flowers with yellow centers and spring green leaves. Let dry.
    
9. Apply a coat of sparkle glaze to each egg. Let dry.
    
10. Use photo as a guide to assemble chick. Glue head to body, overlapping top; glue webbed feet side by side to bottom of body. Arrange and glue eggs to chick's body and feet.
     
11. Tie fabric strip in a bow and glue off center to bottom of head.

®™ Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") or an affiliated company of Dow. For more project ideas, please see styrofoamstyle.com.