Penguin Bowling

My wonderful mother recently shared a tutorial on Piggy Bank Parties and I thought I would share it here…

Seems like we’d been planning little John’s penguin birthday party for decades, but we were baffled about birthday party activities for one-year-olds. Then one day when I was drinking my breakfast (a Slimfast shake) I realized that the bottle has that signature hourglass shape that can be used for snowmen, dolls or PENGUINS! From there it was simple.

First I sprayed the bottles black (or you could just leave them white if you are making snowmen)

I then cut a pattern out of newspaper for the tummy and face (kind of a bottom heavy figure 8), which I traced onto white vinyl scraps. After cutting out the vinyl and peeling off the back, I applied the vinyl to the black bottle. This was the tricky part because the bottle is curved and the vinyl is not very elastic. I clipped edges and pricked bubbles to ease the process, but I still ended up with major wrinkles. The next time I do this I think I will place the vinyl on before the spray painting as a mask, then simply use black acrylic paint to do touch-ups by hand.

I painted on facial details with acrylic paint, and added a scarf made out of felt scraps cut ½” thick and about 12” long.

Finally, I filled the bottles about ¼ of the way full with rice (you could use beans) to add some weight to the bottoms.

I made a set of nine penguins for the bowling game, and we let the kids use a plastic ball to knock them over with. It was a BIG HIT!

Thanks for letting me share today. Hope you can use this idea at your next Winter themed activity.