5 Minute Craft

I've been making friends with a lot of photographers on Facebook lately. It's helpful for ideas on posing, locations, and angles. Anyway, earlier this week, one of them posted a link to an Etsy page. It was a "Lens Friend", and they wanted $15.99 each. Ouch... They were cute, though, and great for people who photograph kids.

I started to look at them, and realized that she's using a scrunchy for the base, and then stitching felt onto them for funny faces, and what not. Well, I can do that!

I thought it would be easy enough to find scrunchies at the dollar store. I was wrong. I wound up buying an 8 pack at Wally world for $5. More than I wanted to spend, but since I plan to make a few of these, I figured why not.

I have been told that regular size ones will not work with a lens hood, or some of the larger SLR lenses. But, they should work on regular lenses, and any digital camera that has a lens that sticks out. In other words, they won't work on pocket cameras where the lens disappears, they're too small.

You'll Need:

Felt
Scrunchie
Scissors
Buttons, Googly Eyes, or Gemstones
Hot Glue or Needle & Thread

Step 1- Pick your scrunchie, and have an animal in mind for it. I chose a green scrunchie and a frog.
Step 2- Cut eyes, arms, & legs from felt. If your animal has spots, add spots as well.
Step 3- Glue your eyes together. For mine, I also added gemstones to the center. I've seen them with googly eyes, too.
Step 4- I chose to glue mine together for the sake of time. I glued each piece on, and Viola! It was done.

I've seen some with featther fluffs added to the head for hair. I've even seen the Alien from Toy Story, with the three eyes.

Have fun with it, and if you take pictures often, make a couple up, so you can swap them out when the kids start getting crabby.

Also- I didn't realize how hard it would be to take a photo of it ON the camera, until I tried. I finally got a decent one- using my rear view mirror in my car, of all things!