Fun with Farm Animals – DIY Farm Animal Snack Cups

Inch by inch, row by row… it’s time to have some fun out on the farm! There’s nothing better during a day tending to the ranch – or the backyard – than grubbing on some delicious snacks, right? And what better than to eat them out of some absolutely adorable farm animal snack cups to go along with our animal chairs! Luckily, you don’t have to go searching online or scour the stores to find and purchase one of your child’s favorite animal. We’ve figured out how to make them with just a few supplies that you likely already have at home and in 5 easy, fun steps that you and your little rancher can do together!

What you’ll need:

• Large, white disposable paper or foam cups
• Pencils to sketch out the animal’s face on the front of the cup
• Paint
  • Depending on which animals you decide to paint, you’ll need to make sure you have some of these base colors on hand:
    • Black
    • Brown
    • Pink
    • Yellow
    • Orange
    • White
• Optional: You can jazz up your farm animal snack cups and make them extra life-like and fun with extra accessories! Note: If you decide to put on these fun extras, then you will need to make sure you also have some scissors and glue on hand. Some ideas for adding some extra flare to your farm animals are:
  • Feathers
  • Googly eyes
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Fuzz balls

How to make them:

1. Lightly sketch with a pencil where you plan the face to be on the cup
   • Note: Make sure you use a light pencil rather than a Sharpie. Also make sure the seam of the cup is on the opposite side of where you want the face to be!
   • Here’s a template of a few different farm animals that we’ve done for you to use as reference:
2. Make 1-3 coats of paint to cover the pattern of the sketch you did on the cup, depending on how light the base color is
   • Note: Make sure you turn the cup over and paint the bottom of the cup as well, for consistency!
3. Let the cup dry completely
4. Paint on the face and spots that you sketched out prior
   • Get creative! Use different colors for the different spots and parts of the animal’s face.
   • You can also lightly draw numbers or names of colors into paint areas so that your little one will know which color should go where.
5. Let the cup dry completely before filling up with your little farmer’s favorite snacks. Time to sit back on an Animal Play Chair and eat!

How to use them

It’s important to note that liquids may leak through the cup and compromise all your work on the outside, so we recommend filling them up with dry snacks like chips, crackers, trail mix or popcorn instead. However, if you do decide to use them as a drink cup, we recommend lining the inside of the cup with a separate plastic cup (not paper or foam) so that the outside of the painted cup does not get damaged. If your child is still small enough and using sippy cups, you can just pop the farm animal cup to the outside of their favorite sippy cup!

The best news is these cute cups don’t have to just be for snacks or drinks, either – there are tons of different ways you can use them! Here are some of our favorite ideas of ways to use them:

• Use as a pen, pencil, crayon or marker holder and organizer on your child’s desk
• Poke a hole at the bottom and use to plant herbs or other seedlings to get your very own garden or harvest started
• Give to family members as an adorable handmade gift
  • You can even fill them up with candy or other small gifts before wrapping up
• Keep in your child’s room to store loose change or allowance and start their savings
  • You can also put a lid on the cup and cut a slit on top for room to drop in coins
• Keep in your child’s bathroom to organize ponytail ties, hair bows, bobby pins and clips that often get lost in drawers and pockets
• Make a bunch as party favors for an animal or farm themed party
• Use as a teaching tool for very small children, such as – which sound does each make?
• Cut holes in the bottom and put a string through to make a garland for an adorable bedroom decoration

Animal Play Chairs

Our animal play chairs are super adorable, and what makes them even better is that at 14.5″ wide x 13″ deep and 29″ tall they are the perfect size to fit your little ones so they can sit back and take a rest after a long day of tending to the farm (or making farm animal snack cups!). As you know, safety is our biggest priority. That’s why, most importantly, the safety lock ensures that the chair stays fully open and that it will never collapse down, no matter how rowdy your cowboys or cowgirls may be.

With a padded back for extra comfort, a sturdy steel frame, durable cross-woven fabric, and ABS plastic textured feet, our animal play chairs are durable enough to last until long after the cows come home. They also fold up compactly into their own carry bags to take on the go and if you have more than one child, they each even have a designated space for your child to write his or her name!

What if you’re not a farm animal fan? The good news is our animal play chairs come in all types of different animals, such as a dog, duck, wolf, or zebra! The better news is if your child is more of a city slicker, we even have solid colors such as red, blue, green or a tri-color option of all three.

Let us know!

 Did you make some Farm Animal Snack Cups? Let us know how they turned out, and how you decided to use them, in the comments below!