If you love arts and crafts and want to have a go at making your very own jungle, you’ve come to the right place. This article gives an array of ideas for beginners and those looking for more adventurous crafting projects, so read on for inspiration. There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to art so let your imagination roam free. 

Jungle Crafts for Youngsters

The Lion Inside, a lion and mouse book by Rachel Bright, is a wonderful tale likely to inspire your little ones. Not only does it teach life-long lessons about self-love and acceptance but it might ignite your little one’s fascination with the jungle. If the latter is true you can teach them about this fascinating landscape by creating a large jungle-themed picture.

To do this, simply paint the sky blue and the grass green. Cut out brown tree trunks from construction paper and stick them down. Then cut out a lot of different shaped leaves for the trees and stick these above the tree trunks. If you’re feeling adventurous you could even go and collect leaves to stick down or make leaf prints using paint. 

You can then make a variety of jungle creatures using stencils, colouring crayons, coloured paper and more before adding them to their jungle habitat. Or, keep the background plain and find some toy jungle animals to play with. Snakes, tigers, lions, birds and anything similar you can find in the toy cupboard will be perfect. 

3D Jungle Crafts

Turn up the difficulty level by creating a 3D jungle scene. The easiest way to do this is by decorating a shoebox in jungle colours and making your own 3D props. To make 3D trees for your creation, gather some toilet roll tubes and paint them brown. When dry, cut slits in the top and insert handmade paper green leaves for the canopy. You could also make an origami lion that stands up by following tutorials online. 

Adding real leaves, sticks, painted stones and other objects from nature will also help to bring your 3D jungle craft to life. Again, you can add plastic jungle creatures at the end to make it even more realistic. 

Top Tip: When it comes to decorating your shoe box, try to be as creative as possible. While painting the box is a quick way to add jungle colours, you might want to layer the paint background with different coloured paper cut up to create a camouflage effect. The more layering you can do, the more realistic your art project will look. Remember, your paper doesn’t have to be stuck down perfectly. The jungle is a rugged and wild place, so it’s ok for your setting to be imperfect. 

If you’re looking for a lion read for inspiration, check out The Lion Inside. This beautiful tale has also been transformed into a magical theatre production for children. It’s based on the lion story book of the same name and is a great way to introduce little ones to the big stage.