Easy Popsicle Stick Turkey Craft

Very easy Popsicle Stick Turkey Craft! A Thanksgiving turkey craft for toddlers, the littles and kids of all ages. The materials may already be in your craft closet and if not, these little turkeys can be made as a Dollar Store Thanksgiving craft. A fun group craft project to keep the littles occupied during Thanksgiving dinner prep.

I have always found the turkey craft materials at the dollar store year round. Googly eyes are key to making a Popsicle Stick Turkey; however, the colors of the feathers can be up to the crafters’ imagination.

Three Ways To Make Popsicle Stick Turkeys

Regular size popsicle sticks – plain or with colors
Jumbo size popsicle sticks – plain or with colors
Turn your popsicle sticks into a Popsicle Stick Turkey Magnet

How To Make Popsicle Stick Turkey

Materials

Popsicle Sticks or Craft Sticks – Plain or With Colors – Jumbo or regular size

Foam Paper or Construction Paper

Googly Eyes

Tiny craft magnets

Glue Gun or craft glue

Directions

The directions are the same for any size popsicle stick.
Choose the popsicle stick to make the turkey body.
Decide upon a color scheme for the turkey feathers.
Make the feathers.
Free style cut out a paper feather. Cut out different size lengths if using narrow feathers.
The length and width of the paper feather is up to the crafter. I suggest making a sample “turkey” to judge the size of the paper feather in proportion to the size of popsicle stick being used.
Optional, but adds a nice touch is feathering the feathers.
Make slight angle cuts in the edge of each feather.
Turn over the popsicle stick body.
Make the paper feather base. The base is the made by staggering the feathers at an upward angle around the edge of the popsicle stick with each end on the body of the popsicle stick.
Glue the paper feathers to the popsicle stick. Craft glue works well for construction paper feathers and a glue gun works better for foam paper feathers.
As to how many paper feathers per turkey are used is up to each crafter. The paper feathers can be layered upon top of each other or larger paper feathers can be used. This is totally freestyle crafting. There is no right or wrong.
If layering the paper feathers each layer of paper feathers will be glued on back of each other, but the end of the paper feather will be on the back of the popsicle stick turkey body (but on the back of the already glued feathers).
Feather Tip: If layering the feathers as shown below. Use different sizes of paper feathers. The longer paper feathers will be the outside layer of the feathers.
After the paper feathers dry the eyes, beak and gobble can be glued.
Start with the eyes! Placing the googly eyes makes the turkey! Again this is freehand placing there is no right or wrong placement, however the eyes should be placed about 1 inch from the top of the popsicle stick.
Cut the nose by cutting out long narrow triangles.
Cut the gobble by cutting out a long narrow zig zag.
Place the nose after the eyes.
Place the gobble after the nose.

Make The Turkey A Group Thanksgiving Craft

This is an easy craft to occupy the littles while Thanksgiving dinner is being prepped. The feathers can be cut in advance in different sizes and colors. Set up a craft table and let the turkeys roll!

One year the popsicle stick turkeys were turned into name place cards for the table. Use a sharpie to write the guests’ came and place the turkey on the plate. The littles love participating!

Make A Popsicle Stick Turkey Kitchen Magnet

Turn that cute little popsicle stick turkey into a refrigerator magnet. One of my favorite items in the craft stash are the mini magnets. Originally purchased for another craft I have found so many uses for the magnet in crafting!

After the turkeys are finished simply glue a mini magnet on the back of the stick to make an easy Turkey magnet.

Should I Use Craft Glue or a Glue Gun?

After making quite a few turkeys with both a glue gun and craft glue I found that it the paper used can dictate which type of glue. For foam paper I tend to use a glue gun and for construction paper I tend to use craft glue.

For the mini magnets I use a dab from a glue gun and the easy Popsicle Stick Turkey magnet is finished!

How To Make Googly Eyes Stick

The key to making animals with popsicle sticks are the googly eyes! Sounds simply enough! But googly eyes can be elusive creatures at times to make stick. Most googly eyes now come with a self stick adhesive and again that sounds simply enough and… the darn eyes do not always stick.

The lack of stickiness can be frustrating as it there is nothing like finishing a googly eye craft (particularly if it is a gift) and wake up to missing eyeballs! Hey, that is just so not right!

I’ve made a ton of googly eye crafts and sometimes the issue is not with the self stick googly eye, but is with the fabric or material being used. Some googly eyes and fabric do not play well together. Some googly eyes and paper do not play well together. How rude!

There is no need to abandon the craft as a little experimentation may be necessary. I examine in detail the four ways to make googly eyes stick so your googly eye crafts live on with the googly eyes intact.