Make The Very Hungry Caterpillar Table Centerpiece Decorations

My friends and I collaborated on this "Oh Soooo Adorable" caterpillar table centerpiece for an Eric Carle themed baby shower. We had chosen The Very Hungry Caterpillar book as the main theme for the shower so we incorporated the adorable caterpillar, bright primary colors and foods found in the book into the decorations.

Cupcake Garden Box:
2 sheets of cardstock
Garden Fence Border Punch by Martha Stewart.
Adhesive
Paper cutter with score blade

7 Diaper Cupcakes:
7 diapers
14 small rubber bands
7 strips of ribbon about 8 inches long
7 white coffee filters

Caterpillar:
Six - 3" Styrofoam Balls
One - 5" Styrofoam Ball
7 Wood Skewers (used for grilling)
Wood Toothpicks
Red, Green, Yellow and Blue Paints
A Pair of google eyes
A black brad or eyelet
8 Pipe Cleaners-any color
Sponge- cut into 4 pieces
Spray glitter-optional

Cupcake Garden Box:
With your scoring blade, score 4" down from the top of your page and then another 4 inches down so that you have three - 4" sections. On the top and bottom of your two sheets of cardstock, punch out the garden fence border. Now place adhesive down the right side of one of your pages and place the left side of the other page on top of the adhesive overlapping about a half inch. You should have one large sheet of cardstock now. Score one inch in on the left and right side of the large piece of cardstock. Now fold all your scored lines. On the outside score lines that were scored one inch in from the outside you will need to cut down the score lines on the top and bottom but not through the middle. This will give you two flaps on each end. You will need to place adhesive on the outside of the flaps and when you fold the score lines together you will glue the cut flaps into the inside of the box. This will keep the box sides up.

The Diaper Cakes:
Take a diaper and fold it in half long ways then roll up like a cinnamon roll and place a rubber band around it. Then place the diaper roll into a white coffee filter and place a rubber band around that. Cover the rubber band with a strip of ribbon tied around the cupcake. Continue until you have 7 cupcakes made and then place them in the cupcake garden box.

The Caterpillar:
Using a piece of the sponge, cover the 5" Styrofoam ball with red paint. This will become the caterpillars' head. Paint the six 3" Styrofoam balls with green paint and allow to dry. Once dry using another sponge piece blot yellow and blue paint onto the smaller balls and allow to dry. This gives the similar effect of the multi-colors used in Eric Carle's illustration of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Once all the Styrofoam balls are dry, spray with glitter to give the caterpillar extra sparkle. We used silver glitter spray to go with the silver pipe cleaners I used for legs and antenna.

Push one of the wood skewers across the top of the red Styrofoam ball to make two holes for the antenna. Thread a pipe cleaner through the two holes and bend the ends upwards to make the antenna. Roll the ends of the pipe cleaners inwards to make curls on the ends of the antenna. One the six smaller balls do the same technique but on the bottom of the balls for the legs. Poke the wood skewers through the bottom of the balls and then thread the pipe cleaners through the holes. Bend the pipe cleaners down for the legs and roll the bottoms to form curls.

On the front of the red ball, glue on the google eyes. Then push the brad or eyelet into the front of the ball for the nose. Next snip about an inch piece of pipe cleaner off of one of the pipe cleaners and push the ends it into the face to form the mouth.

Push one wooden skewer into the bottom of each of the Styrofoam balls. You can cut the ends of the skewers to different sizes and that will give the caterpillars body a curvy look. Place each wooden skewered Styrofoam ball into each of the diaper cupcakes. Using the wood toothpicks, attach each of the Styrofoam balls to each other.