7/10/14

The Cursive Project: Eel

Let me start by saying I am not afraid of snakes. I have no problem being near snakes, petting snakes or even holding snakes. I love spiders. When I find one in the house, I carry it safely outside (yes, with my hands) to help it find a proper home. I am fine with mice and rats. The creature of my nightmares?

Eels.

I absolutely hate eels. I'm not fond of fish in general, but I am completely freaked out by eels. I have to stand at least 10 feet back if I see one at an aquarium, even though it's quite obvious that the eel is not going to break through the glass, slither across dry land, and attack me. Doesn't matter. I hate eels.

Trevor knows that I hate eels. When he was making his list of craft ideas for The Cursive Project, I heard giggling. Sure enough, next to the letter E was the word "eel." (Actually, it said "ell." Spelling is Trevor's weakest subject by far.) He was going to force me to make up an eel craft. Ugh.

I guess he felt bad about making me craft a disgusting eel, because as we approached Letter E, he said that we could change our day's activity to something about eggs. I was tempted, but there are 80 billion egg crafts out there and almost no eel crafts. Not that I'm surprised. Why would anyone want to make something that looks like this?


*Shudder*

We worked together to brainstorm ideas for our eel. We looked around the house and yard for flexible cylindrical items that had eel potential. We settled on a piece of black foam pipe insulation. Then we gathered our other materials: black cardstock, white typing paper, yellow buttons, scissors, and Glue Dots.

We worked together to cut a dorsal fin and pectoral fins from black cardstock and attached them to the insulation with Glue Dots. Then we cut little white teeth from the white paper and attached them inside one end of the insulation. We cut black pupils from cardstock, added them to the buttons, and then put the buttons in place. Here is our version of an eel.


A closer look.  


Not quite as disgusting or creepy as a real eel, but still pretty disturbing. Unfortunately, Trevor loves the eel and refused my suggestion that we dismantle it as soon as I finished taking pictures. Now I have to live with this thing in my house. Ugh.

12 comments:

  1. LOL!!! When coming up with E words ... I totally thought EEL ... and I was like... ummmmmmmm no way ... she wouldn't do an EEL!! LOL!!! And here it is :) I loveeeeeeeeeee it!!! Awesome!!!!!!

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  2. Hahahahahahaha! Eels make me laugh; they always seem to have a funny expression on their face! W/ that being said I get your fear...after all, if you recall, I am the woman who is afraid of Blue Whales! I don't think you can get any weirder than that! Anyway, despite your fear, you came up w/ a great, cute project! The fake eel has the same expression as a real eel!

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    1. I forgot about the blue whales! You're right - can't get much weirder than that! ;)

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  3. Oh my goodness!!! Well, it's way cuter than the real thing, at least! I was racking my brain trying to imagine E words - I was thinking it was maybe Star Wars-related! :) I have a fear of frogs and toads. Josh assures me that there are no poisonous frogs anywhere near us, they won't hurt me ... but I don't want anything to do with them. Icky!! So I completely understand how you feel about eels. I wouldn't want to do frog crafts. :)

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    1. Isn't funny that we all seem to have that one thing! Do you avoid frogs/toads on scrapbook supplies? I know Bella Blvd has a really cute frog paper in one of their boy birthday lines and I think I remember you using papers from that for your nephew. Thank goodness nobody makes eel patterned paper! *Shudder*

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    2. I did use the Bella Blvd frog on a layout! He was cute, and he had a party hat on, so he was OK with me! I'm so weird! LOL! There is only one other frog that I'm OK with ... I was away at a conference, browsing the hotel gift shop, and there was a frog garden statue with a crown. For some reason, I just really liked it. I have no idea why. I bought it and took it home, and Josh died laughing at me! :)

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  4. Hahaha...sorry you have to live with it in your house...but it's actually quite cute!
    You gotta give fish another try...you are missing out...eat at a fine dining restaurant (they have lunch sets that don't break the bank) where you can taste the freshness. Overcooked fish is the worst thing you can eat.

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    1. I've eaten plenty of fish in my life (never willingly- always because someone insisted or I had to to be polite), but eating it literally nauseates me and always has.

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  5. Great job! I do not find coming face-to-face with eels appealing but this is cute. I like eel in sushi, though.

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  6. This turned out super cute. Great idea to use the insulation. I bought some of that once to use as a wreath form instead of buying a Styrofoam wreath form. Much less expensive! I duck-taped the ends together to form a circle. Back to your project, as for the eels, I say: you conquered your fear!

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