It’s hard for us to choose a favorite book of all time, but we can certainly say that when it comes to books about manners, Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins takes the, er, cake. The story of one impolite little cake who learns manners from a not-so-terrifying cyclops is a must-read for all parents teaching their kiddos the finer points of their P’s and Q’s. To inspire ourselves and the little ones to be on our most polite behavior, Chronicle Books, the publisher of Rude Cakes, has shared this fun activity to make a cyclops’ trademark eye.
Step 1: Take a piece of normal printer paper, and fold one corner to the opposite as shown above.
Step 2: Cut off extra paper. You now have a lovely square piece of paper!
Step 3: Fold and unfold the paper so there are two creased lines diagonally bisecting the paper.
Step 4: Fold in corners so that they touch in the middle.
Step 5: By halves, fold each of those corners in one more time on both sides.
Step 6: Fold in along pre-creased lines, as shown above.
Step 7: In the open space, draw your pupil and iris!
Step 8: Fold in one more time to create eyelids. You can kind of start to see the eyeball taking shape!
Step 9: Fold and unfold your piece in half, to create a good crease.
Step 10: Flip your eyeball over so that the eyelids are on the table. Fold the corners in so that they kiss at that center crease.
Step 11: This is the trickiest step. Fold each of the four corners up so that the creases of the fold meet at each of the half-way mark creases created by previous steps. This is what creates the final eyeball shape, so feel free to flip it over and check your work as you go. I did this a few times to make sure it was a shape I liked.
Step 13: Color in the eyelids whatever color your like! I chose green because it’s my favorite. But remember: cyclopses come in all colors of the rainbow!
Find the book Rude Cakes in your local Pottery Barn Kids store. Thank you to Chronicle Books and Maggie Tokuda-Hall for letting us share this fun craft with you!
