This is how you make a Crazy Catching Frog Automata. Good luck!

Step 1: What You Will Need

A cardboard box (step 1 for more info)

Scissors

Two balloons (any colour)

Newspaper

Papier Mache glue (step 3 for more info)

White paper

Keyboard piece (or something like a keyboard piece)

Googly eyes and netting

Bendable wire

2 Bottle top lids for handles

Paint of your choice (blue, green)

Green paper for Lily Pads (optional)

Solid foam for Frogs tongue

1 Toilet roll for frogs eyes

Permanent marker for drawing frogs detail

Hot glue gun (be careful not to burn yourself)

Step 2: Step 1

First you need to get a box of your choice, depending on the size of the Frog and Fly. The length of our box is about 40cm approximately.

Step 3: Step 2

Next you need to poke 1 hole on top of the box and 2 holes on the sides. With the hole on the top, Choose any side of the box, but not on the very edge. Leave about 7 centimetres from the edge, then punch in the hole with some scissors.

Step 4: Step 3

Next blow up 2 balloons (one smaller than the other) and Papier Mache them with two layers of newspaper first, and the 1 layer with white paper so its easy to see the paint clearly. Also cut a toilet roll in half (as the eyes) and Papier Mache them too.

Recipe for Glue for Papier Mache

Equal amount of flour and water

Mix well

Now its ready to use

Step 5: Step 4

Now its time to make the fly. We used Hot glue, a recycled Keyboard letter, some googly eyes and some netting as the wings.

Step 6: Step 5

Now make a Crank, we used a piece of wire and bent it into a half square, one up and one down. (see photo for more info) Make sure all the bends line up with the holes that we poked in earlier. Put each ends of the wire through the holes on the sides.

Step 7: Step 6

Now punch in holes with scissors in the middle of a lid. Thread the wire (that was coming out the side of the box) through the lid. Now hot glue them on the end of the wires (1 each side) as handles.

Step 8: Step 7

Now get some more wire (we recommend thinner) and thread and Hot glue it on one of the half squares underneath. Poke it through the hole on the top of the box. Attach the fly to the end of the wire thats poking out of the box. We blu-tacked it on.

Step 9: Step 8

Add some colour and detail into the box if liked, we made ours into a pond with Lily Pads. We also painted the sides a purple blue colour.

Step 10: Step 9

Make a tongue out of foam or anything you like. Attach it to the Frogs mouth. We also painted ours red.

Step 11: Step 10

Now paint your frog a green colour and let it dry.

Step 12: Step 11

Hot glue the frogs body together. (Two toilet rolls on the top off the head as eyes, smaller papier mache ball for the head and biggest papier mache ball the body) and paint it green, or any colour you would like. Stick it to the box. Also add details to the frog with a permanent marker. (Eyes, mouth etc)

Step 13: Step 12

Now draw 2 legs in cardboard and cut them out. You can also paint them the same colour as the frog. Hot glue the legs on. We made ours look like it was leaning up against a tree. So we cut a rectangle shape out of cardboard for the trunk and hot glued it to the back of the frog. (this will support the frog too). Cut also cut a tree leave shape on top of the trunk and paint it.

Step 14: Step 13

Next make the grass. Get two pieces of A3, green paper (or any colour you would like), layer the two pieces on top of each other and cut shreds of it up the top. Glue the two layers together, to make it look like layers of grass. Glue to any side of the box.

Step 15: Finishing Touches

Now just to make sure everything is looking and working right, you can adjust things by, drawing over details, or maybe filling in a blank spot that you forgot to paint. Also make sure everything is attached and moving the way it should. Feel free to name your frog and fly! We named our frog, Freddy and our fly, Buzz.Note: If you’re confused about how this project moves, when you turn the handles on the sides, the fly should move around. It should look like the frog wants to eat the fly, because the frog is looking straight at it.We Hope you had fun making the Crazy Catching Frog! Because we sure did! We also hope you found these instructions helpful and yours worked out!

Step 16: Overall Review

We had a couple of difficulties with our Automata because originally we were going to have the tongue moving too but we couldn’t think of a way to make that happen but if you can, go for it! At the start the frog wasn’t going to be lazy but it was too heavy to stay upright but we still think it sets the scene having it being lazy.Some things we could change in the future is to make it more recycled so if you can that would be great.