So this weekend we celebrated my niece's 7th birthday! It was nice.. I had cake.. and ice cream! Now that I got my guilty confession out the way, I wanted to talk about a fun idea we kind of came up with using some left over party blowers, paper clips and construction paper!

The object of the game is simple: knock over as many insects as you can, using the tongue of your chameleon!

Two players stand on opposite sides of a line that separates the table in half. Stack the cards up across the line on the table. Each card has a unique insect and number representing the value of that bug.

At the count of 3, the players will try to knock as many bugs into the opposing players side until all the cards are knocked over. Once all the cards are down on either side, add up the "bug points" to see who has more points on their side. Who ever has the lower "insect score" wins!!!

Let's get into the instructable:

Step 1: Materials

For this instructable, you will need the following:

construction paper https://amzn.to/2C4uzRx
paper clips https://amzn.to/2PVJEaG
party blowers https://amzn.to/2NzJMLy
color markers https://amzn.to/2MEgAXi
printer (Optional) https://amzn.to/2C6K2k4
glue https://amzn.to/2NxjY2G

Step 2: Print or Trace This Template

Ok so let's start with the cham's... print out this template so you can use it to make a trace. If you aren't able to print out the template, you can very easily tape white paper to your computer screen and trace along the line. This white paper cutout will make a nice trace we can use to make multiple cham heads on construction paper.

Step 3: Assemble the Chameleon Blower

Once you have your construction paper cutout, fold along the grey lines and cut along the dotted line. Glue the spots that are shaded and let the head dry.

We now have a basic head we can customize to our liking! I added horns along with big cartoonish eyes to one (Jackson chameleon) and a large head piece as well as big eyes to another (veiled chameleon). Since chameleons come in all shapes and sizes, you can let your imagination roam with this part. Lastly, we add our tongue and wrap tape around the back to secure it in place!

Step 4: Making the Insect Cards

Lets start by cutting out the base for the cards. Folding a sheet of white construction paper down until we have the ideal size of the card we want, I simply cut along the folded edges until I have 10 individual cards cut from that sheet. I do the same thing with the colored paper except this time, folding once more to get a slightly smaller card and cut those pieces out.

Once we got our cards cut, we fold the paper clips into a T shape and sandwich glue them so that there is a color on each side of the white card and the paper clip firm between the two of those cards.

Step 5: Design the Bugs

For this specific part of the project I randomly come up with some insects I thought looked best for the game. the easiest way to get good looking bugs is to fold a small sheet of paper in half and cut out a series of half shapes that would reveal the full shape once the paper is unfolded.

For the numbers, I cut out random numbers in sets of two so that each bug had a specific number assigned to it. glue every and let it dry!

A small 2 foot strip of green paper would be the base line to separate the table in half.

Step 6: Let the Licking Begin!!!!

Now that we have our cards and chameleons put together, we can set things up to play! The green strip of construction paper will separate the two teams.

Knowing how much I love chameleons and coming up with creative DIY ideas like the Paludarium Ive built for them in the past, my aunt knew I was more than willing to come up with something nifty for the children. This was a cute, simple and cheap project that all the kids enjoyed playing and putting it together is really half the fun!