This Instructable will give you some ideas and show you how to make some Card Creatures from extra cards you have laying around. Often, when you buy a new card game, there will be 'extra cards' that have advertisements and things on them - useless for play, but useful for creating. Cards leftover from games that a card (or cards) have been lost from, or unused cards from other projects (such as hats, boxes, bags, etc.) are excellent for this as you only need a few cards for each creature. I have made these with cards ranging from 2-6 (9 on the really big one), but these are just some ideas - feel free to come up with your own. This would be a good project for kids. Simple, yet fun to make.

Step 1: What You Need

- Cards
- Scissors or knife
- Stapler
- Extra staples

- I didn't color any of mine, but since these are 'extra' or 'leftover' cards, you may want to color or paint over them to make them look better.

NOTE: You should be able to see how to staple the pieces together by looking at the completed creatures (last picture in each step). The more complicated ones have more pictures to help with this. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Step 2: Creature #1

I used 4 cards on this one.
1. Fold one card in half, lengthwise. This is the main body.
2. Cut one card in half, lengthwise. Use one half for a leg, and one half for the neck. Fold each in half, width-wise.
3. Cut one card in half, use one half for the other leg, fold it in half width-wise. Take the other half and cut that in half lengthwise, then fold it width-wise. This is the tail.
4. Cut one card in half width-wise, then fold it in half width-wise. Trim it a bit so it's not too big. This is the head.
5. Staple it all together.

Step 3: Creature #2

I used 3 cards on this one.
1. Fold one card in half, lengthwise. This is the main body.
2. Fold one card in half width-wise, then cut out a circular shape for the head.
3. Cut one card in 8 pieces (though we'll only use 7) width-wise. These will be legs, tail, and neck pieces.
4. Staple it all together. I also shortened the legs on mine after I put it all together.

Step 4: Creature #3

I started out with 3 regular-size cards and 1 jumbo-size card, but ended up adding 5 more regular-size cards to add stability. This one reminds me of that character that's always doing something silly; like being clumsy, randomly falling asleep, or in his case, falling over. I have been able to get it to stand up for perhaps a couple seconds before it falls, but that's about it. I think if I were to add four more cards (one to each leg, like I did on the neck), it would help a lot, but I didn't want to use any more cards on this one at the time - plus I kind of like it having that 'random falling over' trait.
1. Take the jumbo-size card and cut it lengthwise in five pieces. These will be the legs and the neck.
2. Take one card and fold it in half width-wise. This is the head.
3. Staple all of these together. Head to neck, neck and leg bases in between the other two cards. (Picture 2)
4. Fold a card in half lengthwise; add it to the neck, stapling only at the base where the card attaches with the body. (Picture 3)
5. Fold four cards in half width-wise. Staple one card to each leg, bending the leg enough to make a foot. (Picture 4)
6. At this point it will only stand very briefly. If you like the 'wobbly' idea, you can stop here like I did. Or, if you want to try and make it stand, proceed to Step 7 (Not pictured, as I didn't do this. I think it would work, but one only knows by trying.)
7. Take four cards and fold them in half lengthwise. Staple one card to each leg.

Step 5: Creature #4

I used 2 cards on this one.
1. Fold one card in half lengthwise. This is the main body.
2. This one card needs to serve 3 purposes:
     First, cut two strips lengthwise (legs). They should each be around 1/3 the width of half the card, if you folded it lengthwise - but don't fold the card.
     Second, cut two smaller pieces about the same width as the leg pieces, but about 1/3 the length of the leg pieces. One will be the head, and one will be the neck.
     Third, take the remaining bit of card, and cut a circular shape to be the head.
3. Staple it all together.

Step 6: Creature #5

I used 3 cards on this one. (Pardon the weirdness induced by using the designs on two of these... It's what I had.)
1. Fold one card in half width-wise. This is the main body.
2. Take one card and cut a piece off lengthwise. It should be about 1/4 the width of the card. Fold the bigger piece in half width-wise, it will be the head. The smaller piece will be the neck.
3. Take one card and cut it width-wise into four pieces. These will be the legs.
4. Staple it all together. Bend the legs a bit width-wise (about 1/3 of the length) for feet.

Step 7: Creature #6

This one is by far my favorite. (Saved the best for last). I used 6 cards on this one.
1. Fold one card in half lengthwise. This is the main body.
2. Cut one card in half width-wise, then fold each piece in half lengthwise. These are the legs.
3. Fold one card in half width-wise. This is the wing base.
4. Cut one card in half lengthwise. These will be the wing extensions.
5. Cut one card width-wise in eight pieces. These will be the wing 'spikes'. Fold each one in half width-wise.
6. Cut one card in half diagonally. One half will be the head, the other will be the neck. Also refer to pictures 2-4 to set these up.
7. Staple it all together.