Easy Clay Pot Turkey Craft

Looking for Last minute Thanksgiving crafts? You will love this easy Clay Pot turkey craft using a Terra cotta pot! These make a great craft for kids or adults! 

This article originally published Nov 21, 2016. It has been updated for your convenience.

It is Thanksgiving Season again! Are you ready? This time of year we love to pull out our earth-toned craft supplies and get in some last minute Thanksgiving crafts.

And what is something that all kids love? Feathers and googly eyes! So Miss Jade and I put together this simple Clay Pot Turkey Craft!

Just like all our crafts for kids, we keep it simple. And something that can easily be done in a single afternoon. The longest part is simply waiting for the paint to dry and that only takes an hour!

A great way to do this is set up the painting in the morning for an easy morning activity. Go about your day as the paint dries. Or you can put together our other fun Apple Turkey Edible Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids. It’s snack time and a craft all in one!

It’s a great activity to keep kids engaged while you wait for the paint to dry for the Clay Pot Turkey Craft.

After your lunch, come back and have a fun afternoon activity finishing up the Clay Pot Turkey Craft!

Enough chatting, let’s get to the good stuff! The Turkey Craft instructions!

DIY Clay Pot Turkey Craft

Watch our Video Tutorial HERE:

You can also view it on Youtube

Clay Pot Turkey Supplies:

• Small Terra Cotta (clay pot)
• FolkArt Acrylic Paint – Maple syrup brown
• Feathers – I did a mixture of Flat feathers and Kids color turkey feathers
• Googly Eyes
• craft Foam sheets in red, gold/yellow, & brown
• Hot Glue gun dual temperature
• foam paint brush

Step 1: Paint the clay pot.

This is a fun activity all on its own. I laid down a little plastic sheet. And then poured a little brown acrylic paint into a paint pallet and showed Miss Jade how to paint the clay pot.

Then I turned her loose. She had so much fun painting it. And since it is just one color, you don’t have to worry about mixing colors or staying within the lines.

Once the clay pot is painted, simply set it aside for 1 hour while it dries.

Step 2: Cut out the Foam

I almost feel bad that we really only use a tiny piece of each color of the foam sheets. But seeing as you can normally get them for under $1 sheet, it’s not so bad. Plus then you can turn the kids loose on the left-overs to be creative to their heart’s desire.

You will measure the tip of the brown sheet onto the back of the clay pot. Mark where it hits the lip of the clay pot and then trim off the tip at that point. This way it will lay flat on the clay pot and you won’t have to worry about the ridge.

Next, trace the small end of the clay pot in the yellow foam sheet. Cut out the circle. Cut the circle in half. You will use the half circle for the beak of the turkey.

Use the same half circle to cut out a small rectangle from the red sheet. Simply use it as a size gauge. Use a small rectangle that is the same size as the half circle.

Take the red rectangle and cut in your own design style the snood for the turkey. What’s a Snood you ask? It’s that red dangly thing that is near the turkey’s beak. So free hand it however you want.

If you have any questions on this part – watch our video tutorial above, it shows you how to do it.

Step 3: Glue it!

I do most of this craft with Hot glue because it was faster. MUCH faster. But since kids are involved you will want a low-temperature glue gun. Or a glue gun that has both high and low-temperature settings.

Definitely, use the low-temperature setting.

Glue the brown foam piece onto the back of the clay pot. This is a guide as to where to glue on the feathers. Plus gives a good texture so that the feathers will stay glued on.

Add glue to the brown foam and begin to lay feathers into place.

If you are doing this with kids, I had my daughter hand me each feather and tell me exactly where to place it. Yet because we are dealing with hot glue, I did the actual gluing part myself.

But you can always try to use Elmers Glue and let the kids go at it all on their own.

Although, I found that the Elmers Glue didn’t dry fast enough to keep the feathers in place.

And Miss Jade ended up getting a bit frustrated that the feathers would slide out of place. But it’s worth a try if you really want to turn the kids loose to do it themselves.

Step 4: Add the face. 

Place a dab of hot glue to the back of the snood (the red foam piece) and glue it into the center of the front of the turkey.

Add glue to the half circle and roll it to create a cone just as we did in our DIY Witch Hat Headband tutorial.

Fill the inside of the cone with more hot glue and then quickly place it in the center of the turkey face. You will slightly overlap the red Snood.

Place a dab of hot glue where you want an eye and quickly place the googly eye. Repeat this process for the 2nd eye.

Allow the hot glue to cool.

Now your Clay Pot Turkey craft is complete!

If you want to take your Clay Pot Turkey Craft to the next level, you can attach a tag and use them as a place setting nameplate for each guest for your Thanksgiving dinner.

Or attach white or yellow lights into the center hole of each Turkey Craft and use them as a light garland!

Want more Thanksgiving Crafts?

You may like our DIY Turkey Tulle Wreath Tutorial 

If you make your own Clay Pot Turkey Craft, be sure to Tag us on Instagram so we can see how it turned out!

Be sure to Pin our Clay Pot Turkey Craft for later!

⇓⇓