Make your own windmill mouse house

We all know that mice live in windmills in old Amsterdam - so why not create this windmill play house to store your mouse finger puppets? The windmill is made from a H2 drink bottle, covered in colourful foam. Make mouse sized furniture from your bottle lids too!

You will need: One H2 empty plastic bottle and one or two lids
Coloured foam
Pink felt
Thick card
White cotton thread and a needle
Blusher
All purpose glue
Double sided tape
Scissors
Pencil
Ruler
Felt tip pen

Click to open windmill and mouse pattern 1

Click to open windmill and mouse pattern 2

1
Print out the windmill and mouse patterns from this web page, cut out all the pattern pieces and draw around them onto the colour of foam or felt you would like to use. Cut out all your pieces. Ask an adult to help you cut the window holes in the windmill side piece.
Print out the windmill and mouse patterns from this web page, cut out all the pattern pieces and draw around them onto the colour of foam or felt you would like to use. Cut out all your pieces. Ask an adult to help you cut the window holes in the windmill side piece.

2
Mark a large door on the back of the bottle in the smooth central area, 3cm up from the base and 9cm down from the neck opening. Make the door 6cm wide.
WARNING: Get an adult to cut the door in your bottle using a sharp pointed pair of scissors, make sure they round off the door corners so that the edges aren't sharp.

3
Assemble the windmill side by sticking on the windowsills and shutters, door and yellow trim on to the wall piece using double sided tape. Draw small pencil lines on the shutters to look like slats.

4
Draw pencil lines on the windmill blades to look like fins. Glue the two windmill blades together in the centre to make a large cross shape. Assemble the windmill roof by sticking the lower roof pieces to the apex ends. Apply glue to the edge of each piece, wait until the glue is tacky then join the pieces together. Glue the upper roof pieces on top in the same way.



5
Place pieces of double sided tape on the bottle, either side of the door opening and around the base. Wrap the windmill wall piece around the bottle, starting next to the door opening. Cut away the door opening area and use more tape to stick down the pieces above and below the door.



6
Place the mouse head card in the centre of the mouse head piece of felt. Apply glue all around the edge of the card and the felt. Leave until the glue is tacky, then pull the felt edges up and stick onto the card. Hold until the glue dries. Place a line of glue along the base of each ear and pinch the centre. Glue onto the back of the head. Glue on a small circle of felt for the nose and draw on two eyes using a black pen.



7
Place a line of glue along one of the straight edges of the mouse body, then roll it into a cone shape. Glue the top of the cone closed. Glue the tail in position near the bottom of the body.



8
Glue the mouse head to the body, and the head backing in place on the back of the head. Add blusher with your finger to make rosy cheeks and add colour inside the ears. Stitch a few whiskers using white cotton thread. Add a tiny blob of glue to the thread as you pull it inside the nose, so that the whiskers don't fall out. Trim the ends.



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Make mouse furniture too!
Use your bottle tops to make mouse sized furniture for your windmill. Use the blue and white part of the top with a circle of foam glued onto the white drinking spout for a table. Make chairs by gluing a piece of foam shaped like a chair back around the clear part of the bottle tops, and adding a foam circular cushion.