Conkers are a great craft resource, they’re also free! There’s so much you can use them for and conker snails are fun to make and much safer for smaller children than swinging a hard item on a string around!
It’s a great way to spend time with your kids doing something creative.
What you’ll need
- Conkers
- Sharpie
- Plasticine, Fimo, or Playdoh
- Pipe cleaners
- Glitter
- PVA
How to make your conker snail
First gather your conkers and make sure they’re clean. Take your moulding material (we used Playdoh) and make the body of a snail. The easiest way to do this is to roll out a sausage, around 1cm in width and then turn the end up to make the head.
Once you’ve made your snail base you can add your conker for the snail shell. That’s the basic conker snail, but there’s so much more you can do, here are our favourites.
Shell decoration
Using the sharpie, draw the shell patterns on the side of the conker. Or, if you want to add some texture, take a pipe cleaner and wind it around into a spiral then stick to the side of the shell using PVA or hot glue if you have it. You can also use a small piece of pipe cleaner as the antenna, simple bend in the middle and gently push down into the head of your snail.
You can also go sparkly! First roll your conker in PVA, then roll it in glitter. Once dry, you can use the sharpie to add the details or add a sparkly pipe cleaner swirl.
If you’d prefer your snail to be more traditional but you want it to look a little shinier, cover the conker and body in PVA for a glossy finish. You could also get small wobbly eyes to stick on and even use nail varnish to create the swirls.
We really love these ones
https://www.facebook.com/messylittlemonster/posts/conker-snails/1153534868137620/ 
