Let's Start with Art

Welcome to the very first post on my new blog and the first post I've written in over a year. I miss writing. Not only is it a great creative outlet all on its own, but it's the creative outlet I use to connect all my other creative outlets.

Speaking of connecting, some of you may remember my cupcake blog, homeschool blog, and twenty pieces blog. This blog seeks to bring those blogs together and then some. There's a lot of fun and craziness going on around here and we've got a lot of Loverbee love to share. Stay tuned for posts on family life, homeschooling, art class, recipes, life in the country, my hubby's woodworking projects, and so much more.

So, without further ado, let's start off with a pop of color.

Unicorn color, that is. 

I've added a weekly art segment to our homeschool curriculum. This week my pre-k guy is learning about the letter "U". I found the cutest unicorn gift box idea on Pinterest. Click on the link to see the original craft.

We started off our project with tea boxes. We do a lot of upcycling around here.

We had to put two coats of tempera paint on our boxes which meant two different days of painting. Really, three would have been even better.

On the third day we were ready to decorate.

I pre-cut ears and horns for easier assembly. I also pre-cut strips of colored paper 8 1/2 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide for the hair. Just hold a stack of colored construction paper in the landscape position, eyeball 1/2 inch strips, and start cutting. 

Here is my template for the horn and ears.

Tape the folded sections of the ears down onto the top of your box. Cut the line on the circle to be able to fold over and roll into a cone shape. The tighter you roll it, the taller and thinner your horn will be. Tape to secure and then tape it to the top of your box. Most of the tape gets hidden by the rainbow hair you glue down.

Eyeball or measure the length of bangs and back mane you want to add to your box. We used glue to secure sections to the top of the box while folding over the sections we wanted to hang down as bangs or back mane. Do not put glue on these bottom hanging sections as glued down bangs will glue your box shut.

We used a black sharpie to draw faces and details and added some glitter glue accents as well.

Presenting... our unique unicorns. You go letter "U"! As you can see kids have an awesome way of interpreting instructions. I let my kids get jiggy with it in art class and do things their own way. I show them a sample, give them instructions, and then they get to interpret and create. I admire those gorgeous websites full of beautiful and perfect crafts, but when kids get involved the terms "beautiful" and "perfect" take on new meanings. Can you tell which one is mine?

My eldest actually turned his box into a unicorn lego game complete with a sandwich bag full of legos that can be put together to make a lego unicorn and a sandwich bag full of instructions. This kid has creativity spilling out his ears.

Happy unicorn making and see you back here for more fun.