A Pinterest Win for Mommy

We took a note home on Thursday of last week that said for Valentines day all of the kids in Marcus's class needed to bring a Valentines Box (and Valentines of course) for the class party next Thursday.  I have to admit, I was surprised, I thought he would at least be in kindergarten before I had to accomplish this task but I guess it really starts in preschool.  Marcus and  I spent some time looking at Pinterest to see what he liked.  We settled on 2 finalist ideas-  he really like the post box and the penguin.  At first he was gung ho about making the mailbox and we get picked up the paint but in the end he decided that he really wanted the Penguin.

Marcus's Favorite Pinterest Examples

It turns out the Penguin example he picked didn't actually connect to a web page-  just a picture.  I didn't see that has a huge deal but it meant I had to think about what we were going to go and what needed to get it done.

Here were the supplies we used:

• A box for the frame.  We used a boot box from target and it was just about perfect.
• Felt/fleece.  I actually went to the store looking to buy felt for the entire project but when I saw that fleece was on sale for $2.99 a yard I decided to use that for the black to wrap the box (It worked great). 
• You can get prestick felt sheets and I highly advise those.  I didn't use them for all parts but they were way easier to work with and wish I would have just gotten them for all of the features (except the feet).
• I also didn't realize that you could buy small felt letters (saw them after the project was done).  In the future I will sue those rather than mess around cutting out letters.
• Here the colors we used, black, white, red, pink, and orange
• Glue-  I used two types, tacky glue and a glue stick.  Was glad I had them both as they had slightly different strengths.
• Scissors
• Goggly eyes-  Make sure to get big enough eyes.  I ended up going to back to the store when I realized the set I had were way to small and made the penguin look odd.
• Thin cardboard for the feet- this way they will be sturdy and not flap around
• Pencil-  Used this to trace my shapes before I cut them.
• Feathers-  We only needed these because we made our penguin a Rock Hopper- Marcus's favorite Penguin.

Once we got all of the supplies we pulled our sample pictures and started working.  Marcus's job was to sort all of the feathers to get the yellow ones that we needed out.
.

Here is what we did:

1. I started by doing the cut out on the top of the box.  Make it big enough so the kids can easily drop the valentines in.
2. Cover the box with the black fleece/felt and glue it down
3. Get all of your pieces cut out.  We just looked at the example and pretty much copied the design with a few modifications, i.e. we added feather to make him a rock hopper and we lined the wings with the extra white felt to give our penguin a more realistic look.
4. Lay all of the pieces on the front of the black box and play with them until they are just right.
5. Glue them on- one at a time, double checking the entire time that they are where you want them.  Make sure the eyes are even or it will look odd.
6. Add the feathers if you want.
7. Add the wings, make sure you cut them to a point so they look better.  You can line them with white if you want.  I used the tacky glue to attach them to the box.
8. Glue the cardboard to the bottom of the feet and glue the feed on.



We actually ended up cutting
 the middle piece twice because
 the first time it was way too small

Marcus being helpful and
cleaning up the extra pieces. 

That is it, you are done, and it probably took you less time than me because I messed around with it for a long time.  Luke was also very helpful - he cut out some of the pieces and helped me arrange the front of the box to make it looked just right.  Here a few pictures of the process.

 

And here is the final product-  I like it.  The guy in the middle is an actual Rock Hopper Penguin so you can see the yellow feathers. 

Overall I am very happy with this project.  Marcus LOVES it.  Our biggest problem now is keeping it out his reach or it may be destroyed before Thursday when it needs to go to daycare..

I want to end this with a funny Mommy Failure-  I hid the cute Valentines Day cards that Marcus picked up for his classmates from Marcus.  I have NO clue where they are, after pretty complete search.  Opps I guess that we will have to pick up some news ones.  They might even have to be penguin themed!