Ucreate with Kids: Creative Guest: She Wears Flowers

I am so excited to have Tammy on this week as a creative guest. You are going to LOVE this craft!

and I’m thrilled to be a creative guest on Ucreate with Kids today!

I like to joke that I blog to avoid housework, but it really isn’t a joke! I love to craft and sew and blogging gives me a place to make it real, motivates me to keep going, and provides an audience with whom to share. I admit that I skip over a lot of the housework, but I have a great time and gets tons of fun stuff done. I hope you will come visit me at she wears flowers!

Today I am going to share a craft I like to call the Magic Creature. I wish the idea was all mine, but I got it from a college class long ago. It is designed as a little game/gimmick to help your children practice rote facts (think flash cards), but I like to use it as a riddle machine, too. This is the perfect time of year to make one because you can recycle your child’s Valentine mailbox for this craft. It will also come in handy with April Fool’s Day around the corner—there always seems to be a lot of jokes and riddles around that time. In college we made robots for this, but I chose an owl because it just seemed fitting for this guest spot. {wink, wink} You can use any creature you can think up—dog, monster, alien, bear, or even a picture of your child!

So what makes it magic? The illusion makes it magic!

Actually, you slide a fact in the top slot and the answer “magically” appears through the bottom slot. Even older children, who quickly pick up on how it works, like to use it over and over. From an educational standpoint, it rocks because children can practice rote facts with the correct answers thanks to the self-checking feature.

Let’s get started!

Materials

2 cardboard boxes (cereal or cracker boxes work well)

hot glue

felt X-acto knife

clear packing tape

3 inch x 5 inch cards or cardstock cut to size 3.5 inch x 4 inch

cardstock piece colored paper or arrow stickers

Instructions

Make a paper pattern for your creature. I will say “owl” for this tutorial, but you can use any creature you would like.

If you would like to make an owl, click on this picture and print it out full-size. Be sure to turn off “shrink to fit” features. The pattern is sized for the cracker box in the pictures, but would work well with a small cereal box, too. Mark on the pattern where you want the slots on your creature. They should be about 2 inches apart and 3 1/2 inches wide.

Turn your box upside down so the part that opens and closes is on the bottom. This isn’t crucial, but is really handy if you have a problem with the "magic" and you need to fix something. Plus, it makes a nice place to store the cards!

Using the pattern as a guide, mark where the slots will be on the box.

Use the X-acto knife to cut out the slots.

Mark the top—it just makes it easier!

Hot glue felt to three sides and the top of the box--which is actually the bottom of the box. Magic Creature 7

Using the pattern, cut your creature out of felt two times. You will need a front and a back. Be sure to fold the felt and place pattern on the fold where indicated if using the owl pattern.

Use the pattern to trace and cut an owl out of cardboard (cereal box).

Cover the front of a piece of 3.5 x 4 inch cardstock with clear packing tape. Try to place it so the top edge of the “next” piece of tape is always under the previous bottom edge. This will make a smoother slide for the card. (I went back and did this at the end—thank goodness my box was upside down and I could maneuver my way around inside without having to take the whole thing apart!) Tape across the top front of your cardstock slide.

Tape it down to the front of the box getting the edge of the box and the edge of the cardstock as close as possible without overlapping them.

Reach in and pull the bottom edge through the bottom slot.

Tape the edge to the front of the box in the same manner as the top.

Set the cardboard owl on top of the box. Line up the bottom edges.

Reach in through the bottom and mark on the cardboard where the slots should be. Cut out the slots.

Glue the front piece of felt to the cardboard owl at the top (head) only. Flip it over and mark where the slots should be on the felt. Cut out the slots. Magic Creature 16

For the back piece, glue the head on and push the felt gently into the slots to see where they should be. Draw a line around the general area and cut out the inside section. Magic Creature 17

Glue the remaining part of the felt to the cardboard on the back section.

For the front piece, glue all of the edges down and around the top slot (close to the edges). Glue across the top of the bottom slot, but leave about an inch of space under the bottom slot. You will re-tape the slide in this spot later.

Glue the rest of the owl's features in place.

Glue the head section up to the top slot to the box. Lay the rest down and carefully remove the packing tape from the bottom slot on the box and slide it between the top layer of felt and the cardboard the felt is glued to. Press it firmly onto the cardboard, then glue the felt on top of the tape. This part is a little crazy, but it makes the slide work without the card getting stuck at the end and not able to pop out.

Your creature is ready…next we need to make the cards.

Write riddles, questions, math facts, or whatever you want on your 3 x 5 cards. Write your question on the bottom half of the card. Use colored paper to make small, wide arrows. Glue the arrows to the top of the card to show which direction to put the card into the slot.

The answer is written on the back of the card on the bottom half. It will be behind the arrow and the arrow will be pointing downward (back side) when you write your answer. The arrow on the front will help to conceal the answer on the back. Magic Creature 21

To enjoy the magic, look at the card and answer the question. Slide it into the top slot and the Magic Creature will spit it out of the bottom slot with the correct answer!