This next project I called the name creature design project.

What you’re going to do is you are actually going to use your name written in cursive. You may need some help, it depends how old you are and you’re going to use your name and your going to cut it out and that’s going to be the basis for a funky creature that you’re going to turn your name into. So, I’ll let your imaginations kind of you know take you where you want them but in the meantime I’m going to go ahead and pick out a color here. I’m going to fold my piece of paper in half lengthwise.

Now, I’m going to fold its edge. What I’m going to do is write my name in cursive. So I’m going to write C-H-E-R-I-E. And there’s my name in cursive. But what I’m going to want to do is just kind of quickly fatten it up so it’ll be easier to cut out.

Now, you’ll notice that every letter touched the very bottom of the folded edge. This is really important because if it doesn’t the little creature is going to fall apart. So make sure that every letter sits on that folded edge. It’s a good idea just to do this coloring. This will be the back side of it so you’ll never see it. The eye, I’m just going to ahead and put a big giant dot on top of the eye and you’ll see why later when I cut it out. And that’s actually going to make a really cool antenna for my creature. And by finishing off the E with this big kind of curve is going to make another really cool set of antenna at the top.

So, here’s my name in cursive all fattened up and what I’m going to do now is I’m going to cut this out very carefully without cutting through any of the letters. If you have to make them a little bit fatter, do it. It just isn’t that important. They don’t all have to be the same thickness. Make certain that while you’re cutting, that you’re still holding those two pieces of paper together.

Now, I finished the top portion and this is what I have. Now, I’m going to come in from the bottom on my folded edge and I’m going to cut out this little sections here from the H, you have to be really careful when you make this turn here so you don’t cut through your letter. Even this little bitty triangle here between the E and the R. All those little details are going to make a difference. And you’ll see in a minute why they make a difference. It’s good to see somebody else do it because then you understand why you do the steps that you do sometimes, that helps.

Now, with the E, to cut this out I’m just going to fold it in half lengthwise. I’m just kind of cut out an opening like that. This works well on H’s and E’s and L’s, P’s, it’s a good way to start a P. You can always stick your scissors in there and finish the rest. And you’ll see when you open this up you actually have pretty funky little creature here to work with.

Now, you could turn in this way and this could kind of be his eyes or this could be his eyes and this could be some kind of head piece on them in antlers or antenna eye. Or you could do in this way and this become his set of arms, eyes, body, it could even you know be multiple faces, multiple bodies, whatever.

Because these are really kind of funky little creatures and what you’re going to do next is pick out our color background that you’d like them to go on. Black might look kind of cool. And if you look at them real carefully then you can actually see that it’s somebody’s names.

Now, the next step is going to be to pick out some colors to put behind some of these openings. So, let’s go ahead and let’s just take a little snip of this silver metallic paper, it’s a lot of fun. I’m just going to trace inside of here, just to get an idea of how big it is. And I’m just going to cut it out a little bit bigger so some of these paper actually overlaps the blue and you’ve got an area that can be glued down.

Now, don’t cut too much because it will overlap into another opening, another open area. So this is how this is going to go. So, we are going to glue over here and just put some glue on here and make sure it’s facing the right direction like that and then you can do this with all of the openings. And you can do each one a different color.

You can also do some fun things with those appendages you have. I always like to do some big hands. I’m going to cut this out. We’ll attach these like right here. And you could go ahead and pick another piece of paper and then I’ll go ahead and glue this down so I don’t forget where I want them to go. I will just put those right there. And they look like they were just made to go there. Maybe we’ll take some of these pink and let’s create—I'm just going to draw this here and cut this out a little bit bigger. The thing about this creature is that they all look different depending on your name and what you add to them is totally up to you.

So, we could add this. I’ll let you see this. And this is going to get glued on right like that. So you can start to see how you can add things on then you can start putting designs on the body with either a paint pen or a sharpie. You could put little dots, the more details you add, the better things starts to look. So if I were just to do like a little design of dots here that would be a nice addition or you could do you know little lines like this or you could do little dashes or you could do dots and dashes, I mean, the possibilities are endless, you could do zigzags.

Anyway, you just keep adding on to this and you keep putting colors behind, adding hands, hats, bow ties, eye lashes, eyes. Eventually, you’re going to come up with a design of your own that is a funky little creature made out of your very own name.

Fold the sheet of construction paper in half lengthwise. Write your name in cursive on the folded edge. Write big and make sure the bottom of each letter sits on the folded edge. Fatten up all the letters and carefully cut out your name then chose an area to decorate. Place your chosen color under the creature and trace inside the opening. Cut, leaving an extra quarter inch to glue to the creature. Repeat this process for the rest of the openings. Add hands, feet, hair, bow ties, and more. Don’t forget glitters, sparkles, buttons, and gems. Enjoy!