CREATE-A-CREATURE FLAP BOOK
ART PROJECTCRAFTS

CREATE-A-CREATURE FLAP BOOK

By March 16, 2022One Comment
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THE TOOLS

MATERIALS:

  1. Watercolor cakes (I love the ooly chroma and neon colors)
  2. India ink (or a sharpie/Black felt pen)
  3. Gel Pens or Markers (I am using the OOLY glitter marker set)
  4. Watercolor cup
  5. Various paintbrushes (in small, medium and large)
  6. Watercolor paper and template printed on it (you could do this project with just cardstock and markers and omit the watercolor paper/paints)!
  7. Scissors (parent approved)
  8. Pencil (Not Pictured)

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THEME: Watercolor creature creations

ART LINGO:Dry brushing, outlining, animal textures and old fashioned toys

APPROX TIME: 30+ minutes

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: Any Age

FLAP BOOKS ARE MY FAVORITE PROJECT!!! Sorry all caps, but for reals friends….if you have not made one you have to! They are whimsical, silly and super creative + a great ice breaker for a new class to get the shares sharing and the laughter and community going! All you need is a printer (or just copy my template by hand), some watercolor paper and watercolor tools, ink/pen and some scissors. If you don’t have watercolor paper just use printer paper/cardstock and some crayons/markers; any art medium will do for this project.

Have I mentioned how OBSESSED I am with the brand OOLY. This is not a sponsored post at all just a brand favorite of mine and I collect so much of their art supplies and school supplies (like my 90’s kid self in the Sanrio store with babysitting $$$…I needed every single thing). I know that if I get something from them it will be bright, sparkly, kid friendly (or inner kid magical) and really great quality! Cannot recommend them enough. Anyways, love them but back to the creative happenings of flap books……..

You ready to get to it?? COME ON AND SCROLL DOWN WITH ME

  • FINISHED CREATURES
  • MIXED & MATCHED

STEPS

Step 1:

Get your watercolor paper and put it in your printer (I cut my 9×12 watercolor sheet to an 8.5×11 piece so it would fit in my printer) then click here for the template. Drag the template images (A+B) to your desktop and save the images. Open them up and print A first then flip your watercolor paper over, insert it into the printer and print B, be prepared to mess up (Cut a few extra pieces of watercolor paper) and accidentally print on the same side for both templates (I swear no matter how grown up I get I still make silly mistakes like this 🙂 .

Once you have the watercolor template printed go ahead and fold and ‘score’ your paper at the end of the dotted lines (See step 1). Use the back end of your scissors, a bone folder (you are a craft queen if you have one!) or the side of your pencil. You want the creased fold to be nice and flat! Do the same to the other dotted line edge and now you should have a card that folds into itself (folds inwards towards the center).

Step 2:

Using your pencil find the first section of your flap book (the top flap with the dashes on it (See photo 2). Start with the head of your creature and draw a shape, the only rule here is just do the head and neck. NOTE: See those two lines forming a kinda “\ /” shape between the top and middle sections, those are your guides. We will be using those guides for the structure of the head, body and bottom of our creatures to make sure the creatures line up in the end. Your creatures head can be any shape but the head has to connect to those 2 angled lines in order for the flab book to work. (See step 2)

Once you have the head of your creature go onto the body (Think arms and torso and tail). Again you must connect the body to the head using those diagonal lines (See step 2)

Finish off the drawing with the bottom of your creature (Legs, fin, tail, bottom half) Don’t forget you must connect the body to the bottom using those diagonal lines (See step 2) Don’t forget about details like eyes, noses, claws, stripes…party hats?!?! Bow tie?!!….. dots and all the fun things that your creature is!

Step 3:

Once your first creature is done open up the flap book and find the second section/flap (with the dotted lines) and repeat the above steps (See photo 3)

Step 4:

Finish off your flap book pencil sketch by opening up your book to the very middle, you will just see a set of 2 diagonal lines and no dashes (We are not cutting this section so the dashes weren’t needed here). Go ahead and draw in your last creature following the steps above. (See photo 4)

Step 5:

Now here is our chance for COLOR!! Set up your watercolor station (brushes, paint palette, water cup, rag/paper towel) and begin laying in your first layer on your first creature (I started with my top flap but you could start anywhere. I used dry brushing for this as I didn’t want my paper to be sopping wet. Dry brushing is when you activate your paint with a little water but don’t add any extra water to your paper making your watercolor act more as a gouache and more opaque then a wet on wet technique. Fill in your first creature and allow to dry before moving onto the next (See photo 5)

Paint in all three of your creatures, I kept my color palette similar in each creature so they ‘matched’ up nicely when I went to mix and match the flap book (See last two photos of the steps section)

Step 6:

Once your first layer is dry, start adding in your second layer. I did this by adding just a bit of water to activate my paint cakes and then with a smaller brush added feather, spots and fur. This is a great opportunity to practice and discuss (If teaching this in a class) some animal textures and fur techniques! I also used some really fun glittery OOLY markers (OOLY is such a fun brand, I am obsessed with whatever they come out with you know its going to be rainbow sparkle unicorn magic!!!) for an additional layer of patterns and colors! Go wild and have fun! (see photo 6)

Step 7:

I like to finish off my characters with some India ink and a fine tip paintbrush….to be honest a sharpie or felt marker works just as well but there is something really meditative about India ink: it goes on so smooth and silky and I just get lost in the linework and brushstrokes. If you haven’t tried and want to explore a new medium, I totally recommend it!

Step 8:

Once your all done and it looks freaking magical it’s time to make the flap book FLAP! Go ahead and cut on the dotted lines being super careful to not go past the last dash line! Once you cut all 4 of the dotted lines you should have an AMAZING and CREATIVE beautiful flap book that is equal parts rad, creative and silly!!!!! Mix and match your creatures and see all the different variations of characters you can make and be sure to share it with your family/friends/people to enjoy and bring a smile to their faces!

From my imagination to yours I hope you enjoyed this fun little old school toy!!! Flap book for the win!!! See you next month!!!!

xx

Mrs. K!

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