I want to say thank you so much for all your kindness yesterday! I was screwing around, crashed my site, and lost the post but everyone was so sweet and thoughtful and supportive. It made me feel really good about a a really tough decision and I appreciate it.

One of the benefits of dropping out of school is that the hour that I had budgeted for some reading was used cutting out construction paper for a Craft Thursday project. We haven’t really been able to craft since I’ve been back in school so it was a nice way to unwind when the kiddos got home. This was another idea from Meg Duerksen because I like to craft but I am NOT creative so I steal other people’s ideas. (Yeah, internet!!)

Basically, I cut out a bunch of wings and bodies from large construction paper I had lying around.

Then I used the scraps and a few other pieces to cut out shapes. Lots of different shapes that I just eyeballed and thought looked cool. Most of the time I had two sheets of paper lined up together so I could cut them into the same shape at the same time because I knew I would want to make mine symmetrical.

I had the paper and glue sticks all laid out on the table for when the kids came home and we got right to work.

There was a little skirmish about who got what color and whether the butterfly needed to have two wings of the same color but I let them hash it out and was pleasantly surprised when they came to an amicable compromise.

Violet wanted hers to be “not all symmetry, Mom, but part”. The rest of the pieces she used to tell a story. There’s a cat who lives on a butterfly wing with a hat and a scarf. And the butterfly made a second smaller wing to help hide him from his enemies. I love her inventiveness.

Abram just got to work picking out shapes and colors he liked and gluing them on – using his sister as inspiration here and there.

And mine is symmetrical as I planned. I kept thinking the top part of the wings looked like eyes and eyebrows so I kept adding things to try and make it look a little less like a face. My favorite part is the curly antenna. (Violet gets credit for finding the pipe cleaners to use for antennae.)

We have quite a few shape pieces left over to use when I find another project for them. Any ideas?