Hybrid Tutorial: Learning Activities Part 2

Hey all! Jewelle {aka mrspotts} here with the second part of my learning activities series. My two year old daughter is just starting to recognize the letters of the alphabet. But she keeps getting confused about why there are two a’s, two b’s, etc. I patiently explained to her that there are uppercase letters and lower case letters. She was excited about the concept and wanted to practice telling these letters apart. I devised a learning activity for her called “Feed the Monster.” I thought I would share with you how to make one yourself! Here’s what it looks like:

Before we get started I want to remind everyone that this hybrid project is a bit more advanced. However, don’t let that scare you away! Advanced just means we aren’t going to be strictly printing and cutting. We also have to glue, fold, and punch some things out. Give it try, it really is fairly simple! Ready to learn how to make a “Feed the Monster” for your kiddos?! Lets get started then!

Supplies Needed:

• Oogly Boogly & Sketchbook Pages by Kate
• Milk Carton 1 by Kaye Winiecki
• Presentation paper
• Precision Scissors
• 1 1/2″ circle punch
• Modge Podge
• Foam Brush
• Adhesive {I suggest Red Line Tape}
• 1 1/2″ wood nickels
• Exacto Knife
• Bone folder
• Dimensional adhesive
• Score Board {optional}

1.Open the milk carton PSD file in Photoshop. Decorate the milk carton using Kate’s doodles. I kept my milk carton simple. I clipped a purple Sketchbook Page to the base of the milk carton.

2. Next open up the monster doodle from Kate’s Oogly Boogly set. To alter the monster’s smile I used a combination of the magic wand tool and content aware fill in Photoshop. This took a fair amount of manipulating to achieve this gaping smile. A simpler alternative to this would be to use the content aware fill to actually “erase” the monsters smile. Then after printing hand draw the smile on yourself. Choose what method you are most comfortable with!

3. Drag your monster onto your milk carton. Arrange the monster so that he is filling the third column of the milk carton. I wanted my monster to fill the whole face of the milk carton so I had to enlarge him a bit. Once satisfied with your monster, duplicate that layer. You should now have two monster layers that are identical. Using the eye button, hide your topmost monster. Using the rectangle marquee tool, begin selecting and deleting any part of your monster that will not be on the face of the milk carton.

4. Now it’s time to change the hue of the folds and trims layer so they are less noticeable. To do this click on your foreground tool. Using the eye droper choose a color from your milk carton.  Once chosen choose a new hue of that color that is darker. I went a little to the right and little down to get my new hue. Then click okay.  Make sure you have selected the folds and trims layer of your milk carton. Then go Edit —> Fill —> Ok. You can see in the picture that my lines are now dark purple instead of black.

At this point you could just print your milk carton. I chose to erase a bunch of the fold and trim lines so they would not be visible when the carton is assembled. Go ahead and skip this step if you need those lines!

5. Print your milk carton.  NOTE: Do not turn on the full body monster layer! We do not want it to print directly onto the milk carton.

6. Cut out your milk carton. Score fold lines using your bone folder and a score board. At this point we are going to change the design of the milk carton slightly. Turn your milk carton over so the white side is facing up. Using the red line tape adhere all your bottom flap pieces to the inside of the milk carton. This will make it so there is no bottom to the milk carton and you can easily retrieve your letters the monster eats.

Flip the milk carton back over and using your exacto knife trim out the monsters mouth. Finish assembling the milk carton using the red line tape. I found pinching the milk carton top pieces together first helped the assembly go smoother. Just be patient with the paper and don’t force it to bend.

7. Go back to the milk carton file. Turn your full body monster layer back on by clicking the eye button. Drag him to a new 8.5″ x 11″ document. DO NOT alter his size! On the same file use the elipse tool to create a 1.5″ circle and also a 1.25″ circle. Clip a colored digi paper to the 1.5″ circle. For the 1.25″ circle clip a white digi paper to it. Move the white circle on top of the colored circle. Using the text tool, “write” a letter on the white circle. I used the free font Print Clearly. It closely resembles the alphabet that elementary students learn to write with. Repeat these steps until your page is filled with letters!

I went a little overboard and made another whole sheet of letters.

8. Print your monster and letters. Using your precision scissors cut out your monster. Also cut out his mouth with your exacto knife. Use your 1.5″ circle punch to punch out your letters.

9. Apply foam adhesive to the front of your milk carton. Take your full body monster, line him up with the monster below, and adhere him. Trim his feet and excess belly off so that he ends where the milk carton ends.

10. Using your foam brush apply a VERY THIN layer of modge podge to the back of one of your letter circles. Adhere this to a wood nickle. When using modge podge for a project like this, a little goes a long way. In the picture below you can see that my paper has slightly curled from applying the modge podge. That is okay! What you don’t want is for your paper to become wrinkled from applying too much modge podge. Repeat this step until all letters are adhered.

11. Your project is finished! Pick a letter for your kiddo to “feed” the monster. For example I would set out all my wood nickles that had the letter A on them. Some would be upper case (A), and some would be lower case (a). I would show my daughter an uppercase A and have her “feed” the monster all the uppercase A’s.

This is just one fun alphabet game you could play with your kiddo and the “Feed the Monster.” While I was making this tutorial I also created word strips for my daughter to use the wood nickles with.  After “spelling” a word she then gets to “Feed the Monster” her letters.

If you want to help your kiddo with math you could also make number wood nickles. The possibilities using the “Feed the Monster” are endless! If you make a “Feed the Monster” or any other type of preschool activity with Kate’s doodles be sure and share a link in the comments so we can see them!

PRODUCTS USED:

• Oogly Boogly
• Sketchbook Pages

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

• Hybrid Tutorial: Learning Activities 1
• Hybrid Card Basics
• Hybrid Card Advanced Techniques