Penguin Valentine Card

The Grade Ones are studying Penguins right now...we just finished our Paper Mache Penguins but I thought I'd put together a Penguin Valentine.

This card has a wheel mechanism. They are pretty easy to do once you get the hang of them. Soon you'll find lots of possibilities for future projects.








The wheel on this project turns the penguins belly from grey to red revealing a heart.

And this is what it says on the back or the inside of the card depending how you want to finish it.


Materials Required:

white cardstock
penguin templates 1 and penguin template 2
paper fastener
black paper
glue
scissors
paint or pencil crayons
googly eyes (optional)
scraps of yellow or orange paper
snowflake sequins (optional)






Take a round object slightly smaller (about 1 inch) than the paper you want to use for your card.

Trace around on a piece of cardstock.







Cut out.
Now you can use your decorative scissors for this if you want to give the edge a bit of "tooth", this will make it easier to turn but a regular cut is fine.








Position your wheel slightly off to the side of the paper you will be using for your card....I'm just using the black to show you the position.













Taking a sharp point poke a hole thru the wheel in the middle and thru the card paper. This will help with positioning later.



Put wheel aside.






On your card paper (was black in the previous photo) trace around the penguin base from your templates. My finger shows where the mark is from the wheel.










Cut out the heart window. I just poke a hole in the center and then use my small scissors.










Turn card paper over and line up marks you made when you punched holes.

Tape the wheel in place.










Turn back over and paint the belly of the penguin including the area in the window.

I used grey making the penguin a chick..this was so there was some contrast with the background.











Remove tape from wheel......you'll find a heart shaped grey area.

This shows use where to start painting.










Using the same colors paint a larger portion of the wheel grey.











I then went to a pinkish grey...then to pink...ranging all the way to red.










At the end I went back to pink blending it back into the grey.


Set aside to dry.











While your paints are out add a little color to the background.












This is also a good time to do the printing on the front.






Using the penguin back template cut out the shape from black paper.










Glue into place on the penguin base.












If you have some pencil lines showing you can erase them at this point.














Using the penguin face template cut this shape out of white paper.










Glue the face onto the penguin and you can add some googly eyes or paint/color some in.











Cut out the beak and the feet and glue these into place.







Take your wheel and make your hole in the center a bit bigger using a pencil or knitting needle. This will allow the wheel to move free.














Cut a scrap of white cardstock and mark a hole that corresponds to the one you made earlier on the card paper. Make sure none of the scrap shows thru the heart window.












Put the paper fastener thru the hole.

Apply glue on the scrap but not on the fastener.







Secure to the back of the card lining up the fastener with the small hole you made earlier. By attaching the fastener this way you don't have to worry about the fastener showing thru on the front of the card.









Place the wheel color side down onto the paper fastener.

Fold down the prongs but not too tightly.







The wheel should stick out slightly on the one side enabling you to spin it.

If you want you can add in small letters "turn me" around the edge of the wheel where it will stick out.

You can also add a "stop" where the heart is fully red.

Finally add a back sheet. Take a piece of cardstock that is the same size as the card paper.

Apply glue along the edges making sure to leave room for the wheel to spin....do not put any glue on the wheel.

Secure backing.

You then can paint it and add the words "You warm my heart"...If you want this to be a full card then you need a backing piece that is twice as large, fold in half, and then secure the left side of the backing to the penguin.

That's it...I'm sure you can think of other cards to make with a wheel mechanism.

Give it a try.

See you next time.