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Get creative and make art together! Families will imagine and create tiny folded paper houses that illustrate their unique views and ideas of home as both a place of shelter and a creative space. Activity Age Range: The whole family! Materials Needed: Paper (any kind and size), scissors, tape, pencil, color pencils, crayons, markers, collage images from magazines or print materials (optional), and‌‌Imagination!
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CONNECT This activity connects with our BCA Center summer exhibition Stay Home / Stay Safe [Executive Order 01-20] featuring 30 Vermont artists with work created in response to the theme of 'home.’ How are you creative in your home? During the “Stay Home/ Stay Safe” order many Vermonters spent a lot of time in their homes. Some of the activities Vermonters have been doing in their homes are very creative. They have been going to school, working, playing, learning to bake, singing, dancing, making art, writing, and taking care of each other, just to name a few! For many, home has been a place of inspiration. Some of the Vermont artists exhibiting work in Stay Home / Stay Safe [Executive Order 01-20] made artwork that illustrates how they have been creative in their homes. Learn more about our BCA Center summer exhibition Stay Home / Stay Safe [Executive Order 01-20] at burlingtoncityarts.org.
Barbee Hauzinger, The Ungroundedness Of It All, Mixed-media on canvas, 2020
CREATE Today we will be making tiny paper houses for creativity. First, you will fold and cut a paper house. Next, you will imagine and design your paper house as a creative space for yourself. How can you design a space for creative play and activity? After you draw and color your designs, you will use tape to finish your construction. Finally, admire your paper house creation! How will you display your house? Do you have any characters or toys that you may like to play with in the space? Could you create some characters for your new house with paper?
Follow the step-by-step instructions to create your tiny paper house. Happy Creating and Playing!
Step 1 Gather supplies. Step 2 Place the paper in front of you horizontally or vertically.
Step 4 With the floor fold at the bottom, fold the two sides of the paper in towards the middle to form two walls.
Step 5 Open the side walls and draw a continuous roof line at the top. The floor fold should be at the bottom.
Step 3 Fold the bottom of the paper up, about 1 inch. This is the floor of your house.
Step 6 Cut on the roof line.
Step 7 Open the bottom fold. Cut the two creases that you can see on the bottom floor fold. Stop the cuts when you reach the fold for the floor. No paper is cut off. It is just a slice.
Step 9 Fasten with tape at the bottom.
Step 8 Use drawing materials and collage images to design the interior and exterior of your house. What will your creative space look like? How can you imagine using the space you are designing? **It is easier to do all the drawing, coloring, and gluing before the house is taped together.
Step 10 Well done! It is time to admire your new tiny paper house!
In addition, you could create a paper doll for your house by cutting out a character from a magazine, gluing it onto a strip of paper, and folding the bottom of the paper like a stand. You could also draw a character on paper and fold the bottom to make it stand.
Step 9 After you have finished your designs and coloring, fold the sides of the house in to form walls.
What kind of creative space will you design? Here is an example of a creative space inside a paper house. The interior was designed with lots of windows to grow an indoor garden, and there is a pet cat that will enjoy the sunny room! If you are working with other people, it can be fun to gather all the finished paper houses and build a creative village!